Calculating a behavioral path based on a statistical profile

• US 8,540,517 B2
• Filed: 11/27/2006
• Issued: 09/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digital Care Advisors LLC
• Original Assignee: Pharos Innovations, Inc.
• Inventors: Heuer, Timothy J., Pitocco, John Anthony, Williams, Randall E., Fulling, Russell
• Primary Examiner(s): Yip, Jack
• Application Number:
  US11/604,570
• Publication Number:
  US 20080124689A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,493 Days
• Field of Search: 434/238, 434/236, 706/14, 600/300, 600/301, 705/2, 705/3, 705 711- 7, 705/19, 705 721- 726
• US Class Current: 434/236
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

A system for directing behavior of a first patient of a plurality of patients towards a behavioral objective includes a patient behavioral path calculator, a patient goal calculator, and a patient monitoring processor. The system also includes an information communication processor and a statistical processor. The patient behavioral path calculator calculates a patient behavioral path based on a statistical profile. The patient goal calculator calculates patient goals along the patient behavioral path toward a behavioral objective. The statistical processor can modify the statistical profile based on a response to a targeted message sent by the information communication processor.

Claims

1. A system for directing behavior of a first patient of a plurality of patients towards a behavioral objective, the system comprising:

a statistical processor operative to calculate a first statistical profile of the first patient, the first statistical profile being operative, for an input of the first patient, to produce the most likely output from among a modeled patient-population, based on a comparison of the input of the first patient with the modeled patient-population, to allow the system to determine types of behavior modification treatments that are successful in achieving a particular behavioral goal based at least in part on a statistical distribution indicating a likelihood of a predicted outcome;

a patient behavioral path calculator operative to calculate a first behavioral path to the behavioral objective for the first patient based on an initial state of the first patient and the first statistical profile of the first patient, wherein the statistical processor is further operative to determine an upper fault limit and a lower fault limit based on a statistical profile of the modeled patient-population, each of the upper fault limit and the lower fault limit comprising a variability estimate with respect to the first behavioral path;

a patient goal calculator coupled with the patient behavioral path calculator and operative to calculate a first plurality of intermediate behavioral goals along the first behavioral path for achieving the behavioral objective;

a patient monitoring processor coupled with the patient behavioral path calculator operative to select a type of targeted message, wherein the type of targeted message includes a positive reinforcement targeted message or a negative reinforcement targeted message, wherein the patient behavioral path calculator is further operative to generate a first targeted message based on the calculated first behavioral path and the selected type of targeted message;

an information communication processor coupled with the patient monitoring processor operative to send the first targeted message during a first session to motivate the first patient to achieve the behavioral objective and to receive a first response representative of a result thereof, wherein the statistical processor is further operative to determine a relationship between the first response and the upper fault limit and the lower fault limit, and to trigger, based on the determination of the relationship, an intervention when the upper fault limit or the lower fault limit is crossed;

wherein until the first patient achieves the behavioral objective,

the statistical processor is further operative to modify the first statistical profile of the first patient based on the first response, the modified first statistical profile being further operative, for the first response, to produce the most likely output from among a modeled patient-population, updated based on the first response, to allow the system to redetermine the types of behavior modification treatments that are successful in achieving a particular behavioral goal based at least in part on a statistical distribution indicating a likelihood of the predicted outcome;

the patient behavioral path calculator is further operative to recalculate the first behavioral path to the behavioral objective for the first patient based on the modified first statistical profile of the first patient;

the patient monitoring processor is further operative to re-select the selected type of targeted message based on the effectiveness of the first targeted message and generate a second targeted message based on the recalculated first behavioral path and the re-selected type of targeted message;

the information communication processor is further operative to send the second targeted message during a second session to motivate the first patient to achieve the behavioral objective and to receive a second response representative of a result thereof; and

the statistical processor is further operative to modify the modified first statistical profile based on the received second response.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first statistical profile of the first patient comprises a statistical profile of the plurality of patients, a patient specific statistical profile, or combination thereof.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the patient monitoring processor selects the first targeted message based on a first intermediate behavioral goal of the first plurality of intermediate behavioral goals.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the patient goal calculator is further operative to recalculate a previously calculated first plurality of intermediate behavioral goals along the recalculated first behavioral path for achieving the behavioral objective, wherein the previously calculated first plurality of intermediate behavioral goals were calculated based on the calculated first behavioral path.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the patient behavioral path calculator is further operative to calculate a second behavioral path to the behavioral objective for a second patient of the plurality of patients based on an initial state of the second patient and a second statistical profile of the second patient, wherein the second statistical profile of the second patient is based on the modified first statistical profile of the first patient;

the patient monitoring processor is further operative to select a targeted message based on the calculated second behavioral path;

the information communication processor is further operative to send the targeted message based on the calculated second behavioral path to the second patient during a session with the second patient to motivate the second patient to achieve the behavioral objective and to receive a response from the second patient representative of a result thereof; and

