Method and system for configuring a consolidated software application

• US 8,566,818 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2007
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Roche Diabetes Care Inc. (Roche Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Roche Diagnostics Operations Incorporated (Roche Holding AG)
• Inventors: Young, Morris J., Allen, Janette Elaine, Buck, Schuyler, Baker, Christopher Richard, Beck, Timothy L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr., Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huynh, Tina
• Application Number:
  US11/999,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20090150831A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,146 Days
• Field of Search: 717120-121, 717168-178, 705 2- 3, 715/841
• US Class Current: 717/174
• 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 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades

Abstract

A system and method for selectively configuring features and functions of a consolidated software application for particular end users.

Claims

1. A method of customizing a consolidated software application including a plurality of features and functions for a particular end user, the method comprising:

providing an activation key for use during installation of the consolidated software application wherein the activation key is created by a marketing group;

activating selected features and functions of the consolidated software application with the activation key during installation of the consolidated software application on a computing device having a user interface accessible by an end user;

displaying the activated features and functions of the consolidated software application which were activated during the activating step on the user interface accessible by a system administrator;

receiving at least one input to permit the system administrator to selectively enable and disable access for the end user to the activated features and functions of the consolidated software application after installation of the consolidated software application on the computing device;

displaying the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application on the user interface accessible to the end user, and wherein information related to non-active features and functions of the consolidated software application with the activation key which were not activated by the marketing group during the activating step is not displayed on the user interface accessible by the system administrator and the end user;

receiving at least one input to permit the end user to selectively show and hide the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application from display on the user interface; and

removing the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application that the end user selects to hide from display on the user interface accessible to the end user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information related to disabled features and functions that were disabled by the system administrator during the selectively enabling and disabling activated features step is also not displayed on the user interface accessible by the end user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the activation key identifies a product class of the consolidated software application selected from a consumer mode and a healthcare professional mode.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the activation key establishes a trial mode of operation for the consolidated software application on a computing device, the activation key indicating a number of days that the end user is allowed to operate the consolidated software application in the trial mode.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the activation key indicates included countries for which the activation key is valid.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the activation key also indicates excluded countries for which the activation key is invalid.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the activation key includes a plurality of hexadecimal characters to indicate which features and functions of the consolidated software application are activated.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating step further comprises allowing an installer of the consolidated software application to selectively activate features and functions during installation separate from those features and functions activated by the activation key.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the consolidated software application is configured to provide a plurality of different features and functions to process physiological information data received from a portable device related to management of a health condition, the consolidated software application including instructions to display representations of physiological information data on the user interface.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating step is based at least in part on a geographic region of the end user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating step is based at least in part on a type of end user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the end user is one of a consumer, a healthcare professional, a managed care provider, a health maintenance organization, and a payor.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating step is based at least in part on an authorized field of use of the end user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the consolidated software application includes a base application including the plurality of base feature sets which are always activated and enabled, and a plurality of additional feature sets which may be selectively activated during the activating step and selectively enabled and disabled during the step of receiving at least one input to permit the system administrator to selectively enable and disable activated features.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating step establishes a language for use on the user interface accessible by an end user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating step establishes at least one language for reports generated by the consolidated software application.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the consolidated software application includes a plurality of styles of display icons, graphics, and color schemes which may be used on a display of the user interface accessible by the end user, and wherein the activating step activates selected styles of icons, graphics, and color schemes to adjust a look and feel of the software.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating step selects a background image for use on a display of the user interface accessible by the end user from a plurality of background images in the consolidated software application.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating step selects different messages, instructions, and help topics for use on a display of the user interface accessible by the end user based on the activated and enabled features and functions.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the features and functions include hardware connectivity software used to permit the computing device to communicate with a plurality of external devices, and wherein the activating step selectively activates portions of the hardware connectivity software for an identified external device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the external device is one of a glucose meter, an infusion pump, a cellular phone, and a personal data assistants (PDA).

22. A computing device configured to customize a consolidated software application including a plurality of features and functions for a particular end user, comprising:

a memory having computer executable instructions, and when the computer executable instructions are executed, the computer device is configured to;

provide an activation key for use during installation of the consolidated software application wherein the activation key is created by a marketing group;

activate selected features and functions of the consolidated software application with the activation key during installation of the consolidated software application on the computing device having a user interface accessible by an end user;

display the activated features and functions of the consolidated software application which were activated during the activating step on the user interface accessible by a system administrator;

receive at least one input to permit the system administrator to selectively enable and disable access for the end user to the activated features and functions after installation of the consolidated software application on the computing device;

display the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application on the user interface accessible to the end user, and wherein information related to non-active features and functions of the consolidated software application with the activation key which were not activated by the marketing group during the activating step is not displayed on the user interface accessible by the system administrator and the end user;

receive at least one input to permit the end user to selectively show and hide the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application from display on the user interface; and

remove the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application that the end user selects to hide from display on the user interface accessible to the end user.

