Patent Application
20240079128
Seeking healthcare services in a convention manner can be time-consuming and cumbersome as it may require searching for the right caregiver, making multiple appointments with various entities (e.g., doctors, labs, etc.), commuting to and from a medical facility, and receiving diagnoses and/or advice through in-person consultation. These activities not only consume resources, but also cause delays in providing a patient with the necessary attention and treatments. With the advancement of communication and computer technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) related technologies, it is desirable to reform the manner in which healthcare services are provided to improve patient experience and the efficiency and quality of the healthcare services.
Described herein are systems, methods, and instrumentalities associated with providing and managing healthcare services using artificial intelligence (AI) based technologies. In accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, a digital healthcare platform may be provided, which may include an apparatus configured to receive a request for a medical service from a remote device (e.g., such as a computer or a smart phone), obtain one or more records associated with the medical service, and process the one or more records using at least a first AI model to generate a preliminary diagnosis for a person requesting the medical service. The one or more records may include pictures or images (e.g., medical scans) depicting a body area of the person or a description of symptoms experienced by the person, and the AI model may be trained to detect an abnormality in the pictures or images, or certain words in the description, link the abnormality or the words to a medical condition, and indicate the medical condition in the preliminary diagnosis.
The apparatus may transmit the preliminary diagnosis and/or a follow-up suggestion determined based on the preliminary diagnosis to the remote device, and may receive a response from the remote device indicating whether further medical assistance is needed by the requester. If the response indicates that further medical assistance is needed, the apparatus may further determine, using at least a second AI model, a list of providers capable of providing the further medical assistance and provide the list of providers to the remote device for the requester to select. The apparatus may additionally schedule an appointment with a provider selected by the requester on their behalf.
In examples, the one or more records used to generate the preliminary diagnosis may further include a medical history of the person requesting the medical service or biological information (e.g., age, gender, height, weight, etc.) of the person, and the first AI model may be trained to identify the person's medical condition further based on their medical history or the biological information. In some examples, the medical history and/or biological information may be provided by the person requesting the medical service. In other examples, the apparatus described herein may determine an identity of the person based on the request and may collect the medical history or the biological information of the person from sources of medical records based on the identity of the person.
In examples, the apparatus described herein may determine the list of providers that match the request by obtaining respective information regarding the list of providers and the person needing the further medical assistance, extracting, using the second AI model, respective attributes of the list of providers and the person from the obtained information, and matching the list of providers with the person based on the extracted attributes. In examples, the information regarding the list of providers may include one or more of respective services offered by the list of providers, respective availability of the list of providers, respective ratings of the list of providers, respective geographical locations of the list of providers, or respective types of insurance accepted by the list of providers. In examples, the information regarding the person needing the further medical assistance may include demographic information of the person, a desired time for the further medical assistance, a geographical location of the person, a type of insurance owned by the person, or the preliminary diagnosis generated by the first AI model.
A more detailed understanding of the examples disclosed herein may be had from the following description, given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.
The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings.
The digital healthcare platform 100 may be used to service and/or connect at least two groups of users: care seekers (e.g., patients and/or their guardians or relatives) and caregivers (e.g., physicians, hospitals, nurses, physical therapists, etc.). The care seekers (also referred to as service recipients) may register on the digital platform and indicate their medical needs, while the caregivers (also referred to as service providers) may register on the digital platform and offer their services to the care seekers. Using artificial intelligence (AI) based technologies (e.g., artificial neural networks and/or machine-learning (ML) models implemented therein), the digital healthcare platform 100 may provide automated diagnoses and/or treatment advice to the care seekers, for example, based on information provided by and/or collected for the care seekers. Using the AI-based technologies, the digital healthcare platform 100 may also match additional needs of the care seekers (e.g., if the care seekers indicate such needs upon reviewing an automatically generated diagnosis) with the services offered by the caregivers, and provide (e.g., recommend) a list of caregivers for the care seekers to choose.
