Personal virtual assistant providing advice to a user regarding physiological information received about the user

• US 8,170,609 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2007
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Hedtke, Paul, Steenstra, Jack, Chen, Liren, Taylor, Kirk S, Lobovsky, Richard J
• Primary Examiner(s): Corsaro, Nick
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chambers, Tangela T.
• Application Number:
  US11/765,983
• Publication Number:
  US 20080318624A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,777 Days
• Field of Search: 455/556.1, 340/540, 340/573.1
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0006 ECG or EEG signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7275 Determining trends in physiological measurement data; Predicting development of a medical condition based on physiological measurements, e.g. determining a risk factor
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets
• 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 personal virtual assistant is provided. The personal virtual assistant includes a medical device and remote station that is connectable via a wireless network to a server containing a control processor and rules engine. The medical device is used to provide physiological information to the remote station. The remote station communicates the physiological information and other related information to the server that monitors the information for a number of reasons, including determining whether the physiological information has a trend. Based on the detrimental trend, the server communicates back to the remote station virtual assistance in the form of advice regarding tips to help facilitate halting or reversing the trend.

Claims

1. A personal virtual assistant system, comprising:

a remote station configured to be carried by a user;

an electronic medical device to sense physiological information about the user, the electronic medical device coupled to the remote station;

a control processor coupled to the remote station via a bidirectional communication link; and

a rules engine coupled to the control processor,

wherein the control processor and rules engine use a combination of user input data and the sensed physiological information to determine whether a medical trend exists and, based on the determination of the medical trend, automatically provide advice relating to the medical trend,

wherein the control processor and rules engine are configured to determine whether advice relating to the medical trend was previously provided and if it is determined previous advice was provided and that the trend persists, providing different advice relating to the medical trend based on a combination of previously provided advice, the medical trend, and the user input data, and

wherein the user input data includes diet information.

2. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the medical trend is a detrimental medical trend and the advice is to counter the detrimental medical trend.

3. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the medical trend is a healthy medical trend and the advice is to promote the healthy medical trend.

4. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the system operates in at least one of real time or near real time.

5. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the system caches the physiological information.

6. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the control processor and the rules engine are located in a server remote from the remote station.

7. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 6, wherein server is coupled to the remote station via a base station and a wireless network.

8. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 7, wherein the server is coupled to the remote station via a wired network.

9. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic medical device is coupled to the remote station via a wireless data link.

10. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 9, wherein the wireless data link is a low power connection.

11. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic medical device is integrated into the remote station.

12. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic medical device is removably connected to the remote station.

13. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic medical device is connected to the remote station via a wired data link.

14. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 13, wherein the wired data link comprises a universal serial bus (USB) data port.

15. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the control processor and rules engine also use the sensed physiological information to determine whether an immediate medical need exists and, based on the determination of the immediate medical need, automatically provides an alert to emergency medical personnel.

16. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic medical device comprises a plurality of electronic medical devices.

17. The personal virtual assistant system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic medical device is selected from a group of medical devices consisting of:

a blood glucose monitor, a pulse monitor, a cardio monitor, a variable heart rate monitor, a blood oxygen monitor, an oxygen monitor, or a blood pressure monitor.

18. The personal virtual assistant according to claim 1, wherein the rules engine uses a plurality of information relating to the user, the plurality of information selected from the group of information consisting of:

dietary, activity, emotional mood, stress, or schedule information.

19. A method for automatically providing virtual assistance to a user based on physiological information of the user, the steps comprising:

obtaining user input data comprising diet information;

obtaining physiological information of the user with an electronic medical device;

transmitting the obtained user input data and the obtained physiological information of the user to a control processor and rules engine;

determining by the control processor and rules engine whether the combination of physiological information and user input data identify a trend; and

if it is determined that the trend exists, automatically providing the user with virtual assistance from the control processor and rules engine based on the trend, wherein the step of automatically providing the user with virtual assistance comprises the steps of;

determining whether virtual assistance was previously provided based on the trend; and

if it is determined previous virtual assistance was provided, providing different virtual assistance that takes into account previous virtual assistance, the trend, and the user input data.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the determined trend is a detrimental trend and the virtual assistance relates to countering the detrimental trend.

21. The method according to claim 19, wherein the determined trend is a beneficial trend and the virtual assistance relates to promoting the beneficial trend.

22. The method according to claim 19, wherein the virtual assistance is provided in at least one of real time or near real time.

23. The method according to claim 19, wherein the step of transmitting the obtained physiological information of the user further comprises:

transmitting the obtained physiological information to a remote station.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the step of transmitting the obtained physiological information to the remote station comprises using a low power transmission.

25. The method according to claim 19, wherein the step of transmitting the obtained physiological information to the control processor and the rules engine comprises using a wireless communication path to a server.

26. The method according to claim 19, further comprising the step of:

determining whether the amount of different virtual assistance exceeds a predefined amount, and

if the amount of different virtual assistance exceeds the predefined amount, providing an alarm to emergency medical personnel.