23. A method of multi-level customization of a consolidated software application by a marketing group, a system administrator, and an end user, the method comprising:

receiving at least one input to permit the marketing group to;

selectively activate features and functions of the consolidated software application with an activation key based on at least one of a geographic region of the end user, a type of the end user, and permitted field of use of the end user during installation of the consolidated software application on a computing device having a user interface accessible by the end user;

wherein the consolidated software application is configured to provide a plurality of different features and functions to process physiological information data; and

wherein information related to non-active features and functions of the consolidated software application with the activation key which were not activated by the marketing group is not displayed on user interfaces accessible by the system administrator and the end user;

receiving at least one input to permit the system administrator to selectively enable and disable access for the end user to the activated features and functions of the consolidated software application after installation of the consolidated software application;

receiving at least one input to permit the end user to selectively show and hide the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application from display on the user interface; and

removing the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application that the end user selects to hide from a display of the user interface accessible to the end user.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein information related to disabled features and functions that were disabled by the system administrator is also not displayed on the user interface accessible by the end user.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of receiving at least one input to permit a marketing group to selectively activate the features and functions of the consolidated software application includes providing an activation key for use during installation of the consolidated software application.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of receiving at least one input to permit a marketing group to selectively activate the features and functions of the consolidated software application further comprises allowing an installer of the consolidated software application to selectively activate features and functions during installation separate from those features and functions activated by the activation key.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the consolidated software application is configured to provide a plurality of different features and functions to process physiological information data received from a portable device related to management of a health condition, the consolidated software application including instructions to display representations of physiological information data on the user interface.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the consolidated software application includes a plurality of styles of display icons, graphics, and color schemes which may be used on a display of the user interface accessible by the end user, the marketing group activating selected styles of icons, graphics, and color schemes to adjust a look and feel of the software.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the marketing group selectively activates a background image for use on a display of the user interface accessible by the end user from a plurality of background images in the consolidated software application.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein the features and functions of the consolidated software application include a plurality of different messages, instructions, and help topics for use on a display of the user interface accessible by the end user based on the activated and enabled features and functions.

31. The method of claim 23, wherein the features and functions of the consolidated software application include hardware connectivity software used to permit the computing device to communicate with a plurality of external devices, at least one of the marketing group and the system administrator selectively activating portions of the hardware connectivity software for an identified external device.

32. A computing device configured for multi-level customization of a consolidated software application by a marketing group, a system administrator, and an end user, comprising:

a memory having computer executable instructions, and when the computer executable instructions are executed, the computing device is configured to;

receive at least one input to permit the marketing group to;

selectively activate features and functions of the consolidated software application with an activation key based on at least one of a geographic region of the end user, a type of the end user, and permitted field of use of the end user during installation of the consolidated software application on a computing device having a user interface accessible by the end user;

wherein the consolidated software application is configured to provide a plurality of different features and functions to process physiological information data; and

wherein information related to non-active features and functions of the consolidated software application with the activation key which were not activated by the marketing group is not displayed on user interfaces accessible by the system administrator and the end user;

receive at least one input to permit the system administrator to selectively enable and disable access for the end user to the activated features and functions of the consolidated software application after installation of the consolidated software application;

receive at least one input to permit the end user to selectively show and hide the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application from display on the user interface; and

remove the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application that the end user selects to hide from a display of the user interface accessible to the end user.

33. A healthcare management system configured to receive and process physiological information data related to at least one patient from a portable device, the healthcare management system comprising:

a computing device configured to access and download physiological information data from a portable device;

a memory accessible by the computing device to store the downloaded physiological information data;

at least one user interface having a display which receives display information from the computing device;

software configured to operate on the computing device and implement a plurality of different features and functions to manage the physiological information data from the portable device related to management of a health condition, the software including instructions to display representations of physiological information data included in the memory on the display of the user interface; and

the software further comprises;

providing an activation key for use during installation of the consolidated software application wherein the activation key is created by a marketing group;

activating selected features and functions of the consolidated software application during installation of the consolidated software application;

identifying a product class of the consolidated software application and selecting from a consumer mode and a healthcare professional mode;

displaying the activated features and functions of the consolidated software application to a system administrator;

removing non-activated features and functions of the consolidated software application from a view of the system administrator;

permitting the system administrator to selectively enable and disable end user access to the activated features and functions of the consolidated software application after installation of the consolidated software application;

displaying the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application to the end user;

removing the non-enabled, activated features and functions of the consolidated software application from a view of the end user;

permitting the end user to selectively show and hide the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application from the view of the end user;

displaying information related to the shown activated and enabled features and functions selected by the end user; and

removing the activated and enabled features and functions of the consolidated software application which were hidden by the end user from the view of the end user.