Title: Method and apparatus for health and disease management combining patient data monitoring with wireless internet connectivity
Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a method and apparatus for a wireless health monitoring system for interactively monitoring a health condition of a patient by connecting an internet-enabled wireless device ("WWD") to a health monitoring device which may be a medical device.The health related data is transmitted from the WWD to a server using standard internet protocols. The server calculates a response using a software program which may include an algorithm or artificial intelligence system, and may further provide for review by a physician or health specialist. The user may interact with the server. For example, the server transmits a response to the WWD, and the user may answer the response or provide other information.
Patent Number: 6,936,007 Issued on 08/30/2005 to Quy
| Inventors:
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Quy; Roger J. (Mill Valley, CA)
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| Assignee:
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Q-tec Systems LLP (Wilmington, DE)
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| Appl. No.:
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418845 |
| Filed:
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April 18, 2003 |
| Current U.S. Class: |
600/300; 128/903; 128/904; 128/923 |
| Intern'l Class: |
A61B 005/00 |
| Field of Search: |
455/306
600/300,301,345,365,481,483,485,509,529
607/27,30-32,60
128/903-905,920,923,924
709/204,205,230,238,245,246
705/2,3
707/6
434/262,267,272
340/573.1,573.4
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|
Primary Examiner: Wolfe, Jr.; Willis R.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Wieczorek, Esq.; Mark D.
Parent Case Text
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/738,270,
filed on Dec. 15, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,602,191 entitled "Method and Apparatus
for Health and Disease Management combining Patient Data Monitoring with Wireless
Internet Connectivity, which claims priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent
Application Ser. No. 60/172,486 filed Dec. 17, 1999, entitled "Method and Apparatus
for Health and Disease Management Combining Patient Data Monitoring with Wireless
Internet Connectivity".
Claims
1. A internet-enabled wireless web device for monitoring health connected in
at least periodic wireless communication with a server, comprising:
an internet enabled wireless web device running an application;
a port for communications with an implantable medical device via a first wireless
connection;
a port for wireless mobile communications with a mobile telephone network via
a second wireless connection;
such that the application functions to accept a health parameter from the implantable
medical device via the first wireless connection, and
such that the application functions to transmit data corresponding to the accepted
health parameter to the server via the second wireless connection.
2. The device of claim 1, wherein the first wireless connection is selected from
the group consisting of: 802.11, 802.16, and Bluetooth communication schemes.
3. The device of claim 1, wherein the second wireless connection is a mobile
or cellular phone network.
4. The device of claim 1, wherein the internet-enabled wireless web device is
a mobile phone.
5. The device of claim 1, wherein the implantable medical device is selected
from the group consisting of: cardiac monitors, hear rate monitors, blood pressure
monitors, respiratory monitors, temperature monitors, blood glucose monitors, and
combinations thereof.
6. A method of using an internet-enabled wireless web device to monitor health,
the device connected in at least periodic wireless communication with a server, comprising:
running an application on an internet-enabled wireless web device;
accepting a health parameter from an implantable medical device via a first wireless
connection;
transmitting data corresponding to the health parameter to a server via a second
wireless connection, the second wireless connection employing a mobile or cellular
phone network.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first wireless connection is selected from
the group consisting of: 802.11, 802.16, and Bluetooth communication schemes.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein the internet-enabled wireless web device is
a mobile phone.
9. The device of claim 6, wherein the implantable medical device is selected
from the group consisting of: cardiac monitors, heart rate monitors, blood pressure
monitors, respiratory monitors, temperature monitors, blood glucose monitors, and
combinations thereof.
10. A internet-enabled wireless web device connected in at least occasional wireless
communication with a network for monitoring a health parameter measured by an implantable
device, comprising:
an internet-enabled wireless web device running an application, having a port
for communications with an implantable medical device via a first wireless connection,
and having a port for wireless mobile communications with a network via a second
wireless mobile communications with a network via a second wireless connection;
such that the application functions to accept a health parameter from the implantable
medical device via the first wireless connection, and
such that the application functions to transmit data corresponding to the accepted
health parameter to the server via the second wireless connection.
