Computational systems and methods for health services planning and matching

• US 9,858,540 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2010
• Issued: 01/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Gearbox LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Gearbox LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Firminger, Shawn P., Garms, Jason, Hyde, Roderick A., Jung, Edward K. Y., Karkanias, Chris Demetrios, Leuthardt, Eric C., Levien, Royce A., Lord, Richard T., Lord, Robert W., Malamud, Mark A., Rinaldo, Jr., John D., Tegreene, Clarence T., Tolle, Kristin M., Wood, Jr., Lowell L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess, Joseph D
• Application Number:
  US12/657,429
• Publication Number:
  US 20100293002A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,904 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/50 for simulation or modelling of medical disorders
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

Systems and methods are described relating to accepting an indication of at least one attribute of an individual; accepting sensor data about the individual; and presenting a set of health care options at least partially based on the accepting an indication of at least one attribute of the individual and the accepting sensor data about the individual.

Claims

1. A mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring, comprising:

a heart-rate sensor integrated into the mobile phone;

circuitry configured for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone;

circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor; and

circuitry configured for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians.

2. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding at least one physical attribute or at least one physical symptom related to cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone.

3. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding one or more of at least one physical impairment or at least one physical diagnosis related to cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone.

4. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding at least one of a current treatment or a proposed treatment related to cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone.

5. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting a health care provider'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health of a patient at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone.

6. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor comprises:

circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of cardiac activity occurring in a patient via the heart-rate sensor integrated into the mobile phone, the mobile phone associated with an individual health care provider.

7. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor comprises:

circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor integrated into the mobile phone, the mobile phone configured as a portable device for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring.

8. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor comprises:

circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor integrated into the mobile phone, the mobile phone configured as a portable device for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring capable of connecting with at least one wireless phone network.

9. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 8, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor integrated into the mobile phone, the mobile phone configured as a portable device for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring capable of connecting with at least one wireless phone network comprises:

circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor integrated into the mobile phone, the mobile phone configured as a portable device for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring capable of transmitting data via at least one wireless phone network.

10. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting at least one of a specified number of health care options for a given stage of drug or treatment, a specified number of branch points for a given course of drug or treatment, or a specified number of decision levels for a given course of drug or treatment.

11. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting one or more health care options at least partially based on at least one user preference.

12. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting at least one of treatment by a medical doctor, treatment by a naturopathic doctor, treatment by an acupuncturist, treatment by an herbalist, self-treatment, taking no action for a period of time, or taking no action until a specified indicator crosses a threshold.

13. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting at least one of a diagnosis option set or a treatment option set.

14. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting one or more health care options at least partly based on at least one of a standard of care, an expert opinion, an insurance company evaluation, or research data.

15. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians comprises:

circuitry configured for querying, at least partially via at least one network connection of the mobile phone, at least one third party database at least partially via the internet to obtain one or more health care options for the decision-tree.

16. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting at least two different treatment paths at least partially based on the accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity at least partially via the heart-rate sensor of the mobile phone, the at least two different treatment paths progressing from general to specific interventions.

17. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 16, wherein circuitry configured for presenting at least two different treatment paths at least partially based on the accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity at least partially via the heart-rate sensor of the mobile phone, the at least two different treatment paths progressing from general to specific interventions comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting at least two different treatment paths including at least progressing from presenting types of service provider available for each path as a general portion to presenting specific interventions typically offered by service providers of each type at least partially based on the accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity at least partially via the heart-rate sensor of the mobile phone.

18. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 16, wherein circuitry configured for presenting at least two different treatment paths at least partially based on the accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity at least partially via the heart-rate sensor of the mobile phone, the at least two different treatment paths progressing from general to specific interventions comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting at least a pharmaceutical therapy treatment path, the pharmaceutical therapy treatment path progressing from a type of drug to a specific drug via the at least two testing or treatment stages of the decision-tree format, and a surgery treatment path, the surgery treatment path progressing from a range of costs associated with various surgery treatments to a specific cost for a particular surgery treatment via at least two testing or treatment stages of the decision-tree, at least partially based on the accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity at least partially via the heart-rate sensor of the mobile phone.

19. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 16, wherein circuitry configured for presenting at least two different treatment paths at least partially based on the accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity at least partially via the heart-rate sensor of the mobile phone, the at least two different treatment paths progressing from general to specific interventions comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting at least a pharmaceutical therapy treatment path and a surgery treatment path, including at least presenting costs associated with the presented pharmaceutical therapy treatment path and costs associated with the presented surgery treatment path.

20. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 16, wherein circuitry configured for presenting at least two different treatment paths at least partially based on the accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity at least partially via the heart-rate sensor of the mobile phone, the at least two different treatment paths progressing from general to specific interventions comprises:

circuitry configured for facilitating at least one communication via the mobile phone with at least one physician associated with at least one treatment path by the individual, the at least one communication including at least one question to the at least one physician and related to at least one aspect of the at least one treatment path.

21. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting a specified number of decision levels correlated with stages of testing or treatment for a given course of testing or treatment; and

circuitry configured for presenting one or more options for each testing or treatment stage in the decision-tree at least partially based on the accepted specified number of decision levels.

22. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 16, further comprising:

circuitry configured for providing for at least one of collapsing or expanding the decision-tree at each stage of the decision-tree.

23. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 22, wherein circuitry configured for providing for at least one of collapsing or expanding the decision-tree at each stage of the decision-tree comprises:

circuitry configured for providing an option box at each stage of the decision-tree, the option box including at least a collapsed one or more testing or treatment options at a corresponding testing or treatment stage.

24. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 22, wherein circuitry configured for providing for at least one of collapsing or expanding the decision-tree at each stage of the decision-tree comprises:

circuitry configured for providing an option box at each stage of the decision-tree, the option box including at least a collapsed one or more testing or treatment options at a corresponding testing or treatment stage, a number of options boxes provided in accordance with a specified number of decision levels for a given course of testing or treatment.

25. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 22, wherein circuitry configured for providing for at least one of collapsing or expanding the decision-tree at each stage of the decision-tree comprises:

circuitry configured for providing for at least one of collapsing or expanding one or more options related to each stage of the decision-tree.

26. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 22, wherein circuitry configured for providing for at least one of collapsing or expanding the decision-tree at each stage of the decision-tree comprises:

circuitry configured for providing for at least one of collapsing or expanding the at least two health care options of the decision-tree at each of the at least two testing or treatment stages.

27. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting an individual patient'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone.

28. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor comprises:

circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity at least partially via an image capture sensor of the mobile phone.

29. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor comprises:

circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting an individual patient'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual patient'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor.

30. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting, at least partially via the user interface of the mobile phone associated with the individual, the individual patient'"'"'s input including at least the mobile phone retrieving at least one cardiac health attribute related to the individual from a medical history associated with the individual subsequent to accepting the individual patient'"'"'s input.

31. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 30, wherein circuitry configured for accepting, at least partially via the user interface of the mobile phone associated with the individual, the individual patient'"'"'s input including at least the mobile phone retrieving at least one cardiac health attribute related to the individual from a medical history associated with the individual subsequent to accepting the individual patient'"'"'s input comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting, at least partially via the user interface of the mobile phone associated with the individual, the individual patient'"'"'s input including at least the mobile phone retrieving at least one cardiac health attribute related to the individual from one or more of a personal medical history or a family medical history associated with the individual subsequent to accepting the individual patient'"'"'s input.

32. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor comprises:

circuitry configured for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, heart rhythm sensor data associated with the individual via the heart-rate sensor.

33. A method for a mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring, comprising:

providing a mobile phone including at least a heart-rate sensor integrated into the mobile phone;

accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone;

obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor; and

presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians.

34. A mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring, comprising:

a heart-rate sensor integrated into the mobile phone;

means for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone;

means for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor; and

means for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians.

35. A computer program product for a mobile phone including at least an integrated heart-rate sensor and configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring, comprising:

at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium including at least;

one or more instructions for accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone;

one or more instructions for obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor; and

one or more instructions for presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians.

36. A mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring, comprising:

a heart-rate sensor integrated into the mobile phone;

at least one processing device; and

one or more instructions that, when executed on the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to perform one or more operations including at least;

accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone;

obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor; and

presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians.

37. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 36, wherein the mobile phone comprises:

one or more of a smartphone or a cellular network-enabled tablet personal computer.

38. The mobile phone configured for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring of claim 36, wherein the mobile phone is operable to perform the one or more operations including at least accepting an individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health at least partially via a user interface of the mobile phone, obtaining, subsequent to accepting the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health, an indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity via the heart-rate sensor, and presenting, via the user interface of the mobile phone, a decision-tree including at least a drug stage and a treatment stage at least partially based on the individual'"'"'s input regarding cardiac health and the indication of the individual'"'"'s cardiac activity, the drug stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac medications and the treatment stage including at least one or more options relating to one or more cardiac care physicians from at least one memory.