27. The method according to claim 19, wherein the step of determining by the control processor and rules engine whether the physiological information has a trend further comprises:

establishing a plurality of ranges relating to the trend;

determining which of the plurality of ranges the trend resides in; and

providing virtual assistance to the user based on the range the trend resides in.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the plurality of ranges are preset.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein the plurality of ranges are preset by at least one of a medical provider or a caregiver.

30. The method according to claim 27, wherein the plurality of ranges are adjusted based on sensed physiological information.

31. The method according to claim 19, wherein the step of providing virtual assistance comprises providing a message to the user, the message selected from the group of messages consisting of:

a textual message, a voice recorded message, a video message, an audio message, a pictorial message, or an email.

32. A non-transitory computer readable media having stored thereon processor-executable software instructions configured to cause a processor to perform operations for automatically providing virtual assistant to a user based on physiological information of the user, the operations comprising:

receiving user input data comprising diet information;

receiving physiological information of the user;

transmitting the user input data and physiological information of the user to a control processor and rules engine;

determining by the control processor and rules engine whether a combination of the physiological information and user input data identify a trend;

determining whether virtual assistance was previously provided based on the trend;

if it is determined that the trend exists, automatically providing the user with virtual assistance from the control processor and rules engine based on the trend; and

if it is determined previous virtual assistance was provided, providing different virtual assistance that takes into account previous virtual assistance, the trend, and the user input data.

33. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 32, wherein the trend is a detrimental trend and the virtual assistance is to counter the detrimental trend.

34. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 32, wherein the trend is a beneficial trend and the virtual assistance is to promote the beneficial trend.

35. A method for identifying patterns in physiological information of the user, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining user input data comprising diet information;

obtaining physiological information of the user with an electronic medical device;

transmitting the obtaining user input data and the obtained physiological information of the user to a control processor and rules engine;

storing the physiological information in a memory unit for at least a selected period of time;

analyzing the physiological information over the selected period of time to determine whether at least one pattern exists;

determining whether virtual assistance was previously provided relating to the at least one pattern; and

providing virtual assistance to the user relating to the at least one pattern, wherein the virtual assistance takes into account any previously provided virtual assistance, the physiological information and the user input data.

36. The method according to claim 35, wherein the selected period is selected from a group consisting of:

minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.

37. The method according to claim 35, further comprising the step of correlating the at least one pattern with at least one event.

38. The method according to claim 37, wherein the provided virtual assistance further relates to the correlated event.

39. The method according to claim 37, wherein the at least one event relates to an input selected from the group of inputs consisting of:

the physiological information and other relevant information.

40. The method according to claim 39, wherein the relevant information consists of information entered by the user.

41. The method according to claim 40, wherein the information manually entered by the user comprises at least one of dietary information, physical activity information, and medication information.

42. The method according to claim 35, further comprising the step of alerting at least one of the user, medical personnel, or a care giver, when the pattern is not correlated to an event.

43. A system for providing virtual assistance to a user when a trend in physiological information is detected, the system comprising:

a remote station configured to be carried by a user;

an electronic medical device to sense physiological information about the user, the electronic medical device coupled to the remote station;

a memory, the memory coupled to the remote station to store user input data and physiological information over at least a selected time period;

a pattern recognition engine connected to the memory, the pattern recognition engine being configured to analyze the stored user input data and physiological information over at least the selected time period to determine whether a pattern exists;

a control processor coupled to the memory and pattern recognition engine configured to determine whether a tip based on the detected pattern has been previously generated; and

a rules engine, the rules engine connected to the pattern recognition engine and control processor such that when the pattern recognition engine determines the pattern exists, the rules engine generates the tip based on the detected pattern, user input data, and any previously generated tip, wherein the user input data comprises diet information.

44. The system of claim 43 wherein the rules engine only generates the tip when the detected pattern is an unexpected pattern.

45. The system of claim 44, further comprising a user interface coupled to at least one of the remote station or the electronic medical device to receive relevant information from the user about the physiological information.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein the relevant information comprises at least one of dietary information, medication information, and physical activity information.

47. The system of claim 45, further comprising a correlation engine, the correlation engine connected to the pattern recognition engine to determine whether a correlation between the defected pattern and the relevant information exists.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein the tip also is based on the correlation between the detected pattern and the relevant information.

49. A non-transitory computer readable media having stored thereon processor-executable software instructions configured to cause a processor to perform operations for providing virtual assistance to a user when a trend in physiological information is detected, the operations comprising:

receiving user input data comprising diet information;

receiving physiological information about a user;

storing the received physiological information for at least a selected period of time;

analyzing the received user input data and physiological information over at least the selected period of time to determine whether a pattern exists; and

determining whether a tip based on the determined pattern was previously generated; and

generating the tip for the user based on the determined pattern, wherein the generation of the tip takes into account any previously generated tips, the user input data and the pattern, wherein the user input data comprises diet information.