Systems and methods for visualizing and managing telepresence devices in healthcare networks

• US 9,251,313 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2012
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Teladoc Health, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Touch Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Ross, Scott, Temby, Kelton, Southard, Jonathan, Habecker, Dan, Chan, Michael C., Wright, Timothy C., Jordan, Charles S., Bouganim, Joshua A.
• Primary Examiner(s): El-Zoobi, Maria
• Application Number:
  US13/444,106
• Publication Number:
  US 20130271556A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,392 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

Disclosed herein are various embodiments of systems and methods for visualizing, analyzing, and managing telepresence devices operating in a telepresence network of healthcare facilities. The visualization and management system for telepresence devices may display a first viewing level that includes a geographical representation of the location of various telepresence devices. A user may selectively view a global view of all telepresence devices, telepresence devices within a particular region, and/or the details of a particular telepresence device. A user may also access a viewing level of a network of healthcare facilities. The user may view, analyze, and/or manage the healthcare network, telepresence device network, individual telepresence devices, connection rules, and/or other aspects of the healthcare network using the geographical visualization and management tool described herein.

Claims

1. A system for managing a telepresence network, comprising:

a display module configured to display a first viewing level of a telepresence network, the first viewing level comprising a geographical representation of the relative location of a plurality of telepresence devices within the telepresence network;

a viewing level request module configured to receive a viewing request to cause the display module to provide a second viewing level;

a navigation module configured to receive a navigational request to navigate within the geographical representation; and

a device detail request module configured to receive a detail request to cause the display module to display a third viewing level, the third viewing level comprising information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices, wherein the first viewing level comprises a geographical representation of at least one hub hospital having at least one telepresence device, each hub hospital connected to at least one spoke hospital having at least one telepresence device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first viewing level further comprises a representation of interconnections between a hub telepresence device and at least one endpoint telepresence device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein in at least one viewing level an information selection module is configured to receive an information request;

and wherein information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices is displayed on the geographical representation corresponding to the information request.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the information is associated with one of a medical condition, telepresence network utilization information, telepresence session quality information, telepresence device information, support activity, battery levels, currently active session, workflow metrics, available telepresence devices, trained specialists, financial information, and subscription information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewing level request module is configured to receive a field of view modification request, such that the second viewing level comprises a modified geographical representation of the relative location of the plurality of telepresence devices within the telepresence network.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the second viewing level comprises a narrower field of view, and wherein in the narrower field of view, additional information associated with at least one of the telepresence devices is displayed.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of telepresence devices comprises one of a remote telepresence robot, a mobile telepresence unit, and a control station.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the viewing request received by the viewing level request module comprises a request for an informational overlay to be displayed in conjunction with the geographical representation.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the informational overlay comprises a population overlay indicating the population density relative to the geographical representation.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the informational overlay indicates the frequency of strokes relative to the geographical representation.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the display module is further configured to overlay information associated with an adoption rate of one of a software update and a firmware update applied to at least a portion of the plurality of telepresence devices.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the overlay of information associated with the adoption rate of one of the software update and the firmware update is displayed using a color overlay.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the informational overlay is associated with one of a frequency of a medical condition, an average age of the population, an average age of patients, a socioeconomic condition, an availability of wireless data communication, a relative location of a medical professional, and a relative location of a support technician.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the geographical overlay is overlaid on only a portion of the displayed geographical representation.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the portion of the displayed geographical representation corresponds to a geographical area serviced by one of a healthcare network, a hospital, a hub hospital, an endpoint hospital, a particular telepresence device, and a particular medical practitioner.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the first viewing level further comprises a panel of icons, each icon associated with a type of telepresence device.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each icon is configured to allow the associated type of telepresence device to be toggled between being displayed on the geographical representation and being removed from the geographical representation.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the first viewing level further comprises at least one shortcut icon, the shortcut icon associated with one of a predetermined viewing level, a predetermined navigation request, and a predetermined detail request.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein receiving the detail request comprises selecting at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices displayed on the geographical representation.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the third viewing level comprises displaying the information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices as an overlay of information on the geographical representation.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein displaying the third viewing level comprises displaying the information associated with the at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices in place of the geographical representation of the first viewing level.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein receiving the detail request comprises a mouse-over selection of at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices displayed on the geographical representation.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the third viewing level comprises displaying the information associated with the at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices as an overlay of information on the geographical representation.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices displayed in the third viewing level comprises the number of active sessions associated with the at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices displayed in the third viewing level comprises the connection strength associated with the at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices displayed in the third viewing level comprises a location of a telepresence device at a selectable time along a timeline.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the location of the telepresence device at a selectable time along a timeline is displayed relative to a geographical representation including an overlay of an availability of wireless data communication.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein the information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices displayed in the third viewing level comprises a connection rule of the at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices.

