Method and apparatus for facilitating remote health monitoring of a computerized healthcare system

• US 9,426,051 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 08/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Change Healthcare Holdings, LLC (UnitedHealth Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Mckesson Financial Holdings Limited (McKesson Corp.)
• Inventors: Chakrabarti, Robi, Allard, Scott, Jensen, Todd
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHUOC H
• Application Number:
  US13/835,902
• Publication Number:
  US 20130246615A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,257 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to facilitate the monitoring of the health of a plurality of computerized healthcare systems deployed at a plurality of different sites, such as at various healthcare facilities. In the context of a method, one or more sensor(s) may be identified that are to be downloaded and executed by a plurality of remote servers in order to provide for health monitoring of a computerized healthcare system. The method also receives the results of the health monitoring from the plurality of remote servers and determines a health score for the computerized healthcare system of a respective remote server based upon the results. The method may further cause a technician to be advised of the results and the healthcare score.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying one or more sensors to be downloaded and executed by a plurality of remote servers in order to provide for health monitoring of a computerized health care system by monitoring one or more characteristics that are informative regarding the ongoing operations of the computerized health care system, each sensor defined by a computer program module to be downloaded to and executed by one or more remote servers;

receiving information indicating that a technician is aware of and working to resolve an issue with the computerized health care system;

receiving results of the health monitoring from the plurality of remote servers;

determining, with processing circuitry, a health score for a computerized health care system of a respective remote server based upon the results, the health score indicative of the computerized health care system being healthy or requiring maintenance, wherein determining the health score comprises determining the health score for the computerized health care system based at least in part upon the information indicating that the technician is aware of and working to resolve an issue with the computerized health care system, wherein the health score determined for the computerized health care system in an instance in which the technician is aware of and working to resolve the issue is different than the health score determined for the computerized health care system in an instance in which the technician is unaware of the issue; and

causing a technician to be advised of the results and the health score.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein determining the health score comprises:

determining a state of the computerized health care system based on a relationship between the results of the health monitoring and a plurality of candidate states for a respective type of health monitoring; and

defining the health score based on the state of the computerized health care system.

3. A method according to claim 1 further comprising activating the one or more sensors to be downloaded to a respective remove server and responding to a query from a remote device regarding the one or more sensors that have been activated for the respective remote device.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein activating the one or more sensors comprises associating a time with a respective sensor to define the time during which the respective sensor is to be active.

5. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code instructions stored therein and configured, upon execution, to perform the method of claim 1.

6. An apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to:

identify one or more sensors to be downloaded and executed by a plurality of remote servers in order to provide for health monitoring of a computerized health care system by monitoring one or more characteristics that are informative regarding the ongoing operations of the computerized health care system, each sensor defined by a computer program module to be downloaded to and executed by one or more remote servers;

receive information indicating that a technician is aware of and working to resolve an issue with the computerized health care system;

receive results of the health monitoring from the plurality of remote servers;

determining a health score for a computerized health care system of a respective remote server based upon the results, the health score indicative of the computerized health care system being healthy or requiring maintenance, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the health core by determining the health score for the computerized health care system based at least in part upon the information indicating that the technician is aware of and working to resolve an issue with the computerized health care system, wherein the health score determined for the computerized health care system in an instance in which the technician is aware of and working to resolve the issue is different than the health score determined for the computerized health are system in an instance in which the technician is unaware of the issue; and

cause a technician to be advised of the results and the health score.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the processing circuitry s configured to determine the health score by:

determining a state of the computerized health care system based on a relationship between the results of the health monitoring and a plurality of candidate states for a respective type of health monitoring; and

defining the health score based on the state of the computerized health care system.

8. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to activate the one or more sensors to be downloaded to a respective remove server and to respond to a query from a remote device regarding the one or more sensors that have been activated for the respective remote device.

9. An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to activate the one or more sensors by associating a time with a respective sensor to define the time during which the respective sensor is to be active.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a configuration file from a central server;

identifying one or more sensors that are to be deployed, each sensor defined by a computer program module;

downloading the one or more sensors;

entering a sleep mode following downloading of the one of more sensors in accordance with a predefined schedule that defines a time for executing the one or more sensors;

upon awakening from the sleep mode determining if one or more sensors for the computer health care system have changed since the one or more sensors have been downloaded and downloading one or more sensors that are determined to have changed;

executing, with a processing circuitry, the one or more sensors in accordance with a predefined schedule in order to provide for health monitoring of a computerized health care system, wherein the predefined schedule is defined by the configuration file received from the central server;

causing the results of the health monitoring to be provided to the central server for analysis; and

repeating the identifying, downloading, executing and causing steps to permit additional sensors to be deployed by identifying, downloading and executing the additional sensors.

11. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code instructions stored therein and configured, upon execution, to perform the method of claim 10.

12. An apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to:

receive a configuration file from a central server;

identify one of more sensors that are to be deployed, each sensor defined by a computer program module;

download the one or more sensors;

enter a sleep mode following downloading of the one of more sensors in accordance with a predefined schedule that defines a time for executing the one or more sensors;

upon awakening from the sleep mode determine if one or more sensors for the computer health care system have changed since the one or more sensors have been downloaded and download one or more sensors that are determined to have changed;

execute the one or more sensors in accordance with a predefined schedule in order to provide for health monitoring of a computerized health care system, wherein the predefined schedule is defined by the configuration file received from the central server;

cause the results of the health monitoring to be provided to the central server for analysis; and

repeat the identifying, downloading, executing and causing steps to permit additional sensors to be deployed by identifying, downloading and executing the additional sensors.