,

the statistical processor is further operative to modify the second statistical profile based on the received response from the second patient.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the second patient is more likely to achieve a first intermediate behavioral goal than the first patient.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the statistical processor is operative to further calculate the first statistical profile of the first patient based on provided statistical information.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a patient goal analyzer coupled with the patient monitoring processor operative to determine whether a first intermediate behavioral goal has been achieved based on the first response.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a failure prevention mechanism coupled with the patient goal analyzer operative to intervene when the first patient fails to achieve a first intermediate behavioral goal.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the first statistical profile of the first patient further comprises at least one of a mean, a standard deviation, and a percentile associated with the statistical distribution.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the predicted outcome is based on predictive modeling, the predictive modeling comprising at least one of:

generalized linear modeling, generalized mixed effects modeling, generalized estimating equations, time series modeling, tree-structured regression, Bayesian modeling, near neighbor methods, clustering algorithms, scaling algorithms, neural networking, mixed effect modeling, and Markov modeling.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the statistical processor is further operative to:

determine a trend with respect to the behavioral objective, the determination comprising a comparison of at least the first response and the second response with the behavioral objective; and

trigger the intervention or another intervention when the trend is away from the behavioral objective.

13. A system for directing behavior of a first patient of a plurality of patients towards a behavioral objective, the system comprising:

means for calculating a first statistical profile of the first patient, the first statistical profile being operative, for an input of the first patient, to produce the most likely output from among a modeled patient-population, based on a comparison of the input of the first patient with the modeled patient-population, to allow the system to determine types of behavior modification treatments that are successful in achieving a particular behavioral goal based at least in part on a statistical distribution indicating a likelihood of a predicted outcome;

means for calculating a first behavioral path to the behavioral objective for the first patient based on an initial state of the first patient and first statistical profile of the first patient;

means for determining an upper fault limit and a lower fault limit based on a statistical profile of the modeled patient-population, each of the upper fault limit and the lower fault limit comprising a variability estimate with respect to the first behavioral path;

means for defining a first plurality of intermediate behavioral goals along the calculated first behavioral path for achieving the behavioral objective;

means for selecting a type of targeted message, wherein the type of targeted message includes a positive reinforcement targeted message or a negative reinforcement targeted message;

means for generating a first targeted message based on the calculated behavioral path and the selected type of targeted message;

means for establishing a first session;

means for sending the first targeted message during the first session to motivate the first patient to achieve the behavioral objective and elicit a first response representative of a result thereof;

means for determining a relationship between the first response and the upper fault limit and the lower fault limit;

means for triggering, based on the determination of the relationship, an intervention when the upper fault limit or the lower fault limit is crossed;

means for modifying the first statistical profile based on the first response, the modified first statistical profile being further operative, for the first response, to produce the most likely output from among a modeled patient-population, updated based on the first response, to allow the system to redetermine the types of behavior modification treatments that are successful in achieving a particular behavioral goal based at least in part on a statistical distribution indicating a likelihood of the predicted outcome;

means for re-calculating, prior to the first patient achieving the behavioral objective, the first behavioral path to the behavioral objective for the first patient based on the modified first statistical profile of the first patient;

means for re-selecting the selected type of targeted message based on the effectiveness of the first targeted message;

means for generating a second targeted message based on the re-calculated first behavioral path and the re-selected type of targeted message;

means for establishing a second session;

means for sending the second targeted message during the second session to motivate the first patient to achieve the behavioral objective and elicit a second response representative of a result thereof; and

means for modifying, based on the second response, the modified first statistical profile.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first statistical profile of the first patient comprises a statistical profile of the plurality of patients, a patient specific statistical profile, or combination thereof.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

means for intervening when the first patient fails to achieve the first intermediate behavior goal.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

means for calculating a second behavioral path to the behavioral objective for a second patient of the plurality of patients based on an initial state of the second patient and a second statistical profile of the second patient, wherein the second statistical profile of the second patient is based on the first statistical profile of the first patient;

means for determining a targeted message based on the second behavioral path;

means for establishing a session with the second patient;

means for sending the targeted message based on the second behavioral path to the second patient during the session with the second patient to motivate the second patient to achieve the behavioral objective of the second behavioral path and elicit a response from the second patient representative of a result thereof; and

means for modifying, based on the second response, the second statistical profile.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the second patient is more likely to achieve a first intermediate behavioral goal than the first patient.

18. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

means for calculating the first statistical profile of the first patient based on provided statistical information.

19. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

means for determining whether a first intermediate behavioral goal has been achieved based on the first response.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the first statistical profile of the first patient further comprises at least one of a mean, a standard deviation, and a percentile associated with the statistical distribution.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein the predicted outcome is based on predictive modeling, the predictive modeling comprising at least one of:

generalized linear modeling, generalized mixed effects modeling, generalized estimating equations, time series modeling, tree-structured regression, Bayesian modeling, near neighbor methods, clustering algorithms, scaling algorithms, neural networking, mixed effect modeling, and Markov modeling.