Facilitating health care management of subjects

• US 8,423,378 B1
• Filed: 07/24/2009
• Issued: 04/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ideal Life, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ideal Life, Inc.
• Inventors: Goldberg, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): PAULS, JOHN A
• Application Number:
  US12/509,119
• Time in Patent Office: 1,362 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 4, 600300-301
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/22 Social work or social welfare, e.g. community support activities or counselling services
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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

Abstract

A peer system of subjects with health-related issues is formed based on an association of subjects and a particular type of electronic device or devices which provides information related to a specific health-related issue or issues obtained from particular subjects. By means of such associations, subjects can transmit to and receive messages from other subjects associated with the same type of electronic device. One way to associate subjects with health-related issues is through an association of a subject with a type or types of sensors. For example, each monitoring device may be associated with a subject, and the type or types of sensor or sensors may be associated with the subject and/or monitoring device. Devices, systems, methods and computer program products may be provided leveraging this association for various applications, e.g., management of the health care of subjects, peering among subjects with a common heath-related issue or issues, advertising, research and other applications involving such subjects.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating management of health of subjects, comprising:

at least one computer;

at least one data storage device accessible by the at least one computer; and

a plurality of electronic monitoring devices, the monitoring devices and the at least one computer communicating over a network;

each monitoring device having associated therewith at least one sensor which provides to a respective monitoring device health-related information relating to a respective subject, a plurality of first monitoring devices having associated therewith a first type of sensor and a plurality of second monitoring devices having associated therewith a second type of sensor different from the first sensor type;

each monitoring device comprising;

at least one input device through use of which a message can be composed on the monitoring device;

at least one display device that is capable of displaying messages composed on and received by the monitoring device; and

identifying information associated therewith by which the respective monitoring device can be identified;

the at least one data storage device storing a relationship of identifying information and sensor type for each of the plurality of monitoring devices;

the at least one computer being configured to control routing of messages over the network at least between monitoring devices wherein the at least one computer is further configured to permit routing of messages between monitoring devices if respective stored relationships for the respective monitoring devices include the same type of sensor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computer is also configured to control routing of messages, not composed on a monitoring device, from the at least one computer to a plurality of monitoring devices based on one or more of the stored relationships.

3. A method of facilitating management of health of subjects who each have a monitoring device each having identifying information associated therewith and with which is associated at least one sensor which provides to the monitoring device health-related information relating to the respective subject, wherein a plurality of first monitoring devices have associated therewith a first type of sensor and a plurality of second monitoring devices have associated therewith a second type of sensor different from the first sensor type, the method comprising:

storing a relationship of identifying information and sensor type for each of the plurality of monitoring devices; and

at least one computer routing messages over a network at least between monitoring devices, wherein the at least one computer is further configured to permit routing of messages between monitoring devices if respective stored relationships for the respective monitoring devices include the same type of sensor.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each monitoring device comprises at least one input device through use of which a message can be composed on the monitoring device and at least one display device that is capable of displaying messages composed on and received by the monitoring device;

and wherein the at least one computer also controls routing of messages, not composed on a monitoring device, to a plurality of monitoring devices based on one or more of the stored relationships.

5. A system for facilitating management of health of subjects, comprising:

a computer system including at least one storage device that stores health-related information of a plurality of persons including health-related information of a plurality of persons arranged in at least one group in which each person in a respective group has a health-related issue in common; and

a device for obtaining health-related information from each of the plurality of persons;

each device obtaining health-related information from each of the plurality of persons via a sensor associated with a respective device for transmission over a network to the computer system and the computer system generating health-related information for transmission over the network to each device;

each device including a messaging component configured to (a) send over a network or the network at least text messages for receipt by at least another device of a person within the same group, and (b) receive over a network or the network at least text messages at least from and originated by another device of a person within the same group;

wherein the computer system is configured to permit routing of messages between devices if the respective devices are associated with respective persons in the same group and with a same type of sensor.

