Medical data management system and process

• US 8,715,180 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2012
• Issued: 05/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Minimed Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Medtronic Minimed Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Cohen, Gary, Goldsmith, Joel, Roller, Pam S., Widran, Sanford, Patterson, George W., Daugherty, James R., Van Antwerp, William P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thomson, Bill
• Assistant Examiner(s): SORIANO, BOBBY GILES
• Application Number:
  US13/457,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20120216297A1
• Time in Patent Office: 740 Days
• Field of Search: 600300-301, 705 2- 5
• US Class Current: 600/301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0271 using a remote monitoring unit
• 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 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3553 remote, e.g. between patient's home and doctor's office
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/52 with memories providing a history of measured variating parameters of apparatus or patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/1723 using feedback of body parameters, e.g. blood-sugar, pressure measurement of body parameters A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2113 Multi-level security, e.g. mandatory access control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/17 delivered via infusion or injection
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• 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 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/20 relating to practices or guidelines

Abstract

Systems and processes for managing data relating to one or more medical or biological conditions of a plurality of subjects (such as patients) over a wide area network, such as the Internet, may be employed for diabetes subjects or subjects with other medical conditions requiring monitoring and/or treatment over time. Such systems and processes provide various functions for several types of users, including patients or subject-users, healthcare provider-users and payor entity-users and combinations thereof, which allow for improved treatment and medical data management of individual subjects and groups of subjects and which allow collection and analysis of aggregate data from many subject sources, for improving overall healthcare practices of providers and subjects (e.g., patients).

Claims

1. A system for managing medical data on a wide area communication network, the system comprising:

a communication module configured to receive medical data from a plurality of subject support devices, wherein each subject support device in the plurality of subject support devices is associated with a subject from a plurality of subjects;

a parsing module configured to store received medical data in a data storage system having a first storage area and a second storage area separate from the first storage area, including storing the medical data having individual identifiers that identify any subject in the first storage area and storing the medical data that is free of individual identifiers in the second storage area; and

a database module configured to provide controlled access to stored medical data in the first storage area for the authorized users, but not for the other users, wherein the authorized users include a plurality of healthcare entities each of whom provide healthcare related services to one or more but not all of the subjects in the plurality of subjects, and wherein each authorized healthcare entity in the plurality of healthcare entities has access to the medical data stored in the first storage area associated with the one or more subjects serviced by the authorized healthcare entity but not to data stored in the first storage area associated with one or more subjects who are not serviced by the authorized healthcare entity, and

the database module further configured to provide controlled access to stored medical data in the second storage area for the authorized users and the other users, wherein each authorized healthcare entity has access to the medical data stored in the second storage area associated with the plurality of subjects including subjects serviced by other healthcare entities, wherein the communication module and the parsing module are executed in a single server associated with the system.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one server is configured to communicate with subject-users and healthcare provider-users, wherein each subject-user designates at least one healthcare provider-user as an authorized user:

wherein receiving medical data from at least one subject support device comprises receiving medical data having individual identifiers associated with a subject user who is using the subject support device;

wherein providing controlled access to stored medical data in the first storage area comprises providing the authorized user designated by the subject user with access to medical data having individual identifiers associated with the subject-user.

3. A system as recited in claim 2, the at least one server being further configured for inhibiting access to stored medical data in the first storage area by other users that are not authorized users.

4. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein storing received medical data that is free of individual identifiers in the second storage area comprises storing all of the same information that is stored in the first storage area, but without individual identifiers.

5. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein storing received medical data that is free of individual identifiers in the second storage area comprises storing a stripped copy of the information that is stored in the first storage area, where the stripped copy comprises a copy that is stripped of individual identifiers.

6. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein individual identifiers consist of at least one of a subjects name, a subject'"'"'s address and a subject'"'"'s work-place.

7. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one server being further configured for reconciling data in the first and second storage areas, such that the first and second storage areas include the same version of information that free of individual identifiers, while the first database section also has individual identifiers associated with the information.

8. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one server being further configured for associating an address with information having an individual identifier stored in the first storage area, where the address corresponds to a location in the second storage area that stores information that is free of individual identifiers.

9. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the first data storage area and the second data storage area comprise two separate sections of a single data storage device.

10. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the first data storage area and the second data storage area comprise two separate data storage devices.

21. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the second storage area of the data storage system stores a copy of the medical data stored in the first storage area of the data storage system without individual identifiers.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein providing the parsing module further comprising:

removing individual identifiers from the received medical data prior to storing the medical data free of the individual identifiers into the second storage area.

