Systems and methods for wireless prescription advertising

• US 8,694,329 B1
• Filed: 09/27/2004
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LB Financial Holdings, LLC
• Original Assignee: LB Financial Holdings, LLC
• Inventors: Piacentile, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Hunter, Sean K
• Application Number:
  US10/951,212
• Time in Patent Office: 3,480 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3, 705/4
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/00 ICT specially adapted for therapies or health-improving plans, e.g. for handling prescriptions, for steering therapy or for monitoring patient compliance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A medical information system informs prescribers of medically related drug information when preparing a prescription. The point of prescribing messaging system can assist physicians in selecting alternative medications when prescribing medication for patients. The system may include a point of prescription application configured to access and display messages concerning alternative suggested medications of different sponsors in response to an associated selected medication to inform prescribers of the alternative suggested medication for presenting the prescriber with the option of generating an electronic prescription with the alternative suggested medication. A data structure maintained by the system containing associations between a selected trigger medication and a target alternative suggested medication may optionally include additional conditions that control the display of messages such as the gender, age, and/or diagnosis of the patient, the date of the prescription, and/or the region in which the prescription is being made.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a selection of a first medication identifier, the first medication identifier corresponding to a first medication;

determining, by the processor and based on one or more associations between the first medication identifier and one or more identifiers corresponding to one or more other medications, at least one of the one or more other medications that are alternative medications to the first medication;

identifying, by the processor and among the at least one of the one or more other medications that are determined to be alternative medications to the first medication, one or more medications that are restricted with respect to at least one of (a) a gender of a patient, (b) an age of a patient, or (c) a geographic region of at least one of a prescriber or a patient;

excluding, by the processor, the one or more restricted medications from the at least one of the one or more other medications that are determined to be alternative medications to the first medication; and

providing, by the processor and in relation to the first medication, information of one or more remaining medications from the at least one of the one or more other medications that are determined to be alternative medications to the first medication.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more remaining medications from the at least one of the one or more other medications that are determined to be alternative medications to the first medication comprises a sponsored medication.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the sponsored medication is associated with a name of the sponsor.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more associations between the first medication identifier and one or more identifiers corresponding to one or more other medications relates the associated medications by equivalence.

5. A method comprising:

associating, by a processor, one or more trigger medications with one or more target medications, each of the one or more target medications corresponding to;

(a) only one of the one or more trigger medications, (b) a geographic region, (c) a date, (d) a patient age, and (e) a patient diagnosis;

receiving, by the processor and with respect to a particular patient, a selection of at least one of the one or more trigger medications, the selection being associated with (a) a particular geographic region, (b) a particular date, (c) an age of the particular patient, and (d) a patient diagnosis of the particular patient;

comparing, by the processor, (a) the geographic region, (b) the date, (c) the patient age, and (d) the patient diagnosis of the only one of the one or more trigger medications that corresponds to the target medication with (a) the particular geographic region, (b) the particular date, (c) the age of the particular patient, and (d) the patient diagnosis of the particular patient that are associated with the selection of the at least one of the one or more trigger medications; and

based on a determination that (a) the geographic region, (b) the date, (c) the patient age, and (d) the patient diagnosis of the only one of the one or more trigger medications that corresponds to the target medication are respectively comparable to (a) the particular geographic region, (b) the particular date, (c) the age of the particular patient, and (d) the patient diagnosis of the particular patient that are associated with the selection of the at least one of the one or more trigger medications providing, by the processor, content pertaining to the target medication in response to the selection of the trigger medication.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the content pertaining to the target medication comprises a name of a sponsor entity related to the target medication.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the particular geographic region of the particular patient comprises information pertaining to at least one of a location of prescribing or a location of the particular patient.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the target medication is associated with a sponsor.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein providing content pertaining to the target medication comprises a medication use instruction for a sponsored medication.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the target medication is an alternative medication to the trigger medication.

11. A method comprising:

associating, by a processor, each of a plurality of alternative medications with one or more criteria, the one or more criteria comprising at least one of;

a region, a date, a gender, or an age;

associating, by the processor, each of the plurality of alternative medications with one or more medications;

receiving, by the processor, a selection of at least one of the one or more medications;

identifying, by the processor, at least one of the plurality of alternative medications based on one or more associations with the one or more medications;

comparing, by the processor, data pertaining to the one or more criteria associated with the at least one of the plurality of alternative medications with corresponding criteria associated with the at least one of the one or more medications to determine which of the at least one of the plurality of alternative medications have comparable criteria to the at least one of the one or more medications; and

based on a determination that a single medication from the plurality of alternative medications has comparable criteria to the at least one of the one or more medications, providing, by the processor, content related to the single medication in response to the selection of the at least one of the one or more medications.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein providing content comprises providing sponsored content.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising generating, by the processor, a prescription for at least one of the single medication or the at least one of the one or more medications.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising providing, by the processor, a medication use instruction associated with the single medication.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the age comprises at least one of a minimum age or a maximum age.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the location comprises at least one of a presence or an absence of a drug prescription system within a particular region.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the content identifies a sponsor.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein providing content related to the single medication comprises generating a dispense-as-written prescription for the single medication.

19. A system comprising:

one or more processors to interact with a computer-readable medium and to;

associate one or more trigger medications with one or more target medications, each target medication being associated with at least one of the trigger medications;

receive a selection of a trigger medication, the selection being associated with a particular date;

identify among the one or more target medications that are associated with the selected trigger medication, one or more medications that are restricted with respect to the particular date;

exclude the one or more restricted medications from consideration among the one or more target medications that are associated with the selected trigger medication; and

provide, in relation to the selection of the trigger medication, information of one or more remaining target medications that are associated with the selected trigger medication.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the processor is further to provide a name of a sponsor in relation to the one or more remaining target medications.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the information of one or more remaining target medications is provided based on diagnostic information associated with the selection.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a selection of a first medication;

determining, by the processor and based on one or more associations between the first medication and one or more other medications, at least one of the one or more other medications that are alternative medications to the first medication;

identifying, among the at least one of the one or more other medications that are determined to be alternative medications to the first medication, one or more medications that are restricted with respect to at least one of (a) a gender of a patient, (b) an age of a patient, or (c) a geographic region of at least one of a prescriber or a patient;

excluding the one or more restricted medications from the at least one of the one or more other medications that are determined to be alternative medications to the first medication; and

providing, in relation to the first medication, information of one or more remaining medications from the at least one of the one or more other medications that are determined to be alternative medications to the first medication.