11. The device of claim 10, wherein the first wireless connection is selected
from the group consisting of: 802.11, 802.16, and Bluetooth communication schemes.
12. The device of claim 10, wherein the second wireless connection is to a mobile
or cellular phone network.
13. The device of claim 10, wherein the internet-enabled wireless web device
is either a mobile phone or a PDA having a wireless communications capability.
14. The device of claim 10, wherein the implantable medical device is selected
from the group consisting of: cardiac monitors, heart rate monitors, blood pressure
monitors, respiratory monitors, temperature monitors, blood glucose monitors, and
combinations thereof.
15. A method of using an internet-enabled wireless web device to monitor health,
the device connected in at least occasional wireless communication with a server, comprising:
running an application on the internet-enabled wireless web device;
accepting a health parameter from an implantable medical device via a first wireless
connection;
transmitting data corresponding to the health parameter to a server via a second
wireless connection, the second wireless connection employing a mobile or cellular
phone network.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first wireless connection is selected
from the group consisting of: 802.11, 802.16, and Bluetooth communication schemes.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein the internet-enabled wireless web device
is a mobile phone or a PDA having a wireless communications capability.
18. The device of claim 15, wherein the implantable medical device is selected
from the group consisting of: cardiac monitors, heart rate monitors, blood pressure
monitors, respiratory monitors, temperature monitors, blood glucose monitors, and
combinations thereof.
Description
REFERENCE TO GOVERNMENTAL SUPPORT
(none)
REFERENCE TO MICROFICHE APPENDIX
(none)
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to monitoring of living subjects, and more particularly
to health-monitoring of persons where measured or input health data is communicated
by a wireless device to and from a software application running on an internet-connected
server and where the same may be studied and processed by the software application,
a health professional, or the subject.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Several attempts have been made in the past to achieve efficient interactive
communication of medical or health information between a subject or patient and
a reviewer or provider of that information. In particular, communication of consumer
physiological information has been a subject of such attempts. It is noted that
in this regard the "reviewer or provider of medical or health information" is understood
to include not only a physician but also a software application or algorithm that
may analyze the information.
Medical or health information has been made available on a CD-ROM accessible
by a home computer system. This passive approach had certain disadvantages. First,
although the personal computer is prevalent is the United States, it is generally
too expensive for a consumer physiological monitoring system and there are many
people who find it too complicated to set up and use for that purpose. High-risk,
chronically ill patients, responsible for more than half of health care costs in
the United States and forming the fastest growing segment of those requiring health
care, are indeed the most likely not to be able to afford or use a system built
around a personal computer. In addition, such systems are limited in their interactivity
to the information stored on the CD.
Previous patents by the Inventor addressed both of these disadvantages,
as well as the need to reduce health care costs through providing educational health
care information and interactive physiological monitoring in the home environment
by means of a user-friendly, interactive system (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,601,435,
6,144,837, and continuations thereof).
These previous patents were based on a video game console, or a multimedia
player using a conventional television screen as the display device to achieve
a system which is simpler to use than systems based on a personal computer. An
initial embodiment of the previous patents utilized a compact disc to provide interactive
information for disease management.
Even with the advantages provided, these systems limited the user to location
in which the device was located. Even where devices are portable, as in the case
of a laptop computer with a modem, an ordinary POTS phone line must be found and
used. Where the user's computer employs a broadband connection, such as DSL or
satellite, the choices of location are even more limited.
Attempts have been made to remedy this deficiency. For example, many telemetry
systems allow a "wireless" distance to be placed between a health measuring unit
and a remote monitoring system. However, such systems are limited in their range.
Other systems have used cellular telephone technology to increase the wireless
health monitoring range. However, these systems have several deficiencies, such
as requiring significant modification of the mobile phone. For example, U.S. Pat.
No. 5,772,586, issued Jun. 30, 1998 to Heinonon et al., discloses a method for
monitoring the health of a patient. This system uses a specialized connection between
the patient health measuring unit and the cellular phone, however. The patient
health measuring unit is located in the battery space of the mobile phone and is
connected to a communication bus of the mobile phone. Other systems have been proposed,
but these suffer from similar deficiencies in that they are not designed to be
used with "off-the-shelf" wireless devices or health measuring equipment.
