System and method for performing a diagnostic analysis of physiological information

• US 9,408,537 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2008
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Schroeter, Horst, Chang, E-Lee, Roberts, Linda, Khandelwal, Madhur, Clayton, Darnell
• Primary Examiner(s): Jackson, Gary
• Assistant Examiner(s): SANDS, DAVIN K
• Application Number:
  US12/271,600
• Publication Number:
  US 20100125182A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,825 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02416 using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation A61B5/14552 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4842 Monitoring progression or stage of a disease
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4872 Body fat
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7246 using correlation, e.g. template matching or determination of similarity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/744 Displaying an avatar, e.g. an animated cartoon character
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7465 Arrangements for interactive communication between patient and care services, e.g. by using a telephone network telemetry of measured physiological signal A61B5/0002
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/006 based on simulated virtual individual or collective life forms, e.g. social simulations or particle swarm optimisation [PSO]
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an avatar engine having a controller to retrieve a user profile of a user, present the user an avatar having characteristics that correlate to the user profile, detect one or more responses of the user during a communication exchange between the user and the avatar, identify from the one or more responses a need to determine a medical status of the user, establish communications with a medical diagnostic system, receive physiological information associated with the user, submit the physiological information to the medical diagnostic system, receive from the medical diagnostic system a diagnostic analysis of the physiological information, and present the diagnostic analysis to at least one of the user and a medical agent of the user, wherein the user is presented the diagnostic analysis by way of the avatar. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. An avatar engine, comprising:

a memory that stores instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, the processor performs operations comprising;

retrieving a user profile of a user and an image of the user;

generating an avatar based on the image of the user and based on statistical modeling that utilizes a demographic profile of the user and historical media consumption behavior of the user;

providing interactive media services to the user via a communication exchange between the user and the avatar, wherein the interactive media services include non-medical services;

presenting medical questions to the user;

receiving responses from the user in response to the presenting of the medical questions;

requesting, by way of the avatar being presented, that the user perform physiological tests to generate physiological information from the physiological tests based on the responses;

receiving the physiological information;

submitting the physiological information and the responses to a medical diagnostic system;

receiving from the medical diagnostic system a diagnostic analysis of the physiological information and the responses;

accessing prior diagnostic results supplied by a medical diagnostic system;

comparing the diagnostic analysis with the prior diagnostic results as a comparison;

determining a health condition of the user that indicates an improvement or deterioration in health based on the comparison;

presenting the diagnostic analysis to equipment of a medical agent of the user, wherein the medical agent is presented the diagnostic analysis by way of the avatar;

receiving from the equipment of the medical agent a prognosis and prescription determined from the diagnostic analysis; and

presenting the user with the health condition, the prognosis and the prescription by way of the avatar.

2. The avatar engine of claim 1, wherein the physiological information comprises one of a body temperature measurement of the user, a blood pressure measurement of the user, a heart rate measurement of the user, a height measurement of the user, a weight measurement of the user, or a body fat measurement of the user.

3. The avatar engine of claim 1, wherein the physiological information is obtained by one of a plurality of selected physiological measuring devices, and

wherein the operations further comprise receiving the physiological information via wireless communication with the one of the plurality of physiological measuring devices.

4. The avatar engine of claim 1, wherein the medical agent corresponds to one of a physician or a nurse,

wherein the avatar is generated prior to receiving the physiological information, and wherein the avatar engine comprises a set top box providing interactive television services.

5. The avatar engine of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise presenting to the user by way of the avatar the improvement or deterioration in the health condition of the user.

6. The avatar engine of claim 5, wherein the avatar engine operates in a computing device communicatively coupled to an interactive media communication system comprising an internet protocol television communication system and an internet protocol multimedia subsystem communication system.

7. The avatar engine of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise presenting a prognosis and presenting an identification of prescribed medication by way of the avatar.

8. A method, comprising:

generating an avatar utilizing an image of a user, wherein the avatar is generated by a computing device executing computer instructions for an avatar engine;

presenting, by the computing device, the avatar;

analyzing, by the computing device, a communication exchange between the user and the avatar to determine a potential physiological change of the user;

requesting, by the avatar being presented, that the user perform physiological tests to generate physiological information from the physiological tests based on the potential physiological change of the user;

receiving, by the computing device, the physiological information;

submitting, by the computing device, the physiological information and the communication exchange to a medical system;

receiving, by the computing device, from the medical system a diagnostic analysis of the physiological information and the communication exchange;

accessing, by the computing device, prior diagnostic results supplied by the medical system;

comparing, by the computing device, the diagnostic analysis with the prior diagnostic results;

determining, by the computing device, whether a health condition of the user has improved or deteriorated based on the comparing, wherein the computing device provides interactive television services;

presenting, by the computing device, the diagnostic analysis to equipment of a medical agent of the user, wherein the medical agent is presented the diagnostic analysis by way of the avatar;

receiving, by the computing device, from the equipment of the medical agent a prognosis and prescription determined from the diagnostic analysis; and

presenting, by the computing device, the user with the health condition, the prognosis and the prescription by way of the avatar.

