The present invention relates to a connected device application system; and, more particularly, to a software application system capable of providing virtual caregiving services by way of a smartphone, tablet or other device having Internet and/or cellular network connectivity, a web browser and voice communication technology.
It is an object of the present invention to provide access to continued care through interaction with a connected device. As such, in the application functions as a user's virtual caregiver and displays materials related to the user's continuum of care on the display of a user's devices (Smartphone, tablet or computer). Additionally, while having Internet connectivity or cellular network access, connectivity to the Electronic Caregiver Optimum Recognition Blueprint (“ORB”) for Emergency Medical Records, cloud-based access to stored user information, Voice over Internet Protocol communication with emergency medical responders, localized voice capture for cloud-based system communications and communication capabilities between user and the Electronic Caregiver Image (ECI) avatar. All capabilities can be displayed on the user's device and provide response capabilities to said user. This will improve provision of continued care to the users of the invention. Additional advantages of the invention are apparent from the detailed embodiment descriptions and accompanying drawings, which set forth embodiments of the invention.
The accompanying drawings, where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views, together with the detailed description below, are incorporated in and form part of the specification, and serve to further illustrate embodiments of concepts that include the claimed disclosure, and explain various principles and advantages of those embodiments.
The methods and systems disclosed herein have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present disclosure so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.
The detailed embodiments of the current invention are disclosed here. It should be understood, that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in multiple forms. Those details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted in any form as limiting, but as the basis for the claims.
In response to the numerous risks associated with aging, and the fact that the population of the United States is rapidly aging, the effort to maintain independence has led to the development of a number of Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS) or Medical Emergency Response Systems (MERS). Most of these systems have been developed in a manner that include three main components, 1) a radio transmitter in the form of a single button typically worn or the wrist, a belt or around the neck and allow a user to summon help during an emergency, 2) a communicator typically attached to the user's phone line that acts as a speakerphone when the radio transmitter has been activated, and 3) an emergency response center that provides communication to the end user and emergency medical services. While evidence suggests that older adults are experiencing high rates of user satisfaction with home-based PERS, currently available systems do not provide capacity for continuation of care capabilities. Most current PERS/MERS simply provide monitoring for and response to adverse events. Additionally, these current systems do not provide mobile care capabilities tied directly to a smartphone and/or tablet allowing for provision of continued care, immediate and direct contact with emergency responders built into the system, without the need to dial 911, the capability to communicate with a computer simulation, or avatar, acting as a caregiver for the provision of information, and/or services associated with medication, functional movement, and care facilities. Therefore, the present technology has been developed in response to this current lack of capabilities in providing a continuation of care across allied health. Problems requiring health monitoring, assessment and delivery have yet to be fully solved by currently available PERS/MERS. The present technology provides a comprehensive method of electronic caregiving support, health information provision and access to dedicated emergency technicians to directly benefit the user and provide continuation of care. This critical continuation of care information can be displayed on the user's device and/or provided via voice and/or text interaction with the Electronic Caregiver Image (ECI) avatar within the application.
Referring first to
To provide these continuation of care capabilities, as depicted in
Medication Information
To provide accurate information associated with 104, upon opening the application system on 102, 101 gains access to a variety of medication data via cloud-based functionality. These data associated with 104 include: current medication status (109), current medication reminders (110), directions for medication consumption (111), drug side-effects (112), drug-drug interactions (113), drug-food interactions (114), consumption compliance (115) by 101 and time to refill of medication (116). The information associated with 104 that is provided via the application system to 101 is described in Table 1.
To successfully allow the application system to provide information to 101 describing 109, the application system provides 101 with continuous communication capabilities to 107 and 108. This connection provides 101 with access to drop down menu type functionality within the application that contains various medications that can be selected and stored. Once a medication is selected by 101, further details such as dosage, consumption time and consumption frequency are input and all data associated with the specific medication are transmitted to and stored in 108 allowing for information describing 109 to be consistently provided to and/or accessed by 101 within the application.
The application system embodies the capability for a user to enter local device timers for the provision of 110 to 101 through the use of local device timers.
In order for the application system to provide information to 101 that describe 111, 112, 113, and 114, the current application system utilizes mechanisms that include; the generation of a user profile upon login to ORB through the mobile device interface. Following the login, 101 immediately has the capability to query for customizable drug interaction data maintained with the ORB environment. These data, housed within the ORB environment, will be collected using available an OpenFDA API capable of scrubbing both the United States National Library of Medicine Data Access site and the United States Food and Drug Administration Data access site (containing government provided, open-source, documents/databases that contain information describing drug adverse events, drug product labeling, and drug recall enforcement reports). Upon retrieval of these drug data, exportation of the data occurs through the Electronic Caregiver interface such that analysis and storage occurs within ORB environment. As depicted in
For the tracking of, and provision of information describing 115, the application system utilizes multiple methods that include manual data input by 101 and video analytics made possible via the manufacturer developed camera system installed into 102. With regard to the capability of allowing 101 to acknowledge compliance with their medication regiment through manual data input, utilization of the touch screen capabilities of 102 are incorporated. As such 101 is provided with the previously described push notification for 110 and prompted with pop-up “Yes” and “Not Now” buttons depicted in
Continuing with manual input of 115, the application system provides 101 with the option to delay medication consumption using the “Not Now” option also depicted in
Also associated with 115, the application system provides 101 with the capability to review any medication reminders that would be considered “missed”. In instances where 101 does not adhere to the medication protocol and their indicated third party is contacted, the application system provides 101 or their indicated third part with the ability to review the medications that were not taken correctly. This allows the tracking and storage of medication adherence in cloud-based utilities and provides 101 with the opportunity to safely consume any medications that were missed. Throughout the utilization of medication tracking aspect, the connection to the cloud-based utilities and the capability of the application system to provide 111, 112, 113 and 114 potential problems associated with medication(s) being consumed at the wrong time or too closely to another medication can be identified and monitored.