The deployment of the above systems also currently lacks employment of full back-end
server functionality with which to provide a wide range of interactive communication
with the patient. Instead, such systems, if internet-enabled, are often limited
to mere one-way non-interactive data transfer via a modem. While some systems are
more enhanced, including that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,427, issued Oct.
18, 1994 to Langen, et al., and entitled "Remote Monitoring of High-Risk Patients
using Artificial Intelligence", these systems are limited by the wired telecommunications infrastructure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention overcome one or more of the disadvantages
of the prior art by providing a full-feature health-monitoring system that may
wirelessly connect to a back-end server application via the internet. The invention
allows wireless access to and from a wide variety of present medical or health-related
instruments and devices, while maintaining the capability of connecting to future
such devices.
In particular, the invention may be embodied in several systems. Two complementary
such systems are described herein, although extensions to other such systems can
be envisioned. First, an embodiment of the invention may be employed to manage
the disease state or condition of a patient. In this embodiment, the patient may
employ a health monitoring device ("HMD"), in particular a medical device, and
a wireless connection provides data from the medical device for processing via
the internet including a review by a physician or other health care professional
if required.
In the second embodiment, a health or lifestyle management plan may be implemented.
Various health parameters, such as those relating to nutrition or exercise, may
be entered into a health monitoring device, in this instance termed an "exercise
machine", and the same may be wireless communicated to a server. An application
may process and store the health parameters, and a health specialist may optionally
review the same.
Wireless internet connectivity has many advantages. For example, in the
first embodiment, a diabetic could connect a blood glucose meter to an internet-enabled
wireless web device ("WWD") away from home and download data to a Diabetes Management
Company's server and, in response, receive guidance displayed on the screen (or
by voice) about choices for the next meal.
Alternatively, in the second embodiment, a person interested in tracking
an exercise program may take the WWD to the local health club and attach the same
to an exercise machine, send data output from various exercise machines over the
Internet, and receive a personalized response from the server of a company specializing
in Health & Lifestyle Management. The individual may input caloric content of foods
eaten, and may further input caloric content of exercise performed. In this way,
e.g., a person in a weight-loss program may see in great detail whether they are
expending more calories in the form of exercise than the same individual is consuming
in the form of food.
In general, in the health management embodiment, the system may be employed to
monitor the physiologic status of a healthy subject while eating, exercising, or
performing other activities. For clarity, such devices are termed herein "exercise
machines". These may include an electronic body weight scale, a body fat gauge,
biofeedback devices, physiotherapy or chiropractic equipment, blood pressure recorders,
or the like, or any type of exercise machine or monitor, including a heart rate
monitor, treadmill, rowing machine, stepper, or the like.
In more detail, the present invention provides a method and system for assisting
patients to manage a disease or maintain healthy lifestyle by collecting health-related
data and providing information in response to those data by means of a WWD designed
to display interactive information through a connection to the Internet. The present
invention may be connected to various HMDs, both medical and exercise-related in
nature, and may communicate information via a wireless connection such as a wireless
Internet connection.
A major advantage of embodiments of the invention is that the same frees the
patient
from the constraints of wired systems. The same allows users with consumer "off-the-shelf"
wireless devices to significantly extend the range of connectivity over that of
wired computer, television, or even wireless telemetry systems.
In a first embodiment of the present invention, the WWD is a web-enabled cellular
phone. Here it is noted that the term "web" or "internet" are used interchangeably
to refer to the internet in general. In a second embodiment, the WWD is a palm,
handheld, or laptop computer, or a PDA, equipped with a wireless modem. In a third
embodiment, the WWD may be a hybrid device that combines the functions of a computer,
PDA and telephone.
An adaptor is used if necessary to convert the output signal of the medical monitoring
device to a suitable input signal for the WWD. The adaptor allows connection of
the WWD to a medical device, exercise machine or other variety of health care equipment,
and the connection may be made via several techniques. As for wired techniques,
a standard parallel bus or serial cable may be used if the input/output ports between
the HMD and the WWD are appropriate. Otherwise, a suitable separate adaptor may
be employed.
