Personalized health history system with accommodation for consumer health terminology

• US 8,612,245 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2003
• Issued: 12/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: WebMD LLC (WebMD Health Corporation)
• Original Assignee: WebMD LLC (WebMD Health Corporation)
• Inventors: Marshall, Philip D., Rozen, Michael J., Bowman, Bradley R
• Primary Examiner(s): Najarian, Lena
• Application Number:
  US10/654,503
• Publication Number:
  US 20040044548A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,758 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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 70/60 relating to pathologies

Abstract

Personalization of access to health-related information on a computer network is provided based upon a health history of a user. In one implementation, personal health-related information about the user is obtaining from the user operating a client computer. The health-related information includes one or more health-related terms that each corresponds to a health-related concept. The health related terms provided by the user are correlated with a health terminology thesaurus that is stored on a computer-readable medium, such as at a server remote from the user client. Each of the health-related terms is associated with a single concept unique identifier that uniquely identifies a corresponding health-related concept. Health-related works or content is made accessible over the computer network by correlating the concept unique identifiers for the user'"'"'s health information with corresponding concept unique identifiers that are associated with the health-related content.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving from a user health information about the user, said health information comprising health-related indicators of health conditions of the user;

for the health-related indicators within the health information received about the user, identifying corresponding concept unique identifiers (CUIs) from an index that identifies relationships between CUIs and health-related indicators;

storing in an electronic database information about a plurality of health-related works, wherein the plurality of health-related works includes works selected from the group consisting of health-related news and health-related articles;

indexing the plurality of health-related works by a content index and a target population index, wherein the content index contains for each health-related work CUIs identifying the content of that health-related work and the target population index contains for each health-related work target information identifying populations of users for which that health-related work is appropriate;

based at least in part upon said CUIs for the health-related indicators from the user, the CUIs within the content index for the plurality of health-related works, and the target information within the target index for the plurality of health-related works, identifying health-related works among the plurality of health-related works that are relevant to the user; and

providing to the user access to the identified health-related works.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

correlating each health-related work of the plurality of health-related works with a plurality of concept unique identifiers so that said each health-related work of the plurality of health-related works is characterized by a subset of CUIs selected from said plurality of concept unique identifiers.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a user interface to receive said health information about the user, wherein said user interface is configured to communicate with a computer server configured to verify said user'"'"'s identity.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said computer server is configured to process the health information from said user to identify any health-related indicators, and further, to identify all possible CUIs corresponding to said health-related indicators.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying health-related works further comprises:

accessing one or more databases to obtain the plurality of health-related works, said one or more databases containing a variety of health-related literature.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying health-related works further comprises:

for each health-related work of the plurality of health-related works, determining whether the CUIs associated with that health-related work contains at least one of the corresponding CUIs; and

responsive to determining that CUIs associated with one of the health-related works contains at least one of the corresponding CUIs, providing that health-related work to said user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein target information identifying populations of users for which that health-related work is appropriate does so by identifying populations of users for which that health-related work is not appropriate.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access involves providing hyperlinks to the identified health-related works to the user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access involves sending the content of the identified health-related works to the user.

7. A computer system comprising:

a user interface configured for receiving from a user health information about the user, said health information comprising health-related indicators pertaining to personal health conditions; and

a processor in electronic communication with said user interface, said processor configured to execute computer instructions to perform the following functions;

for the health-related indicators within the health information received about the user, identifying corresponding concept unique identifiers (CUIs) from an index that identifies relationships between CUIs and health-related indicators, said index stored in a database accessible to said processor; and

accessing one or more online databases containing a plurality of health-related works, wherein the plurality of health-related works includes works selected from the group consisting of health-related news and health-related articles, wherein the plurality of health-related works are indexed by a content index and a target population index, wherein the content index contains for each health-related work CUIs identifying the content of that health-related work and the target population index contains for each health-related work target information identifying populations of users for which that health-related work is appropriate;

based at least in part upon said CUIs for the health-related indicators from the user, the CUIs within the content index for the plurality of health-related works, and the target information within the target index for the plurality of health-related works, identifying health-related works among the plurality of health-related works that are relevant to the user; and

providing to the user access to the identified health-related works.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said processor is further configured to execute computer instructions to perform the following functions:

responsive to the identifying health-related works that are relevant to the user, sending said identified health-related works to said user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein sending said identified health-related works are provided to said user by sending an email.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein sending an email involves sending either the content of said identified health-related works or a URL link for accessing the content of said identified health-related works.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein said processor is configured to access said one or more online databases containing a variety of health-related literature via a communication network.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein target information identifying populations of users for which that health-related work is appropriate does so by identifying populations of users for which that health-related work is not appropriate.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein providing access involves providing hyperlinks to the identified health-related works to the user.

17. The system of claim 7, wherein providing access involves sending the content of the identified health-related works to the user.