11. A method for managing medical data on a wide area communication network, the method comprising:

connecting a first server for communication with authorized users and other users on the wide area communication network;

receiving, by a communication module of the first server, medical data from a plurality of subject support devices, wherein each subject support device in the plurality of subject support devices is associated with a subject from a plurality of subjects;

storing, by a parsing module of the first server, received medical data in a data storage system having a first storage area and a second storage area separate from the first storage area, including storing the medical data having individual identifiers that identify any subject in the first storage area and storing the medical data that is free of individual identifiers in the second storage area;

providing, by a database module of the first server, controlled access to stored medical data in the first storage area for the authorized users, but not for the other users, wherein the authorized users include a plurality of healthcare entities each of whom provide healthcare related services to one or more but not all of the subjects in the plurality of subjects, and wherein each authorized healthcare entity in the plurality of healthcare entities has access to the medical data stored in the first storage area associated with the one or more subjects serviced by the authorized healthcare entity but not to data stored in the first storage area associated with one or more subjects who are not serviced by the authorized healthcare entity; and

providing controlled access to stored medical data in the second storage are for the authorized users and the other users, wherein each authorized healthcare entity has access to the medical data stored in the second storage area associated with the plurality of subjects including subjects serviced by other healthcare entities.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the first server is configured to communicate with subject-users and healthcare provider-users, wherein each subject-user designates at least one healthcare provider-user as an authorized user, and wherein:

receiving medical data from at least one subject support device comprises receiving medical data having individual identifiers associated with a subject user who is using the subject support device; and

wherein providing controlled access to stored medical data in the first storage area comprises providing the authorized user designated by the subject user with access to medical data having individual identifiers associated with the subject-user.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, further comprising inhibiting access to stored medical data in the first storage area by other users that are not authorized users.

14. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein storing received medical data that is free of individual identifiers in the second storage area comprises storing all of the same information that is stored in the first storage area, but without individual identifiers.

15. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein storing received medical data that is free of individual identifiers in the second storage area comprises storing a stripped copy of the information that is stored in the first storage area, where the stripped copy comprises a copy that is stripped of individual identifiers.

16. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein individual identifiers consist of at least one of a subjects name, a subject'"'"'s address and a subject'"'"'s work-place.

17. A method as recited in claim 11, further comprising reconciling data in the first and second storage areas, such that the first and second storage areas include the same version of information that free of individual identifiers, while the first database section also has individual identifiers associated with the information.

18. A method as recited in claim 11, further comprising associating an address with information having an individual identifier stored in the first storage area, where the address corresponds to a location in the second storage area that stores information that is free of individual identifiers.

22. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the second storage area of the data storage system stores a copy of the medical data stored in the first storage area of the data storage system without individual identifiers.

25. The method of claim 11, wherein the storing step further comprising removing individual identifiers from the received medical data prior to storing the medical data free of the individual identifiers into the second storage area.

19. A system for managing medical data on a wide area communication network, the system comprising:

a communication module connected for communication with authorized users and other users on the wide area communication network, and configured to receive medical data from a plurality of subject support devices, wherein each subject support device in the plurality of subject support devices is associated with a subject from a plurality of subjects; and

a parsing module for storing received medical data, the at least one storage system having a first storage area and a second storage area separate from the first storage area, where medical data having individual identifiers that identify any subject is stored in the first storage area and medical data that is free of individual identifiers is stored in the second storage area, wherein individual identifiers are removed from the received medical data prior to storage of the medical data free of the individual identifiers into the second storage area; and

a database module for providing controlled access to stored medical data in the first storage area for the authorized users, but not for the other users and to provide controlled access to stored medical data in the second storage are for the authorized users and the other users, wherein the authorized users include a plurality of healthcare entities each of whom provide healthcare related services to one or more but not all of the subjects in the plurality of subjects, and wherein each authorized healthcare entity in the plurality of healthcare entities has access to the medical data stored in the first storage area associated with the one or more subjects serviced by the authorized healthcare entity but not to data stored in the first storage area associated with one or more subjects who are not serviced by the authorized healthcare entity, and wherein each authorized healthcare entity has access to the medical data stored in the second storage area associated with the plurality of subjects including subjects serviced by other healthcare entities.

20. A system as recited in claim 19, the at least one server being further configured for inhibiting access to stored medical data in the first storage area by other users that are not authorized users.

23. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein the second storage area of the data storage system stores a copy of the medical data stored in the first storage area of the data storage system without individual identifiers.

26. The system of claim 19, wherein the communication module and the parsing module are executed in a single server associated with the system.