System and method for locating providers over the internet on short notice

• US 20070067391A1
• Filed: 11/15/2006
• Published: 03/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Highway to Health, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Highway to Health, Inc.
• Inventors: Masciantonio, Angelo, Heher, Eliot, Bohn, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,508 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system for allowing members or prospective members to simultaneously contact multiple providers to secure an appointment on short notice. The system also enables the provider to view or obtain requests for appointments from members who the provider may not have previously met and/or served. The system further enables a facilitator 304 to monitor the communication exchanges between members and providers and to intervene directly if needed. The system includes a web application, a provider network, facilitator, a database server, a web server, and a database. The web application includes a web site that facilitates interaction between members, providers, the facilitator and the system. The web site also includes a list of common medical terms, phrases, and pharmaceuticals that are cross-referenced in multiple languages. The provider network processes information provided by users of the system and the database stores information processed in the system.

Claims

1. A system for allowing users to simultaneously contact multiple providers to secure an appointment on short notice, the system comprising:

a facilitator that sets up and mediates a communication including a request for an appointment generated from a user and a response generated from at least one provider in response to the request;

a monitor that monitors communication, including checking that the response is generated within a predefined time period and intervenes directly if the response is not generated in the predefined time period;

a web application that includes a web site for facilitating interaction with the system, the web site including a translator having at least a medical term list translated in a plurality of languages of a plurality of countries and a pharmaceutical drug list translated in the plurality of languages, the pharmaceutical drug list including at least formulation information and brand name information of at least one pharmaceutical drug as manufactured or distributed in the plurality of countries, the translator providing translation between the multiple languages of the at least formulation and brand name information of the at least one pharmaceutical drug;

a provider network for processing information provided by users of the system; and

a storage device for storing information processed by the system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each provider is allowed to view and obtain requests for appointments from new users.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein users are both members who have previously registered with the system and prospective members of the system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the web site includes a list of common medical terms, phrases and pharmaceuticals that are cross-referenced in multiple languages, thereby enabling communications between users and providers who speak different languages.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage device includes a database for storing information and a data server for maintaining the database and information, which is necessary to run the system.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the web application includes a web server for converting all hypertext based requests to native commands for processing by components of the storage device and for dynamically generating HTML pages in response to the requests.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the system provides different types of access and privileges to different users based on at least one predetermined criterion.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein users may purchase access to the system through appropriate agents.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein users may purchase access to the system through the web site.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein users may access the system through on-line means.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein users may access the system through off-line means.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein prior to using the system, providers must register a practice and the individual providers in the practice and the facilitator activates the registration after predefined contract agreements are ratified.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein providers may register practices for future partnerships.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein the facilitator intervenes directly by contacting at least one of the providers and users to secure the appointment

14-30. -30. (canceled)