Systems and methods for obtaining, storing, processing and utilizing immunologic and other information of individuals and populations

• US 8,234,129 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2007
• Issued: 07/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wellstat Vaccines LLC (Wellstat Group of Cos.)
• Original Assignee: Wellstat Vaccines LLC (Wellstat Group of Cos.)
• Inventors: Michon, Francis, Moore, Samuel L., Fusco, Peter C., Wohlstadter, Samuel J., Davis, Charles Quentin, Haleva, Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Cobanoglu, Dilek B
• Application Number:
  US11/796,727
• Publication Number:
  US 20080091471A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,922 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 435/7.24, 435/69.3, 600/300, 600/368, 705/3, 705/4, 719/316, 424/185.1
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 20/00 ICT specially adapted for functional genomics or proteomics, e.g. genotype-phenotype associations
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 20/20 Allele or variant detection, e.g. single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] detection
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 40/00 ICT specially adapted for biostatistics; ICT specially adapted for bioinformatics-related machine learning or data mining, e.g. knowledge discovery or pattern finding
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 40/20 Supervised data analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/80 for detecting, monitoring or modelling epidemics or pandemics, e.g. flu
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/60 relating to pathologies
• 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

A system and method for assessing immunological status of individuals and populations is presented. The method includes establishing a database containing a plurality of records, each record containing information representative of the immune status of an individual, including (1) bioassay results, and (2) individual specific information such as, medical history, clinical observations and historical, demographic, lifestyle, and familial/genetic information. By processing the information trends and/or patterns are obtained correlating various variables in the records across an individual, population or sub-population. The identified trends and/or patterns can, for example, be used in health care related decision making. In exemplary embodiments such processing can include generating a set of correlations and for each correlation generating a set of explanatory or relevant hypotheses. Then, for example, each hypothesis can be automatically refuted or supported, to the extent possible. The identified correlations, their associated hypotheses and the results of such automated vetting can then be reported to a user.

Claims

1. A computerized method of assessing the immunological status of one or more individuals in a population, comprising:

(a) establishing a database comprising a plurality of records of information, each representative of the immune status of an individual in the population, each of said records including

(1) current information from one or more assays for the presence of a biochemical, including at least one antibody, and

(2) individual-specific information comprising one or more of said—

individual'"'"'s medical history, said individual'"'"'s doctors'"'"' observations and/or historical, demographic, lifestyle, and familial information relating to said individual;

(b) processing the information in said database to find trends or patterns relating to the immune status of individuals in said population; and

(c) using the said trends or patterns found in (b) as part of a health care related decision making process,

wherein said processing the information in said database includes;

automatically generating a list of statistical correlations between variables or fields in the database; and

for each correlation in the list;

automatically generating a set of hypotheses that may explain said statistical correlation;

as to each hypothesis in the set, automatically refuting, supporting or stating that there is insufficient data to analyze said hypothesis by further processing of the database; and

reporting the correlations, their associated hypotheses and the refutation, support, or determination of insufficient data to refute or support, to a user,

and wherein said processing the information is performed using a data processor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, as to each hypothesis that is determined to have insufficient data, requesting additional data to support or refute it.

3. The method of claim 2, as to each said hypothesis, further comprising obtaining the additional data and automatically refuting, supporting or stating that there is insufficient data to analyze said hypothesis by further processing of the database.

4. A computerized method of analyzing information related to the immune status of one or more individuals in a population, comprising:

(a) establishing a database comprising a plurality of records of information each representative of the immune status of an individual in the population, each of said records including;

(i) current information from one or more assays, including at least one antibody, to determine the immunity of said individual to one or more vaccine-preventable diseases; and

(ii) patient-specific information comprising one or more of said patient'"'"'s medical history, said patients doctors observations, and/or social, environmental, lifestyle and other demographic information relating to said patient; and

(b) processing the information in said database to find statistical trends or patterns relating to the immune status of individuals in said patient population;

wherein said processing the information in said database includes;

automatically generating a list of statistical correlations between variables or fields in the database; and

for each correlation in the list;

automatically generating a set of hypotheses that may explain said correlation; and

as to each hypothesis in the set, automatically analyzing the data to refute, support or stating that there is insufficient data to analyze said hypothesis by further processing of the database,

and wherein said processing the information is performed using a data processor.