The connection may also be an input such as a disk drive or other media input
for input of data, a USB port or phone jack or other such wired input, again employing
an adaptor if required.
As for wireless techniques, infrared (IR), microwaves, radio frequency (RF),
e.g.,
Bluetooth® or 802.11 protocols, optical techniques including lasers, and other
such techniques may be used. The patient or subject may also input data manually,
such as by a stylus, keypad, synchronization from a PC, or by various other techniques
discussed below.
A major advantage of the invention is that by use of an optional adaptor, the
system
is compatible with current and prior HMDs as well as maintaining a capability of
adapting to future such systems.
Other advantages of the invention may include one or more of the following.
An embodiment of the invention may be used when a patient is traveling or otherwise
away from their "wired" means of communication. The invention allows wireless health-monitoring
to the level of accuracy previously achieved only by desktop so-called "wired"
computer systems. The invention is protocol-independent.
The interaction between a WWD and a back-end server may provide a major additional
advantage in certain embodiments of the invention. In particular, the relatively
small amount of memory currently provided on a WWD as compared to a back-end server
severely limits the functionality of applications running on the WWD, especially
in terms of computing capacity, processing power, and user interface. By providing
significant application functionality on the back-end, less memory and processing
capabilities become necessary on the WWD (i.e., on the "front-end"). Thus, memory
may be used in the WWD for an enhanced user interface or for other purposes, according
to the user requirements.
In a method according to an embodiment of the invention, the patient connects
to a specific Internet site and a software program, resident on a remote server
located on the Internet, downloads an interactive user interface for that patient
and an application for the measurement of the physiological data. The software
may also be downloaded to the WWD from a personal computer via a synchronization
operation in known fashion. The software provides a personalized display for the
user and configures the WWD to control and monitor devices connected via a generic
input/output port to the WWD. The software may be designed to suit the constraints
of the small display screens of WWDS. The software, as well as inputs from the
patient or other inputs, can control the manner, content, and display of information
presented to the patient, and measured or input data can be stored for review by
a health care provider or by a software algorithm or application. The algorithm
may be of varying complexity, from a simple program that merely acknowledges receipt
of information to an artificial intelligence algorithm, such as an expert system,
collaborative filtering system, rules based system, case-based reasoning system,
or other such artificial intelligence application.
Further information may be provided to or from the patient, including information
entered manually. The patient may input this information via a personal computer,
which then may download the input information to the WWD via a synchronization
operation using standard protocols, such as those for Palm PDA devices.
The user may also input supplemental information via a PC connected independently
to the server via the internet. Such supplemental information may include data
that is difficult or inconvenient to input on the WWD. In this way, the patient
may be afforded a more convenient environment in which to manipulate data to supplement
the data input to the WWD. The deployment of voice processing technology may be
used to enable an even more convenient user interface: i.e., one to which patients
can talk.
In all of these respects, the portable aspect of the WWD is important: to wit,
the user may conveniently carry the WWD on their person wherever they may go, allowing
data entry at the time needed.
Other aspects, features, and advantages will be apparent from the summary above,
as well as from the description that follows, including the figures and the claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 illustrates a general embodiment of a wireless health-monitoring system
according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a wireless health-monitoring apparatus according
to the present invention, showing the system of FIG. 1 up to a point of a wireless antenna;
FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a back end of a health-monitoring system
according to the present invention;
FIG. 4 illustrates a data flow diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a method of use for a wireless application
and a server application according to the present invention, in which the same
is implemented for disease and patient management;
FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a method of use for a wireless application
and a server application according to the present invention, in which the same
is implemented for health management;
FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a wired connection between a HMD and a WWD,
also showing an optional adaptor; and
FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a wireless connection between a HMD and
a WWD, also showing an optional adaptor.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Various acronyms are used for clarity herein. Definitions are given below.
