Communication system for remote patient visits and clinical status monitoring

• US 8,305,423 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2009
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: InnovaTec SL
• Original Assignee: InnovaTec SL
• Inventors: Riobo Aboy, Pedro Mateo, Fabregat, M. Elena, Ibanez Garcia, Francisco
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Quoc D
• Application Number:
  US12/625,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20100128104A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,078 Days
• Field of Search: 348/14.01, 348/14.03, 348/14.08, 348/14.12, 705/2
• US Class Current: 348/14.08
• 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: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25875 involving end-user authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; arrangements for secret or secure communication including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

Disclosed embodiments include a telemedicine communication system designed to make possible “virtual” patient visits by approved visitors such as the spouse, family, and friends of the hospitalized patient having the appropriate digital certificate and visitation/communication permissions. According to one embodiment, the system enables relatives to visit hospitalized patients using audiovisual communication modalities selected according to the severity and health status of the patient. Additionally, the system provides functionality to enable approved relatives to follow the health status of the patient according to their permissions.

Claims

1. A remote medical visitation system, comprising:

(a) a plurality of client access points for patients, relatives, and clinicians;

said client access points comprising one or more audio-visual systems connected by a network upon completion of a secure authentication procedure;

(b) a secure computer server running an integrated web-enabled platform supporting encrypted data transfer including a relational database to store user profiles, visitation protocols, user data, videoconferencing schedules, and communication information from a plurality of patients, relatives, and clinicians; and

(c) a plurality of software modules including a plurality of graphical user interfaces for control, planing, communication activation, and report creation, wherein said plurality of software modules include a module to manage and program a communication protocol between patients and their virtual visitors depending on a patient'"'"'s health status, and wherein said module to manage and program a communication protocol automatically selects a communication modality as a function of the patient'"'"'s health status, said communication modality is chosen from the group consisting of full video conference, partial image video conference, static image audio conference, audio conference, and text conference.

2. The remote medical visitation system of claim 1, wherein said audio-visual systems comprise a plurality of network enabled systems including hardware to support data, audio, and video communications.

3. The remote medical visitation system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of access points include a client application for approved visitors that upon installation enables for secure communications with said clinicians and said patients according to a pre-programmed visitation protocol determined based on the patient'"'"'s health status and one or more hospital visitation regulations.

4. The remote medical visitation system of claim 3, wherein said plurality of software modules include a clinical module especially adapted to enable clinicians to 1) manage a plurality of system users (patients, relatives, friends) and enable the use of said remote medical visitation system during the hospitalization period, 2) generate a plurality of reports of the patient'"'"'s health status, action plans, and external communications with approved family members with access to such information, and automatic transmission of these reports by SMS and email, 3) have access to a history of said reports, communications to relatives and management of said reports and communications;

4) program virtual visitations sessions as a visitation calendar including dates, times, multimedia options and modality (video, audio, text) and manage them according to a patient recovery status,

     5) perform real-time monitoring of active visits in order to provide clinical supervision when needed; and

     6) access to a patient'"'"'s video camera in order to create a multimedia repository by capturing images and video to be sent to said relatives in situations where real-time full video conference visitations are not allowed due to the patient'"'"'s health status.

5. The remote medical visitation system of claim 4, wherein said plurality of software modules include a virtual visitor module especially adapted to enable relatives and friends to 1) access said remote medical visitation system upon downloading and installing the client application upon secure identification using a digital certificate as approved visitors with corresponding permissions, 2) access said plurality of reports detailing the patient'"'"'s health status depending on the level of permissions, 3) access said visitation calendar programmed according to a visitation schedule and the patient'"'"'s health status, 4) gain video conference access in real-time during scheduled times according to the modality determined on the remote medical visitation system, and 5) access said multimedia repository to view and download contents of said repository including photographs, pre-recorded video, and audio;

and upload a plurality of multimedia files to said multimedia repository for the patient.

6. The remote medical visitation system of claim 5, wherein said secure computer server includes secure communications protocols especially adapted to comply with military security standards including protocols substantially equivalent to a secure communications interoperability protocol (SCIP).

7. The remote medical visitation system of claim 6, wherein said secure computer server accepts video conference petitions and makes them possible using Asterisk and MeetMe/Confiance plug-ins, communication between the clients and the server is implemented using RMI technology, and said audio-visual conference the systems employ a SIP protocol over a PBX voice over IP central Asterisk.