Facilitating health management of subjects

• US 8,930,215 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2013
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• 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:
  US13/851,295
• Publication Number:
  US 20130282398A1
• Time in Patent Office: 650 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2
• 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 heath care management system comprising:

a computer system including at least one computer, at least one database, accessible by the at least one computer, in which is stored health-related information of a group of persons including information identifying at least one subgroup of the persons based at least on at least one type of health monitoring device of a plurality of types of health monitoring devices associated with respective persons, wherein each person in a respective subgroup is associated with a same type of health monitoring device indicative of a common health-related issue, a messaging component within or in communication with the at least one computer, and a computer readable medium storing computer code which when executed by the computer system causes the computer system to perform operations including;

receive messages from the monitoring devices;

determine the type of monitoring device from which a message was received based at least on information stored in the database; and

route messages between persons in a respective subgroup based on (a) information stored in the at least one database which identifies persons in a subgroup and (b) the type of monitoring device determined in the determine operation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer code comprises code which when executed by the computer system causes the computer system to generate a message and route the message only to devices of persons in the at least one subgroup.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer code comprises code which when executed by the computer system causes the computer system to generate a message and route the message to devices of persons in the at least one subgroup also based on content in the message.

4. The system of claim 1, comprising a respective device associated with persons in the at least one subgroup which obtains physiological information from a respective person using at least one sensor, each device comprising a messaging component which communicates with the messaging component of the computer system, and a display which displays messages.

5. A method of managing health care using a computer system including at least one computer, at least one database, accessible by the at least one computer, in which is stored health-related information of a group of persons including information identifying a plurality of the persons arranged in at least one subgroup in which each person in a respective subgroup has a health-related issue in common, and a messaging component within or in communication with the at least one computer, the method comprising:

receiving, by the computer system, messages from devices associated with persons in the group; and

routing, by the computing system, a received message for delivery to a device of another or others of the persons in the group if the other person is or the other persons are in the at least one subgroup based on (a) information stored in the at least one database which identifies persons in a subgroup and (b) information stored in the at least one database which identifies the type of monitoring device associated with respective persons,

on (a) information stored in the at least one database which identifies persons in a subgroup and (b) the type of monitoring device determined in the determine operation.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising, generating, by the computer system, a message and routing, by the computer system, the message only to devices of persons in the at least one subgroup based on information stored in the at least one database.

7. The method of claim 5, comprising, generating, by the computer system, a message and routing, by the computer system, the message to devices of persons in the at least one subgroup also based on content in the message.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium in which is stored computer code that causes a computer system comprising at least one computer, at least one database, accessible by the at least one computer, in which is stored health-related information of a group of persons including information identifying at least one subgroup of the persons based at least on at least one type of health monitoring device of a plurality of types of health monitoring devices associated with respective persons, wherein each person in a respective subgroup is associated with a same type of health monitoring device indicative of a common health-related issue, and a messaging component within or in communication with the at least one computer, to perform the method comprising:

receiving, by the computer system, messages from the monitoring devices;

determining, by computer system, the type of monitoring device from which a message was received based at least on information stored in the database; and

routing, by the computing system, messages between persons in a respective subgroup based on (a) information stored in the at least one database which identifies persons in a subgroup and (b) the type of monitoring device determined in the determine operation.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the method comprises, generating, by the computer system, a message and routing, by the computer system, the message only to devices of persons in the at least one subgroup.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the method comprises generating, by the computer system, a message and routing, by the computer system, the message to devices of persons in the at least one subgroup also based on content in the message.