The term "HMD" may encompass not only devices with physiologic sensors but also
devices with a keypad, keyboard, mouse, pointer, pressure sensor, or other such
inputs that the patient or user may employ to perform data entry of the desired
parameters. In general, HMDs include some means for determining a health parameter.
In a disease management embodiment, an HMD may be a blood glucose monitor, a
blood
pressure monitor, an ambulatory ECG recorder, a respiratory monitor, a temperature
or heart rate monitor, and so on.
In a healthy lifestyle management embodiment, an HMD may be an exercise machine,
including treadmills, rowers, steppers, exercise cycles, or other aerobic or anaerobic
exercisers, or a monitor, include monitors for temperature, heart rate, blood pressure,
amount of work or rate of work performed, etc.
The term "subject" as used herein primarily indicates a human subject. The same
may be a medical patient under physician care, a person interested in maintaining
health via accurate recording of nutrition and exercise, and so on. The term "user"
is generally used to refer to the user of the device, which may be synonymous with
the subject or may alternatively be a caregiver of the subject, etc. The term "patient"
is used, in addition to a person under the care of a physician, to also refer to
a "normal" or healthy individual who is interested in maintaining a healthy physiologic balance.
The term "signal communication" is used to mean any type of connection between
components where the connection is, e.g., electromagnetic, and where the connection
allows information to be passed from one component to another. This term may be
used in a similar fashion as "coupled", "connected", "information communication",
"data communication", etc. The following are examples of signal communication schemes.
As for wired techniques, a standard bus or serial cable may be used if the input/output
ports are compatible and an optional adaptor may be employed if they are not. As
for wireless techniques, IR, microwaves, RF, e.g., Bluetooth® or 802.11 protocols,
optical techniques including lasers, and other such techniques may be used. The
patient or subject may even input data manually, such as by a stylus or keypad
or by various other techniques discussed above and below.
The term "generic input/output port" is used to mean any type of convention,
standard, universal, stock, consumer, or "off-the-shelf" type of port for data
input and output. These may include both wired and wireless ports. A further description
is given below.
Various embodiments of the invention are now described in more detail.
Referring to FIG. 1, a system of the present invention is shown for monitoring
health data from a patient or subject
38. The system includes a wireless
health-monitoring apparatus ("WHMA")
10 described in further detail below.
WHMA
10 is linked in a wireless fashion to a wireless connection point of
presence ("POP")
19, the same including at least a base station antenna
15 coupled to a server
17. Server
17 is in turn connected
to the wired, or even a wireless (not shown) Internet
21, which may include
the World Wide Web.
Referring to FIG. 2, an first embodiment of WHMA
10 is shown. WHMA
10 includes an HMD
11, which may include an optional monitor screen
40, coupled via an optional adaptor
42 to a WWD
12. WWD
12
connects wirelessly via an antenna
60 to base station
15 (see FIG.
1). One function of WWD
12 is to provide the user interface; other
functions are described below.
As noted above, HMD
11 may include a physiologic sensor
24 or may
include a manual system
36 for input of physiologic data via a connection
34. Manual system
36 may also be used to input data directly into
WWD
12 via a connection
32. Manual system
36 may include,
e.g., a keyboard
30, a mouse
26, a pen-type device
28, and
may also employ a separate monitor (not shown). Of course, the user may also view
information on monitor
40 or on a screen
41 of WWD
12. In
many embodiments, the stylus-based system employed by many current PDA's, such
as the Palm®, may be preferred for such manual data input.
Data may also be input via entry on a computer
37. This data may then
be synchronized to WWD
12 in known fashion. Alternatively, computer
37,
or another computer (see computer
37′ in FIG. 4) may be used to connect
to a server using the wired internet. This use may be particularly advantageous
when entering a large amount of data, such as a patient's medical history. As noted
above, in this way the patient may be afforded a more convenient environment in
which to manipulate data to supplement the data input to the WWD.
It will be clear to one of skill in the art given this teaching that cable
32,
as well as cables
34 and
44, may be replaced with wireless circuitry
to communicate signals wirelessly.