5. A computerized method for analyzing information related to the immune status of one or more individuals in a population, comprising:

(a) establishing a database comprising a plurality of records of information each representative of the immune status of an individual in the population, to one or more vaccine-preventable diseases, each of said records including

(1) current information from one or more assays, including at least one antibody, to determine the immunity of said individual to one or more vaccine-preventable diseases, and

(2) patient-specific information comprising one or more of said patients medical history, said patients doctors observations and/or demographic information relating to said patient;

(b) updating said records from time to time with current information as recited in (a)(1) and/or (a)(2);

(c) processing the information in said database to find statistical trends or patterns relating to the immune status of individuals in said patient population;

(d) modifying the said algorithms to reflect the patterns and trends found in step (c);

(e) processing the information in an individual'"'"'s record through said algorithms, and

(f) processing the information in said database to find trends or patterns relating to the immune status of individuals in said patient population;

wherein said processing the information in said database in steps (c) and (f) includes;

generating a list of correlations between variables or fields in the database;

for each correlation in the list;

generating a set of hypotheses that may explain said correlation; and

as to each hypothesis in the set, automatically analyzing the data to refute, support or stating that there is insufficient data to analyze said hypothesis by further processing of the database; and

wherein said processing the information in steps (c), (e), and (f) is performed using a data processor.

6. A computerized method for generating recommendations for vaccinating one or more individuals in a patient population, comprising:

(a) establishing a database comprising a plurality of records of information each representative of the immune status of an individual in the population, to one or more vaccine-preventable diseases, each of said records including

(i) current information from one or more assays to determine the immunity of said individual to one or more vaccine-preventable diseases, and

(ii) patient-specific information comprising one or more of said patient'"'"'s medical history, said patients doctors observations, and/or demographic information relating to said patient;

(b) updating said database from time to time with current information;

(c) providing one or more algorithms to determine whether or not to vaccinate said individuals based upon an assay result for antibodies for said one or more vaccine-preventable diseases and other defined factors;

(d) processing the information in said database to find statistical trends or patterns relating to the immune status of individuals in said patient population to said vaccine preventable disease;

(e) incorporating information comprising said patterns or trends into one or more of said algorithms;

(f) processing the information in an individual'"'"'s record through one or more of said algorithms, and

(g) thereby generating a recommendation for vaccinating said individual;

wherein said processing the information in said database includes;

generating a list of correlations between variables or fields in the database;

for each correlation in the list;

generating a set of hypotheses that may explain said correlation; and

as to each hypothesis in the set, automatically analyzing the data to refute, support or stating that there is insufficient data to analyze said hypothesis by further processing of the database,

and wherein said processing the information is performed using a data processor.

7. A computerized method of optimizing the management of health care for an insured individual in a population, comprising:

examining the insured individual'"'"'s immune status;

identifying diseases that the insured may be susceptible to;

calculating the risk of contraction for each disease;

identifying all prophylactic therapies that could prevent each identified disease;

calculating, for all possible combinations of said diseases and said prophylactic therapies, expected costs of treatment and costs of associated prophylactic therapies; and

requiring prophylactic therapies optimized for overall health care cost, wherein at least one of said examining immune status and identifying diseases that the individual may be susceptible to includes;

(a) establishing a database comprising a plurality of records of information each representative of the immune status of an individual in the population, to one or more vaccine-preventable diseases, each of said records including

(1) current information from one or more assays to determine the immunity of said individual to one or more vaccine-preventable diseases, and

(2) patient-specific information comprising one or more of said patients medical history, said patients doctors observations and/or demographic information relating to said patient;

(b) processing the information in said database to find statistical trends or patterns relating to the immune status of individuals in said patient population; and

(c) using the said trends or patterns found in (b) in deciding whether or not to vaccinate an individual;

wherein said processing the information in said database includes;

generating a list of correlations between variables or fields in the database;

for each correlation in the list;

generating a set of hypotheses that may explain said correlation; and

as to each hypothesis in the set, automatically refuting, supporting or stating that there is insufficient data to analyze said hypothesis by further processing of the database;

and wherein said examining, identifying, calculating and processing steps are performed using a data processor.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising assessing, as a condition of continued insurance coverage for the insured, an additional premium charge if the overall cost places the insured into a higher risk bin.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a debit that is exchangeable on a health care credit/debit exchange is issued in lieu of an additional premium.

10. A system, comprising:

at least one local assay device;

a central processor connected to an input/output device;

a system database;

a hypothesis database;

a rules database; and

a data network connecting the local assay devices and the central processor;

wherein in operation immunologic and other data, including the results of at least one antibody assay, relative to a plurality of individuals is obtained at the assay devices and sent to the system database for storage, wherein the central processor accesses said data and firstly processes said data to find statistical correlations between variables or fields in the database across many individuals, and secondly processes said correlations via rules stored in said rules database to generate a set of hypotheses from those stored in said hypothesis database, and thirdly processes said hypotheses and said data to confirm, exclude or state as inconclusive each of said hypotheses for one or more of said correlations,

and wherein said first, second and third processing are performed using a data processor.