The application system also embodies the capability for allowing for medication refill information (116) to be provided consistently to 101. With regard to 116, 101 makes use of the system connection to both 107 and 108 provided by the application system to input information regarding refill conditions for all current medications consumed by 101. Upon selection of medication form the drop down menu functionality provided via 102, 101 inputs data describing the number of doses associated with the medication and the number of available refills. Following the input of these data by 101, the application system utilizes cloud-based compute functionality resulting in the transmission of these medication data to cloud-based storage databases. Similar to 110, during this process local device timers for medication refill are created by 101, transmitted and stored in cloud-based database(s) following their entry by the user. This information storage allows the creation of push notifications informing 101 of pending medication refill needs that are transmitted from cloud-based utilities to the application at indicated times. These refill indicators are transmitted to 101 at intervals of 3-days, 2-days and 1-day to 101 exhausting their current medication. At the time of each refill reminder, 101 is provided with the option to confirm the execution of any refill orders in a similar fashion to that described for 115. Upon the transmission of the 1-day reminder from the application system to 101, 101 is notified that a failure to execute a refill order will result in the activation of the indicated responsible party 101 failing to indicate the execution of a refill order following the 1-day reminder, the application system immediately notifies 101 that their indicated responsible party will be contacted if refill order execution is not acknowledged. In instances where 101 does not acknowledge refill of medication following the 1-day reminder, the notification of responsible party protocol is activated and carried out.
Medical Testing
The application system embodies the capacity to enhance compliance with medical testing protocols. Similar to 110, 101 inputs medical testing data into 102 and those data are transmitted and stored in 107 and 108. Following storage of medical testing data, a local device timer is created, transmitted and stored in cloud-based data storage instances. This information storage allows 101 to create push notifications that are transmitted from cloud-based utilities to the application at the indicated time of medical testing and informs 101 of the pending test to be completed, the procedures by which the test is to be completed and any additional information relevant to the specific medical test.
A subsequent embodiment of the application system is the ability to store and analyze data associated with medical testing protocols input by 101. Following the creation of a customizable user profile within 107 medical testing data can be stored and accessed by 101 or responsible parties under HIIPA compliance. Additionally, various internal analyses techniques can be applied to the stored test data so that analytic outputs can be provided to 101 or responsible parties. These analytic outputs can be utilized by 101, a responsible party or a physician for additional review. The user can also input day to day symptoms on how they felt prior to and during the various medical tests that can provide insight into various aspects of the medical testing associated with 101.
Provision of Care
The current application embodies the provision of access to an emergency call center staffed with dedicated emergency responders to 101. As depicted in
The application system embodies the ability to incorporate existing local voice capture technology to allow the user to communicate directly with the Electronic Caregiving Image (ECI) avatar by voice. This local voice capture communication capability with the ECI avatar allows the user to make voice based inquiries of their medical data. Responses to these queries are provided via the ECI avatar depicted in
The application system also provides 101 with the capacity to identify care provision facilities though the application system interface. As such, 101 is provided with the capacity to utilize GPS through a connected mobile device that interacts with the ECI avatar. This capacity provides 101 with available map data of every emergency/urgent care facility available in the vicinity of the current location of 101. This embodiment is particularly useful when 101 is in an unfamiliar area and comes experiences an adverse event that may require medical intervention. By accessing the ECI avatar though hand held or voice interaction, 101 can request information regarding care facilities. Following this request for information, the application system utilizes the GPS capabilities of the connected device and provides the location and directions to the nearest care facility. This can be achieved within the system using ECI avatar communication direct with 101, 101 can be refer to a list of directions displayed on 102 or 101 can be provided map data detailing the fastest route to the nearest facility.
Application System Use Examples
Drug Interaction Query.
As 101 prepares to consume a prescribed medication, they can make a simply inquiry of the ECI avatar by asking “Addison, I am preparing to take medication X after lunch. Are there any known food-drug interactions associated with medication X?” Upon this query, the application system will access ORB to identify any interaction data that has been previously retrieved from the FDA and/or NLM data sources. Upon accessing these data and identifying a potential drug-food interaction (e.g. -alcohol), the ECI avatar will respond to 101 with a statement such as, “Mrs. Caroline, the medication you indicated has been shown to interact with alcohol. I would recommend that you not consume any alcoholic beverages during your lunch.”