For medical devices and applications, physiologic sensor
24 may include,
e.g., a sensor appropriate for measuring blood glucose levels, blood pressure,
heart rate, or any other desired parameter as required by the physician. Sensor
24 may connect via an optional cable
44 to subject
38. Alternatively,
sensor
24 may be distal of HMD
11, i.e., at or within subject
38.
In other words, if cable
44 is employed, sensor
24 may be proximal
or distal of cable
44. If a wireless communications capability is added,
sensor
24 need not physically connect with HMD
11 or WWD
12
at all. That is, the same may measure a health parameter and may communicate the
same to wireless health-monitoring apparatus
10 wirelessly. The short range
wireless communications schemes which may be employed include infrared, radio frequency
including Bluetooth or 802.11, or other such schemes.
As examples of sensor types, to measure blood glucose levels, sensor
24
may be a sensor that accepts a drop of blood, e.g., via a finger-prick. To measure
heart rate, sensor
24 may be placed via an adhesive sensor disposed on the
chest. Other health monitors may also be employed so long as the measured data
may either be transferred to WWD
12, e.g., via optional adaptor
42,
described in further detail below, or by being read by a user, e.g., from a display,
and manually input to WWD
12. Alternatively, the measured data may be transferred
to WWD
12 via wireless communication schemes, such as RF includes Bluetooth®
or 802.11, infrared, optical, microwaves, etc., directly from sensor
24
or from HMD
11 as described in greater detail below.
The user, who may or may not be the same person as subject
38, may input
data to WWD
12 from history or experience. For example, in a health or exercise
device, if subject
38 consumes a known number of calories, this information
may be entered via manual system
36 directly into WWD
12 or into
HMD
11. Further, the user, the subject, and the sensor are not necessarily
the sole sources of information. Data stored on the server, or on a separate server
operated for health management may also be employed to result in a health benefit
to subject
38.
Referring to FIG. 3, WHMA
10 is shown communicating wirelessly with
the Internet. In doing so, WHMA
10 generally sends a wireless signal to
a base station
14 (in known fashion) that is connected to a server
18
that is in signal communication (in known fashion) with the internet. Server
18
communicates via a protocol (in known fashion) to Internet
20, which also
communicates via a protocol (in known fashion) to a server
22 running an
application
62. Server
22 may be accessed (in known fashion) by a
client computer
44 through a connection
64.
As noted, the protocols for data communication are known. However, they currently
vary amongst known techniques. The present invention is not limited to any particular
protocols, and may be implemented in any languages supported by the WWD and server.
Of course, as computing capabilities continue to increase, it is expected that
the capabilities of WHMA
10, servers
18 and
22, as well as
application
62 and client
44, and other components, will correspondingly increase.
Application
62 running on server
22 may interact with WHMA
10 in a number of ways. Referring to FIG. 4, WHMA
10 is shown in
signal communication with server
22 via a connection
72. Connection
72 schematically represents the wireless Internet connection and intervening
pathways. WHMA
10 includes an application that may be viewed as having two
components: a base wireless or device application
70 and an application
presentation layer or user interface
68. User interface
68 is employed
to, e.g., present a menu of options to the user, to allow the user to choose inputs,
and to generally operate the device. User interface
68 may vary widely in
sophistication, e.g., from a simple data entry field to a full graphical user interface.
These applications may accept as inputs data from a sensor
24 as well as
from a manual input
36.
Server
22 has a base server application
62 with which the same
calculates or provides a response based at least in part on data from WHMA
10.
Application
62 may include an algorithm
63 for analyzing data from
the HMD, and either application
62 or algorithm
63 may optionally
access data from an external data source
74 and may further consult an artificial
intelligence system
76.
External data source
74 may be a memory or disk or other such storage
that stores health data, such as healthy and unhealthy weight/height ranges, healthy
and unhealthy cholesterol counts, the patient's or subject's prior medical or health
history, healthy and unhealthy blood pressure values, information corresponding
to the caloric and other nutritional content of foods, information corresponding
to the caloric expenditure values of various exercises, algorithms for calculating
various health parameters, etc. In general, any data that may benefit the health
of a subject or patient may be stored in external data source
74. External
data source
74 may also include online access of health information from
external web sites, ftp servers, or other sources.