9. The method of claim 8,

wherein the generation of the avatar is based in part on statistical modeling that utilizes a demographic profile of the user and historical media consumption behavior of the user, wherein the avatar is generated prior to receiving the physiological information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the medical agent corresponds to one of a physician or a nurse.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the physiological information comprises one of a body temperature measurement of the user, a blood pressure measurement of the user, a heart rate measurement of the user, a height measurement of the user, a weight measurement of the user, or a body fat measurement of the user.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the medical system is adapted to retrieve a physiological profile of the user to perform the diagnostic analysis of the physiological information.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the computing device is communicatively coupled to an interactive media communication system for providing the interactive television services.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the interactive media communication system comprises an internet protocol television communication system and an internet protocol multimedia subsystem communication system.

15. A non-transitory, machine-readable computer-readable storage medium, comprising instructions, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, a processor performs operations comprising:

conducting a communication exchange between a user and an avatar presented by a set top box, wherein the set top box is associated with the processor, wherein the communication exchange is associated with interactive media services for the user, wherein the interactive media services include non-medical services, wherein the avatar is generated based on an image of the user and based on statistical modeling that utilizes a demographic profile of the user and historical media consumption behavior of the user;

selecting a physiological measuring device from a group of physiological measuring devices as a selected physiological measuring device, wherein a potential physiological change is identified based on the communication exchange, and wherein the selected physiological measuring device collects physiological information associated with the user based on the communication exchange;

receiving the physiological information from the selected physiological measuring device;

submitting to a medical system the physiological information associated with the user and the communication exchange, the medical system being selected in response to a determination of a change to a medical status of the user from an analysis of responses during the communication exchange;

receiving from the medical system a diagnostic analysis of the physiological information and the communication exchange;

accessing prior diagnostic results supplied by the medical system;

comparing the diagnostic analysis with the prior diagnostic results to generate a comparison; and

determining whether a health condition of the user has changed based on the comparison;

presenting the diagnostic analysis and a notification that the health condition has changed to equipment of a medical agent of the user, wherein the medical agent is presented the diagnostic analysis by way of the avatar;

receiving, from the equipment of the medical agent, one of a prognosis and prescription determined from the diagnostic analysis; and

presenting the user with the health condition, the prognosis and the prescription by way of the avatar.

16. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise generating the avatar correlated to a profile of the user, wherein the interactive media services includes user calendar services.

17. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the selected physiological measuring device comprises a plurality of selected physiological measuring devices from among the group of physiological measuring devices,

wherein the physiological information comprises one of a body temperature measurement of the user, a blood pressure measurement of the user, a heart rate measurement of the user, a height measurement of the user, a weight measurement of the user, a body fat measurement of the user, or any combination thereof.

18. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the avatar is generated prior to receiving the physiological information of the user.

19. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving from the medical system recommendations for healthcare for the user; and

presenting to the user the recommendations by way of the avatar.

20. A method, comprising:

providing, by a set top box, interactive media services to a user via a communication exchange between the user and an avatar, wherein the interactive media services include non-medical services;

analyzing a communication exchange between the user and the avatar, wherein the analyzing is performed by the set top box to generate an analysis;

determining, by the set top box, a determined change to a medical status of the user based on the analysis of the communication exchange;

selecting, by the set top box, a physiological measuring device from a group of physiological measuring devices as a selected physiological measuring device, wherein the selected physiological measuring device collects physiological information associated with the user;

requesting, by the avatar being presented, that the user utilize the physiological measuring device to generate physiological information from a physiological test;

receiving, by the set top box, the physiological information from the physiological measuring device once the user completes the physiological test;

submitting, by the set top box, the physiological information and the determined change in medical status of the user over a network to a medical diagnostic system;

accessing, by the set top box, prior diagnostic results supplied by the medical diagnostic system;

comparing, by the set top box, a diagnostic analysis associated with the physiological information and the determined change in medical status of the user with the prior diagnostic results; and

determining, by the set top box, whether a health condition of the user has changed based on the comparing;

presenting a change of the health condition to equipment of a medical agent of the user, wherein the medical agent is presented the diagnostic analysis by way of the avatar;

receiving from the equipment of the medical agent a prescription determined from the change of the health condition; and

presenting the user with the health condition and the prescription by way of the avatar.

21. A system, comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, the processor performs operations comprising;

generating an avatar based on an image of a user and based on statistical modeling that utilizes a demographic profile of the user and historical media consumption behavior of the user;

analyzing a communication exchange between the user and the avatar;

determining a change to a medical status of the user based on the analyzing of the communication exchange;

requesting that the user implement a physiological measuring device from a group of physiological measuring devices based on the change to the medical status as a selected physiological measuring device, wherein the selected physiological measuring device collects physiological information associated with the user;

receiving the physiological information from the selected physiological measuring device;

submitting the physiological information and the change in medical status of the user over a network to a medical diagnostic system;

accessing prior diagnostic results supplied by the medical diagnostic system;

comparing a diagnostic analysis associated with the physiological information and the change in medical status of the user with the prior diagnostic results;

determining whether a health condition of the user has changed based on the Comparing;

presenting the diagnostic analysis and a determined health condition change to equipment of a medical agent of the user, wherein the medical agent is presented the diagnostic analysis by way of the avatar;

receiving from the equipment of the medical agent a prognosis and prescription determined from the diagnostic analysis and the determined health condition change; and

presenting the user with the health condition, the prognosis and the prescription by way of the avatar,

wherein the processor provides interactive television services to the user.