Adaptive communication methods and systems for facilitating the gathering, distribution and delivery of information related to medical care

• US 8,193,931 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2011
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Pype Assets BV LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Rapaport, Jeffrey A., Rapaport, Seymour A., Clarke, Jeffrey E., Rinehart, Eric R., Bergens, Michael U.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phung
• Application Number:
  US13/052,987
• Publication Number:
  US 20110238435A1
• Time in Patent Office: 442 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.12, 340/573.1, 340/539.1, 340/825.69, 340/3.1, 705/3, 705/9, 379/88.22, 379/37, 379/38
• US Class Current: 340/539.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

Automated methods and systems are disclosed for persistently facilitating the timely gathering, monitoring, distribution and delivery of information related to medical care where such may include: (1) finding a communications channel for effectively attempting a message delivery to a specific target person at a specified time; (2) deliverable message content to limitations of a chosen communications channel; adaptively finding a targeted recipient even if the latter is highly mobile and/or has travel patterns or communications-channel preferences that change over time; (3) verifying that a targeted recipient has actually received an attempted delivery within an applicable time limit; (4) automatically recognizing that an urgent message delivery-attempt was not timely completed and adaptively alerting responsible entities of the in completion; and (5) automatically recognizing that an urgent change or non change of condition has occurred by virtue of information gathered during an automated or manually-conducted Interview where physician expected positive progress prior to Interview and adaptively alerting responsible entities of the changed or unchanged condition based on the urgency of the change or non-change.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, information related to a health-related attribute of a patient;

defining, by the computing device, the health-related attribute, using the received information, to affect a timing and type of medical care follow-up action to be provided; and

automatically scheduling, by the computing device, the medical care follow-up action, wherein the medical care follow-up action comprises delivery of an interactive interview based at least in part upon the defined health-related attribute.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking, by the computing device, a completion or failure of the delivery of the interactive interview.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically scheduling the medical care follow-up action comprises delivery of an alert message to a care-concerned person.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein automatically scheduling the medical care follow-up action further comprises prioritizing the alert message among a plurality of alert messages.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the care-concerned person comprises a medical service provider.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the health-related attribute of the patient is selected from one of, identifications of service delivery channels preferred by the patient, identifications of service delivery times preferred by the patient for one or more of the identified service delivery channels, values of medication dosaging parameters for determining dosages of medication to be prescribed to the patient, and identifications of current medications the patient is last known to be receiving.

7. The method of claim 1, where the medical follow-up action follows up on a providing of at least one of an assessment of a condition of the patient or an attempted completion of a care-related communication to the patient.

8. A server apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors; and

logic configured to be operated by the one or more processors, to cause the server apparatus, in response to operation of the logic, to;

receive information related to a health-related attribute of a patient which may affect a timing and type of medical care follow-up action to be provided to the patient;

define the health-related attribute using the received information; and

automatically and adaptively schedule, based at least in part upon the defined health-related attribute, the medical care follow-up action to follow a providing of at least one of an assessment of a condition of the patient or an attempted completion of a care-related communication to the patient.

9. The server apparatus of claim 8, wherein the assessment of the condition of the patient comprises completion of a first examination where an initial assessment of the condition of the patient was made and a follow up medical test was ordered.

10. The server apparatus of claim 8, wherein the attempted completion of the care-related communication to the patient comprises an incompletion of a delivery-attempt of the care-related communication.

11. The server apparatus of claim 8, wherein the logic is further configured to cause the server apparatus, in response to operation of the logic, to automatically update information related to the health-related attribute by delivering and following through with a review interview with the patient.

12. A system, comprising:

a network interface;

one or more processors coupled to the network interface; and

a memory coupled to the network interface and the one or more processors, the memory configured to store;

unique attribute data associated with a patient to whom an interview is to be communicated, and

instructions;

wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the one or more processors, cause the system to;

automatically attempt to conduct the interview with the patient; and

in response to conducting the interview, use information from the interview to update the unique attribute data stored in the memory.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions to automatically attempt to conduct the interview with the patient comprise instructions which cause the system, in response to execution by the one or more processors, to automatically transmit a communication including the interview on a preferred delivery channel to the patient via the network interface.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the unique attribute data comprises address data, modality preference data related to specific communication modalities, contact time preference data, or parameter data related to formulation of a potential medical treatment for the patient.