6. A system for facilitating management of health of subjects, comprising:

at least one computer; and

a plurality of electronic monitoring devices, wherein each monitoring device includes;

at least one input device through use of which a message can be composed on the monitoring device;

at least one display device that is capable of displaying a message; and

at least one programmed processor and memory accessible by the at least one processor, the at least one processor managing processing of health-related information of a subject, message composition, message receipt and message display, and communicating with the at least one computer over a network;

each of the monitoring devices having associated therewith information identifying the monitoring device and at least one sensor which provides health-related information obtained from a subject to a respective monitoring device;

a plurality of first monitoring devices have associated therewith a first type of sensor and a plurality of second monitoring devices have associated therewith a second type of sensor different from the first sensor type;

the system comprising at least one database accessible by the at least one computer, the at least one database storing at least information relating to each of the subjects and the information associated with each the monitoring devices identifying the at least one sensor, the database being configured to associate the unique information associated with a respective monitoring device with only one subject and to associate each subject with a unique destination;

the at least one computer being configured to provide a message received from a first monitoring device to a destination monitoring device or devices if respective stored information in the at least one database for the first and respective destination monitoring devices identifies the same type of sensor or sensors.

7. A method for facilitating management of health of subjects, comprising:

providing each subject with a electronic monitoring device, wherein each electronic monitoring device;

(a) is associated with either a first type of sensor or a second type of sensor different from the first type of sensor that each provides health-related information of the subject to the monitoring device;

(b) provides the health related information to at least one computer over a network;

(c) receives a message composed on the monitoring device through use of an input device, (c) displays a message; and

(d) provides a message to and receives a message from at least one computer over the network;

configuring the at least one computer to which a message is provided to provide messages received from a message originating monitoring device to a destination monitoring device only if the two monitoring devices are associated with the same type of sensor.

8. A system for facilitating management of health care of subjects, comprising:

at least one computer;

at least one storage device accessible by the at least one computer; and

a plurality of electronic devices, each electronic device comprising;

(a) a display device, an input device and a programmed processor and memory accessible thereby;

(b) has associated therewith at least one of a plurality of sensors of different type which provide to the associated electronic device health-related information obtained from a subject; and

(c) is configured to provide a message composed thereon through use of the input device thereof and display a message received by the electronic device;

wherein the electronic devices and the at least one computer communicate over a network, including communication of health-related information and messages;

the at least one storage device storing at least information relating to each of the subjects and information associating each electronic device with each sensor associated with the respective electronic device;

the at least one computer being configured to provide a message received from a first electronic device to a destination electronic device or devices if respective information stored in the at least one data storage device for the respective monitoring devices includes the same type of sensor.

9. A system for facilitating heath management of subjects, comprising:

a plurality of electronic devices, wherein each electronic device is associated with at least one sensor of a plurality of sensors of different types to receive sensor data therefrom and is adapted to communicate with at least one computer to provide thereto data related to the sensor data, each electronic device being associated with a single subject, and comprising;

an input device through use of which a message can be composed on the electronic device, and a display device that can display a message composed on or received by the monitoring device;

at least one computer and a computer readable medium storing computer code which causes the at least one computer to control transmission of a message received from one electronic device to at least one other electronic device, wherein the stored computer code causes the at least one computer to permit routing of messages between electronic devices if the respective electronic devices have associated therewith the same type of sensor, each electronic device also including a module which communicates with the at least one computer to transmit a message thereto and receive a message therefrom.

10. A system for facilitating health management of subjects, comprising:

a plurality of electronic devices, wherein each electronic device is associated with at least one sensor of a plurality of sensors of different types to receive sensor data therefrom and is adapted to communicate with at least one computer to provide thereto data related to the sensor data, each electronic device being associated with a single subject, and each election device comprises;

an input device through use of which a message can be composed on the electronic device, and a display device that can display a message composed on or received by the monitoring device;

at least one computer and a computer readable medium storing computer code which causes the at least one computer to control transmission of messages between a plurality of electronic devices based on message content and the sensor type associated with the electronic devices, wherein the stored computer code causes the at least one computer to permit routing of messages between electronic devices if the respective electronic devices are associated with the same type of sensor.