Due to the current relatively small amount of memory and storage available on
current WWDs, such external application processing as by application
62
and external data storage as by external data
74 may be particularly important.
As noted, application
62 or algorithm
63 may also consult AI system
76 for suggestions as to health benefits. AI system
76 may even interact
with external data source
74 to extract useful information from the same.
AI system
76 may employ, e.g., case-based reasoning, rules-based systems,
collaborative filtering, neural networks, expert systems, or other such systems
as are known.
It should also be noted that each of application
62, algorithm
63,
external data source
74, or AI system
76, may physically reside on
more than one server, e.g., on an array of servers for, e.g., storage or multiple
processing purposes. Each of application
62, algorithm
63, external
data source
74, or AI system
76, or combinations of each, may also
respectively reside on different servers.
The extent to which server application
62 interacts with wireless application
70 depends on the use to which the system is put. For example, in a less
interactive embodiment, device application
70 may act to measure a diabetic
patient's blood glucose level and report the same to server application
62.
In this case, a physician may simply review the measured value and send the patient
an email reporting that the value is acceptable or not. In a highly interactive
embodiment, a patient may have numerous HMDs
11 connected via optional adaptors
to a WWD
12, and wireless application
70 may correspondingly send
a large amount of health data to server application
62. The physician, accessing
server application
62, may in turn send detailed care plans to a caregiver
via connection
72. The received data may be analyzed using algorithm
63,
external data source
74, and AI system
76. In this sense, the two
applications may be highly interactive.
It is noted that an Application Service Provider (ASP) may operate application
62. That is, application
62 may be leased by an ASP to the health
care provider, and the ASP may perform all necessary upgrades and maintenance to
application
62 and its associated components.
To initialize the system, the program starts and a wireless application is loaded
into the WWD. The loading of the wireless application may occur via synchronization
from a desktop or via downloading from a server over the internet. The server application
may be loaded into an appropriate internet-connected server. Subject data may be
loaded into the WWD or into the server. In the latter case, the subject information
may later be transferred to the WWD or transferred to the server from the WWD,
as called for by the application. The initialization scheme then ends.
The wireless application may access the server and server application, or vice-versa,
as determined by the respective program instructions. Examples are now given for
(1) a system of disease and patient management and (2) a system for health management
employing an exercise machine.
Example Employing System for Disease Management
Referring to FIG. 5, an example is given for a system of disease and patient
management. In this figure, as well as in FIG. 6, boxes in dotted lines may generally
be considered optional.
In FIG. 5, a medical device may determine health parameters and an optional physician
review is provided. Health parameters may also be determined by user manual input.
The program is started (step
142) and a sensor measures a health parameter
(step
116). The sensor may send the parameter to a medical device (step
118). The medical device then sends the parameter to the WWD (step
120).
The WWD then wirelessly communicates the parameter to the application server (step
122), e.g., via the wireless web. The application server processes the parameter
(step
124), and calculates or provides a response (step
126) based
at least in part on the parameter. The application server may optionally employ
algorithm
63 (step
125), external data (step
132) or an AI
system (step
134) in the calculation. The application server then sends
the response to the WWD (step
128), where the response is displayed (step
130).
It should be noted that the term "response" here is used generally may simply
be an acknowledgement that the parameter was received by the application server.
The term "calculate" is also used generally, and may entail a simple calculation
as well as a complex one. A result may, e.g., be the result of a calculation.
As noted above, the sensor may connect to any type of medical device or other
such device in which information pertaining to a patient's disease or condition
may be ascertained. The parameter may be any value corresponding to such information.
The method may also use a manual input as shown. In this case, after the start
(step
142) of the application, the user may interact with the WWD (step
140). The interact may be a data input, a command to read data from a medical
device, a response to a physician question or statement, an acknowledgement of
physician notification, etc. Calculations by the application server may further
take into account supplemental data sent by the user to the server, e.g., in a
wired fashion directly over the internet (step
141).
FIG. 5 also shows a physician review and notification. In this