29. The system of claim 28, further comprising a connection rule management module configured to allow for the management of a connection rule of the at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices in the third viewing level.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the connection rule management module is configured to allow for drag-and-drop connection rule management.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein the information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices displayed in the third viewing level comprises information pertaining to the shipment process of the at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices.

32. The system of claim 1, wherein the information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices displayed in the third viewing level comprises information pertaining to one of a software update and a firmware update of the at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices.

33. The system of claim 1, wherein the information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices displayed in the third viewing level comprises information pertaining to one of a serial number, a model number, a battery level, a location, a date the telepresence device last reported, a time the telepresence device last reported, historical session data, a registered peripheral, a licensed application, a total utilization time, an average session duration, a duration of a particular session, a start time of a particular session, an end time of a particular session, a Quality of Service (OoS) for one or more sessions, a current available bandwidth, and a bandwidth availability with respect to time.

34. The system of claim 1, wherein in the first viewing level an information selection module is configured to receive an information request;

and wherein information associated with at least one of the hospitals is displayed on the geographical representation corresponding to the information request.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the information is associated with one of a medical condition, telepresence network utilization information, telepresence session quality information, telepresence device information, support activity, battery levels, currently active session, workflow metrics, available telepresence devices, trained specialists, financial information, and subscription information.

36. The system of claim 1, further comprising a healthcare network detail request module configured to receive a healthcare network detail request to cause the display module to display a fourth viewing level, the fourth viewing level displaying information associated with the at least one hub hospital and the at least one spoke hospital.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein receiving the healthcare network detail request comprises selecting one of the at least one hub hospital and the at least one spoke hospital.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the fourth viewing level comprises displaying the information associated with one of the at least one hub hospital and the at least one spoke hospital as an overlay of information on the geographical representation.

39. The system of claim 37, wherein the fourth viewing level comprises displaying the information associated with one of the at least one hub hospital and the at least one spoke hospital in place of the geographical representation of the first viewing level.

40. The system of claim 36, wherein receiving a detail request comprises a mouse-over selection of one of the at least one hub hospital and the at least one spoke hospital.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the fourth viewing level comprises displaying the information associated with one of the at least one hub hospital and the at least one spoke hospital as an overlay of information on the geographical representation.

42. The system of claim 40, wherein the information associated with one of the at least one hub hospital and the at least one spoke hospital displayed in the fourth viewing level comprises one of a number of active sessions, a number of active telepresence devices, a connection strength of telepresence devices, a connection between two or more telepresence devices, a location of a telepresence device, information from a StrokeRESPOND application, a door-to-needle time, a door-to-balloon time, a t-PA contraindication, a t-PA warning, a medical practitioner response time, and a call center response time.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the information associated with one of the at least one hub hospital and the at least one spoke hospital displayed in the fourth viewing level is associated with one of a particular hospital, a network of hospitals, a medical practitioner, a telepresence device, a patient, and a geographical area.

44. A method for managing a telepresence network, comprising:

displaying a first viewing level of a telepresence network, the first viewing level comprising a geographical representation of the relative location of a plurality of telepresence devices within the telepresence network;

displaying a second viewing level in response to receiving a viewing request for the second viewing level;

navigating within the geographical representation in response to receiving a navigational request; and

displaying a third viewing level in response to receiving a detail request, the third viewing level comprising information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices, wherein the first viewing level comprises a geographical representation of at least one hub hospital having at least one telepresence device, each hub hospital connected to at least one spoke hospital having at least one telepresence device.

45. A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having executable computer program code, the computer program code configured to cause a computer to:

display a first viewing level of a telepresence network, the first viewing level comprising a geographical representation of the relative location of a plurality of telepresence devices within the telepresence network;

receive a viewing request to cause the display module to provide a second viewing level;

receive a navigational request to navigate within the geographical representation; and

receive a detail request to cause the display module to display a third viewing level, the third viewing level comprising information associated with at least one of the plurality of telepresence devices, wherein the first viewing level comprises a geographical representation of at least one hub hospital having at least one telepresence device, each hub hospital connected to at least one spoke hospital having at least one telepresence device.