As shown in
In addition to (or in lieu of) receiving the one or more records from the user device 102, the server device 104 may (e.g., on its own) collect information about the patient needing the medical service. For example, based on the request submitted from the user device 102, the server device 104 may determine an identity of the patient (e.g., based on account information stored by the service device 104) and collect, from one or more sources, biological and/or medical information of the patient based on the patient's identity. As described herein, the biological information may include the age, gender, weight, height, and/or BMI of the patient, and the medical information may include a medical history of the patient and/or previous medical records of the patient (e.g., lab results, medical scans, prescriptions, etc.). The sources that may provide such information may include, for example, a medical records repository (e.g., 112 of
All or a subset of the records provided by the user device 102 or collected by the server device 104 may be used by the AI diagnostic model 108 to generate (e.g., without human intervention) a preliminary diagnosis for the care seeker. In examples, the AI diagnostic model 108 may include an image classification model that may be trained to receive as input an image of a body area of the care seeker and classify the image as indicating a certain medical condition or not indicating the medical condition (e.g., by outputting a probability score for the medical condition). For instance, if the image classification model determines, based on a picture of a wound suffered by the care seeker, that the care seeker only has a 10% chance of developing an infection from the wound, the image classification model may output a score of 0.1 to indicate the probability of infection. As another example, if the image classification model determines, based on a picture of the care seeker's retina, that there is a 80% chance that the care seekers has diabetes, the image classification model may output a score of 0.8 to indicate the probability of diabetes. The image classification model may be trained to generate these diagnoses (e.g., preliminary diagnoses) by identifying features associated with an abnormality (e.g., an infected wound, growth of abnormal blood vessels in the retina, etc.) in the input image and linking the abnormality to a corresponding medical condition (e.g., infection, diabetes, etc.). The training and implementation of such an image classification model will be described in greater detail below.
In examples, the AI diagnostic model 108 may include a semantics analysis model trained to receive as input a description of one or more symptoms experienced by the care seeks and determine, based on words contained in the description, that the symptoms may be associated with a certain medical condition. Similar to the image classification model described above, upon making the determination, the semantics analysis model may also output a probably score indicating the result of the determination. For instance, if the semantics analysis model detects words such as “dizziness,” “nausea,” and/or “vomiting,” the semantics analysis model may determine that the care seeker has a 60% chance of suffering from migraines and may output a score of 0.6 as the probability of migraines. As another example, if the semantics analysis model detects phases such as “sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg,” the semantics analysis model may determine that the care seeker is at a 80% risk of having a stroke and may output a score of 0.8 to alert the care seeker about the risk. The semantics analysis model may be capable of generating these diagnoses (e.g., preliminary diagnoses) based on natural language processing skills acquired through training. The training and implementation of such an AI model will be described in greater detail below.
In examples, medical technology companies may register their solutions (e.g., AI-based solutions) with the digital healthcare platform 100 and make the solutions available to patients through the digital healthcare platform. Hence, in these examples, AI model 108 may include models developed and trained by these medical technology companies.
The preliminary diagnoses generated by AI model 108 may be used by the service device 104 to recommend additional actions to be taken by the care seeker. For example, based on a diagnosis of a potential heart condition, the server device 104 may recommend that the care seeker make an appointment with a cardiologist and the service device 104 may provide a list of cardiologists for the care seeker to choose. As another example, based on the detection of an abnormality in a chest X-ray of the care seeker, the service device 104 may recommend that a further scan of the area be conducted within three weeks. If a diagnosis indicates needs for emergency care, the server device 104 may urge the care seeker to visit an emergency room, and in some examples, with the care seeker's approval, the server device 104 may initiate contact with an ambulance service on behalf of the care seeker.
The server device 104 may transmit the preliminary diagnosis generated by AI model 108 and/or any follow-up suggestions to the care seeker (e.g., to the user device 102). In response, the care seeker may indicate to the server device 104 whether further medical assistance is desired by the care seeker. The care seeker may determine that further medical assistance is needed if the preliminary diagnosis indicates a serious medical condition or if the preliminary diagnosis is ambiguous. Upon receiving the indication that further medical assistance is desired by care seeker, the server device 104 may determine, using at least the second AI model 110, a list of providers that may be capable of providing the medical assistance and match one or more other conditions specified by the care seeker. In examples, the second AI model 110 may include a regression model trained to regress multiple pieces of input information related to care seekers and service providers to respective matching scores (e.g., between 0.0 to 1.0) indicating the likelihood that a care seeker may choose a certain service provider for a desired medical service. The second AI model may learn to solve such a high-dimension regression problem based on training and/or past user selections made on the digital healthcare system 100. So, the more the digital healthcare system 100 is used, the more accurate the matching score generated by the second AI model may become.
The input information that may be used to solve the high-dimension regression problem described above may include care seeker information such as the type(s) of medical assistance needed (e.g., AI-based, virtual, physical, etc.), the level of expertise or experience expected from a provider, preferred locations and/or times, type(s) of insurance owned, and/or the like that may be provided by the care seeker (e.g., at the time of registration or together with a specific request) or determined by the server device 104/user device 102 (e.g., the location of the care seeker may be automatically determined based on a GPS location and/or an IP address of the user device 102).
