The present invention relates in general to consolidating user information, and more particularly, to integrating consumer data with services for management by the user.
Cloud services in the consumer space provide new capabilities for integration and management of consumer data by the consumer. Services include, for example, the hosting of Personal Health Records (PHR) (Google Health™ from Google Inc., HealthVault™ from Microsoft, Inc., Dossia Personal Health Platform™ from Dossia, and WebMD® from WebMD, LLC), energy management sites, and Insurance services. Such services require service-to-service integration. An example of this can be found with integration to a hosted PHR application. PHR's may provide free hosted services for consumers and allow the user to link their profile to a partnering system that has implemented the appropriate APIs. Thus, a consumer's care network (personal physician, dentist, etc.) can send notifications to the consumer's hosted health profile. However, this requires the customer's care network, for example, his/her physician's computer system, has already done the service-to-service integration. Similarly when ad hoc information needs to be integrated into a service system, the end-user/consumer must enter this information manually.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a computer implemented method integrates user data with services for management by the user. The user selected data is annotated with a processor. The annotated selected data is mapped to a user selected service provider. The annotated data is transmitted to the user selected service provider. The annotated user selected data is stored in a memory at the user selected service provider.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a computer program product integrates user data with services for management by the user. The computer program product comprises a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith. The computer readable program code comprises computer readable program code configured to annotate the user selected data with a processor. Computer readable program code is configured to map, with a processor, the annotated selected data to a user selected service provider. Computer readable program code is configured to transmit the annotated data to the user selected service provider. Computer readable program code is configured to store, in a memory at the user selected service provider, the annotated user selected data.
A computer system integrates user data with services for management by the user. The computer system comprises a processor and a memory connected to the processor, wherein the memory is encoded with instructions and wherein the instructions when executed comprise instructions for annotating user selected data with a processor. Instructions map, with a processor, the annotated selected data to a user selected service provider. Instructions transmit the annotated data to the user selected service provider. Instructions store, in memory at the user selected service provider, the annotated user selected data.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
Aspects of the of the present invention are described below with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
The computer system 10 is of a type that executes under a suitable operating system installed on the computer system 10. The components of the computer system 10 include a computer 12, a keyboard 22, mouse 24, and a video display 20. The computer 12 includes a processor 26, a memory 28, input/output (I/O) interfaces 30 and 32, a video interface 34, and a storage device 36.
The processor 26 is a central processing unit (CPU) that executes the operating system and the computer software executing under the operating system. The memory 28 includes random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM), and is used under direction of the processor 26.
The video interface 34 is connected to a video display 20 and provides video signals for display thereon. User input to operate the computer 12 is provided from the keyboard 22 and mouse 24. The storage device 36 can include a disk drive or any other suitable storage medium, as discussed above. Each of the components of the computer 12 is connected to an internal bus 40 that includes data, address, and control buses, to allow components of the computer 12 to communicate with each other via the bus 40. The computer system 10 can be connected to one or more other similar computers via an input/output (I/O) interface 32 using a communication channel 38 to a network, represented as the Internet 18. One or more servers 19 may be connected to the computer 12 via a network, such as, the Internet 18. The servers 19 may comprise the same physical arrangement as the computer 12 and may be co-located with or a part of the computer 12.
The computer software may be recorded on a computer readable storage medium, in which case, the computer software program is accessed by the computer system 10 from the storage device 36. Alternatively, the computer software can be accessed directly from the Internet 18 by the computer 12. In either case, a user can interact with the computer system 10 using the keyboard 22 and mouse 24 to operate the programmed computer software executing on the computer 12.
End users or consumers using a cloud host may want to send their personal data to the host. As used herein, for the sake of continuity, the cloud host described will be for a Personal Health Record (PHR). The user's personal data may comprise, for example, recent medical diagnosis, prescription identification and dosage, shot records, etc. In one embodiment of the invention, an end user can annotate ad hoc or data outside of a particular service system used by service providers, thus, eliminating user entered data errors. The end users can specify the endpoints (user's cloud host of choice) to which the annotations should be posted, therefore, bridging any gaps between the service provider's system, client applications, and consumer storage (cloud host). This embodiment will enable provider services to reach more clients without incurring any cost of integrating with other services, and, therefore, lower the overall cost for consumers.
With reference now to
An example of one embodiment of the present invention will now be illustrated with reference to the following Scenario #1: A user has a medical issue while traveling and must go outside of his/her traditional health care network. An urgent care center the user visited does not have a system integrated with a host PHR but does provide email that details the visit for their clients. As a result, the end user will receive an email from the clinic that the present invention enables annotation thereto. The user can then directly interface the annotated email with his/her PHR service(s).
With reference to
After reviewing the email on, for example, the mobile phone device 402, the user initiates updates at 308 to the services of interest (user's PHR, user's primary care physician's PHR service, user's family members' mobile devices, etc.). At 310, the user interface of plug-in 212 (
At 312, the user 300 selects the information from the email to which he wants to apply annotations and maps them to the PHR 200 endpoints (and/or other services, as desired).
Referring to
The Annotation Store 502 connects to the endpoints specified by the user to which the annotations will be posted. The Annotation Store 502 ensures that the annotations are supported by a Service Provider 506, such as the PHR 200, sends annotation requests to the Service Provider 506, and communicates the response back to the user based on each annotation request. The Service Updater 504 sends requests to the Service Provider 506 mapped by an annotation and updates the Service Provider 506. Thus, the Service Updater 504 leverages the applied annotations and retrieves the highlighted text. It then maps the input based on the annotation association and maps the corresponding values to the appropriate hosted Service Provider 506.
Returning to
Referring now to
Scenario #2: A consumer visited a car dealer and was interested in purchasing a car. To help the consumer make purchase decision, the car dealer agent sent the car specification to the consumer's email for further research. The consumer then used the data to inquire and compare car insurance quotes from different services. Using the annotation manager of one embodiment of the present invention, the consumer initiated insurance quote inquiries to get the annotations from various insurance services, applied annotations for the car's specification and mapped to the endpoints of the service interfaces. The Service Updater 504 would then post the consumer's requests to the specified service interfaces to obtain the insurance quotes for the consumer
The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
Having thus described the invention of the present application in detail and by reference to embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention defined in the appended claims.