Medical Testing Result Analysis.
Following the completion of daily blood pressure testing on the final day of the month, 101 can be provided a breakdown of the trends associated with their data. As such, if the results of the trend analysis indicated a slow and steady increase in blood pressure measurements over the course of the month, the application system can suggest 101 consider making an appointment with the appropriate health care provider. If the results of the trend analysis indicate consistency for the month of blood pressure testing results, the application system can provide positive feedback to 101 indicating their hard work appears to be resulting in successful regulation of their blood pressure.
The system 121 may communicatively couple with the client 117 via a public or private network, such as network 120 (e.g., internet cellular network 103). Suitable networks may include or interface with any one or more of, for instance, a local intranet, a PAN (Personal Area Network), a LAN (Local Area Network), a WAN (Wide Area Network), a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network), a virtual private network (VPN), a storage area network (SAN), a frame relay connection, an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) connection, a synchronous optical network (SONET) connection, a digital T1, T3, E1 or E3 line, Digital Data Service (DDS) connection, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) connection, an Ethernet connection, an ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) line, a dial-up port such as a V.90, V.34 or V.34bis analog modem connection, a cable modem, an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) connection, or an FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) or CDDI (Copper Distributed Data Interface) connection. Furthermore, communications may also include links to any of a variety of wireless networks, including WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) or TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), cellular phone networks, GPS (Global Positioning System), CDPD (cellular digital packet data), RIM (Research in Motion, Limited) duplex paging network, Bluetooth radio, or an IEEE 802.11-based radio frequency network. The network 120 can further include or interface with any one or more of an RS-232 serial connection, an IEEE-1394 (Firewire) connection, a Fiber Channel connection, an IrDA (infrared) port, a SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) connection, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection or other wired or wireless, digital or analog interface or connection, mesh or Digi® networking.
The system 121 generally comprises a processor, 130, a network interface 135, and a memory 140. According to some embodiments, the memory 140 comprises logic (e.g., instructions) 145 that can be executed by the processor 130 to perform various methods. For example, the logic may include a user interface module 125 as well as a data aggregation and correlation application (hereinafter application 150) that is configured to provide the functionalities described in greater detail herein including tracking and evaluating neurological disease. In some instances, application 150 is the application system providing virtual caregiving services described herein. In various instances, the user interface module 125 enables the customizable interface 200 or the user interfaces shown in
It will be understood that the functionalities described herein, which are attributed to the system 121 and application 150 may also be executed within the client 117. That is, the client 117 may be programmed to execute the functionalities described herein. In other instances, the system 121 and client 117 may cooperate to provide the functionalities described herein, such that the client 117 is provided with a client-side application that interacts with the system 121 such that the system 121 and client 117 operate in a client/server relationship. Complex computational features may be executed by the server 121, while simple operations that require fewer computational resources may be executed by the client 117, such as data gathering and data display.
In general, the user interface module 125 may be executed by the system 121 to provide various graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that allow users to interact with the system 121. For example, the user interfaces shown in
The example computer system 1 includes a processor or multiple processor(s) 5 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or both), and a main memory 10 and static memory 15, which communicate with each other via a bus 20. The computer system 1 may further include a video display 35 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD)). The computer system 1 may also include an alpha-numeric input device(s) 30 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device (e.g., a mouse), a voice recognition or biometric verification unit (not shown), a drive unit 37 (also referred to as disk drive unit), a signal generation device 40 (e.g., a speaker), and a network interface device 45. The computer system 1 may further include a data encryption module (not shown) to encrypt data.
The disk drive unit 37 includes a computer or machine-readable medium 50 on which is stored one or more sets of instructions and data structures (e.g., instructions 55) embodying or utilizing any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 55 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 10 and/or within the processor(s) 5 during execution thereof by the computer system 1. The main memory 10 and the processor(s) 5 may also constitute machine-readable media.
The instructions 55 may further be transmitted or received over a network (e.g., network 120, see
One skilled in the art will recognize that the Internet service may be configured to provide Internet access to one or more computing devices that are coupled to the Internet service, and that the computing devices may include one or more processors, buses, memory devices, display devices, input/output devices, and the like. Furthermore, those skilled in the art may appreciate that the Internet service may be coupled to one or more databases, repositories, servers, and the like, which may be utilized in order to implement any of the embodiments of the disclosure as described herein.
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.
In the description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as particular embodiments, procedures, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present technology. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present technology may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details.
While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the system are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the system, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, while processes or steps are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps in a different order, and some processes or steps may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified to provide alternative or sub-combinations. Each of these processes or steps may be implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, while processes or steps are at times shown as being performed in series, these processes or steps may instead be performed in parallel, or may be performed at different times.
While various embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. The descriptions are not intended to limit the scope of the present technology to the particular forms set forth herein. To the contrary, the present descriptions are intended to cover such alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the present technology as appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferred embodiment should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments.
The present application claims the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/655,582, filed on Apr. 10, 2018 and titled “Mobile System for the Assessment of Consumer Medication Compliance and Provision of Mobile Caregiving,” which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62655582 | Apr 2018 | US |