The input information used to solve the high-dimension regression problem described above may also include provider information such as the specialty of the provider (e.g., cardiology, dermatology, etc.), type(s) of medical services offered by the provider (e.g., AI-based, virtual, physical, etc.), the level of expertise or experience of the provider, available locations and/or times, type(s) of insurance accepted, and/or the like that may be entered by the provider (e.g., upon registration with the digital healthcare system 100). In examples, the provider information may also include information gathered by the digital healthcare system 100 from other sources including, for example, public reviews of the provider, ratings of the provider, etc. In examples, the preliminary diagnosis generated by AI model 108 may also be used as an additional input to solve the regression problem.
In examples, the matching scores generated by the second AI model may be used to filter and/or sort the providers recommended to the care seeker. For example, the service device 104 may decide to recommend only those providers having a matching score above a certain threshold to the care seeker. In other examples, alternative and/or additional attributes may be used to filter and/or sort the providers. For instance, the providers may be filter and/or sorted based on a distance of the providers from the care seeker (e.g., only those providers located within 10 miles of the care seeker may be listed and further sorted based on the distance).
Upon determining the list of matching providers using the second AI model 110, the service device 104 may provide the list to the care seeker (e.g., to the user device 102). The service device 104 may additionally indicate scheduling/availability information of the list of providers to the care seeker. If the care seeker selects one of the providers from the list and indicates the selection to the server device 104, the server device 104 may further schedule an appointment with the selected provider on behalf of the care seeker, and send a confirmation and/or reminder of the appointment to the care seeker. In examples, after completing an appointment, the care seeker may indicate on the digital healthcare system 100 that the appointment has been completed, and the server device may determine and/or trigger a next step for the care seeker. Hence, the digital healthcare platform 100 may be used to optimize the workflow of patient care, e.g., within the same integrated delivery network (IDN) or hospital network, or across multiple IDNs or hospital networks. In some examples, the digital healthcare platform 100 may also allow doctors to provide virtual medical services such as virtual surgeries during which multiple surgeons may remotely visualize a patient and provide opinions and guidance on a surgical operation. In some examples, the digital healthcare platform 100 may offer multiple AI-based services (e.g., AI models for automated diagnoses). Based on user request and/or data, if a corresponding AI model is available on the digital healthcare platform 100, the user request may be processed automatically and a diagnosis (or prescription) may be made available within a short period of time.
In examples, the regression neural network used to implement the AI matching model may be a feedforward, fully connected neural network comprising an input layer, one or more fully connected layers, and/or an output layer. A first fully connected layer of the neural network may have a connection from the network input (e.g., predictor data comprising patient and provider attributes), and each subsequent layer may have a connection from the previous layer. Each fully connected layer may multiply its input by a weight matrix (e.g., kernel or filter weights) and/or add a bias vector to the resulting product. An activation function (e.g., a rectified linear unit (ReLU) activation function) may follow each fully connected layer (e.g., excluding the last), and the final fully connected layer may produce the network's output such as the matching score described herein. The weights of the regression neural network (e.g., parameters of the AI matching models) may be optimized using a loss function such as a mean squared error (MSE) loss function that may indicate a difference between a predicted score and a ground truth score.
For simplicity of explanation, the training operations are depicted in
The systems, methods, and/or instrumentalities described herein may be implemented using one or more processors, one or more storage devices, and/or other suitable accessory devices such as display devices, communication devices, input/output devices, etc.
Communication circuit 504 may be configured to transmit and receive information utilizing one or more communication protocols (e.g., TCP/IP) and one or more communication networks including a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, a wireless data network (e.g., a Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G/LTE, or 5G network). Memory 506 may include a storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory storage medium) configured to store machine-readable instructions that, when executed, cause processor 502 to perform one or more of the functions described herein. Examples of the machine-readable medium may include volatile or non-volatile memory including but not limited to semiconductor memory (e.g., electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)), flash memory, and/or the like. Mass storage device 508 may include one or more magnetic disks such as one or more internal hard disks, one or more removable disks, one or more magneto-optical disks, one or more CD-ROM or DVD-ROM disks, etc., on which instructions and/or data may be stored to facilitate the operation of processor 502. Input device 510 may include a keyboard, a mouse, a voice-controlled input device, a touch sensitive input device (e.g., a touch screen), and/or the like for receiving user inputs to apparatus 500.
It should be noted that apparatus 500 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked or clustered) with other computation devices to perform the tasks described herein. And even though only one instance of each component is shown in
While this disclosure has been described in terms of certain embodiments and generally associated methods, alterations and permutations of the embodiments and methods will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the above description of example embodiments does not constrain this disclosure. Other changes, substitutions, and alterations are also possible without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure. In addition, unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions utilizing terms such as “analyzing,” “determining,” “enabling,” “identifying,” “modifying” or the like, refer to the actions and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (e.g., electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. Many other implementations will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading and understanding the above description. The scope of the disclosure should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
