U.S. patent application number 13/854060 was filed with the patent office on 2014-06-05 for methods and systems for facilitating chronic care of a patient with a chronic medical condition.
This patent application is currently assigned to Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.. The applicant listed for this patent is CELLCO PARTNERSHIP D/B/A VERIZON WIRELESS, VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC., CELLCO PARTNERSHIP D/B/A VERIZON WIRELESS. Invention is credited to Scott Kozicki, Arthur W. Lane, III, Donald H. Relyea, Anil K. Solleti.
Application Number | 20140156291 13/854060 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 50826289 |
Filed Date | 2014-06-05 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140156291 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kozicki; Scott ; et
al. |
June 5, 2014 |
Methods and Systems for Facilitating Chronic Care of a Patient with
a Chronic Medical Condition
Abstract
An exemplary method includes a chronic care solutions provider
system 1) maintaining data representative of a chronic care plan
for a patient with a chronic medical condition, 2) providing a
notification by way of a patient portal for the patient to use a
biometric device to acquire a biometric reading, 3) receiving data
representative of the biometric reading acquired by the biometric
device, 4) determining that the biometric reading is outside an
acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan, 5) generating,
in response to the determination that the biometric reading is
outside the acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan, an
actionable task based on the biometric reading and in accordance
with the chronic care plan, and 6) presenting, by way of the
patient portal, an interactive task interface configured to
facilitate completion by the patient of the actionable task.
Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
Inventors: |
Kozicki; Scott; (Franklin,
TN) ; Lane, III; Arthur W.; (Nashville, TN) ;
Relyea; Donald H.; (Dallas, TX) ; Solleti; Anil
K.; (Irving, TX) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
CELLCO PARTNERSHIP D/B/A VERIZON WIRELESS
VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC. |
Basking Ridge
Arlington |
NJ
VA |
US
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Verizon Patent and Licensing
Inc.
Arlington
VA
Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless
Basking Ridge
NJ
|
Family ID: |
50826289 |
Appl. No.: |
13/854060 |
Filed: |
March 30, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
61732177 |
Nov 30, 2012 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/2 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 10/10 20130101;
G06Q 30/0631 20130101; G16H 40/67 20180101; G16H 10/20
20180101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/2 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 50/22 20060101
G06Q050/22; G06Q 30/06 20060101 G06Q030/06 |
Claims
1. A method comprising: maintaining, by a chronic care solutions
provider system, data representative of a chronic care plan for a
patient with a chronic medical condition; providing, by the chronic
care solutions provider system in accordance with the chronic care
plan, a notification by way of a patient portal for the patient to
use a biometric device to acquire a biometric reading associated
with the patient; receiving, by the chronic care solutions provider
system, data representative of the biometric reading acquired by
the biometric device; determining, by the chronic care solutions
provider system, that the biometric reading is outside an
acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan; generating, by
the chronic care solutions provider system in response to the
determination that the biometric reading is outside the acceptable
range specified in the chronic care plan, an actionable task based
on the biometric reading and in accordance with the chronic care
plan, the actionable task configured to assist the patient in
improving a health characteristic associated with the chronic
medical condition as measured by the biometric reading; and
presenting, by the chronic care solutions provider system, an
interactive task interface by way of the patient portal, the
interactive task interface configured to facilitate completion by
the patient of the actionable task.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing, by the
chronic care solutions provider system, a practitioner portal
accessible by a health care practitioner assigned to the patient;
and receiving, by the chronic care solutions provider system by way
of the practitioner portal, input provided by the health care
practitioner and representative of the chronic care plan; wherein
the maintaining of the data representative of the chronic care plan
comprises maintaining data representative of the chronic care plan
provided by the health care practitioner.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the data
representative of the biometric reading acquired by the biometric
device comprises receiving the data representative of the biometric
reading from the biometric device by way of a cellular connection
between the biometric device and a network interconnecting the
biometric device and the chronic care solutions provider
system.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the data
representative of the biometric reading acquired by the biometric
device comprises receiving the data representative of the biometric
reading from a computing device associated with the patient.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: maintaining, by the
chronic care solutions provider system, data representative of a
library of actionable tasks; wherein the generating of the
actionable task comprises using the biometric reading to
automatically select the actionable task from the library of
actionable tasks.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the actionable
task comprises: presenting, within a practitioner portal accessible
by a health care practitioner assigned to the patient, the
biometric reading acquired by the biometric device; receiving, by
way of the practitioner portal, input provided by the health care
practitioner in response to the presentation of the biometric
reading; and generating the actionable task based on the input
provided by the health care practitioner.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the actionable
task is further based on one or more other biometric readings
acquired by the biometric device.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing, by the
chronic care solutions provider system in accordance with the
chronic care plan, an additional notification by way of the patient
portal for the patient to use an additional biometric device to
acquire an additional biometric reading associated with the
patient; and receiving, by the chronic care solutions provider
system, data representative of the additional biometric reading
acquired by the additional biometric device; wherein the generating
of the actionable task is further based on the additional biometric
reading.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactive task interface
includes a notification of the actionable task.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the actionable
task comprises generating a plurality of actionable tasks based on
the biometric reading and in accordance with the chronic care plan;
and the presenting of the interactive task interface by way of the
patient portal comprises concurrently presenting, within the
interactive task interface, a plurality of graphical task cards
each representative of a distinct actionable task included in the
plurality of actionable tasks.
11. The method of claim 1, the presenting of the interactive task
interface by way of the patient portal comprises concurrently
presenting, within the interactive task interface, the interactive
task, a graphical object representative of progress made by the
patient towards one or more goals associated with the chronic care
plan, and at least one recommendation for managing the chronic
medical condition.
12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting, by the
chronic care solutions provider system, a completion by the patient
of the actionable task; and rewarding, by the chronic care
solutions provider system in response to the completion by the
patient of the actionable task, the patient with one or more reward
points.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising presenting, by the
chronic care solutions provider system within the patient portal,
an option to redeem the one or more reward points for one or more
prizes.
14. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically
notifying, by the chronic care solutions provider system, a health
care practitioner assigned to the patient that the biometric
reading is outside the acceptable range specified in the chronic
care plan.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the automatically notifying
comprises presenting, within a practitioner portal accessible by
the health care practitioner, a graphical object representative of
an alert that the biometric reading is outside the acceptable range
specified in the chronic care plan.
16. The method of claim 1, further comprising initiating, by the
health management system in response to the determining that the
biometric reading is outside the acceptable range specified in the
chronic care plan, a consultation between the patient and a health
care practitioner assigned to the patient.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the consultation comprises a
virtual consultation by way of the patient portal and a
practitioner portal accessible by the health care practitioner.
18. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable
instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable
medium.
19. A method comprising: providing, by a chronic care solutions
provider system, a practitioner portal accessible by a health care
practitioner assigned to a patient with a chronic medical
condition; receiving, by the chronic care solutions provider system
by way of the practitioner portal, input provided by the health
care practitioner and representative of a chronic care plan
personalized to the patient; providing, by the chronic care
solutions provider system in accordance with the chronic care plan,
a notification by way of a patient portal accessible by the patient
for the patient to use a biometric device to acquire a biometric
reading associated with the patient; receiving, by the chronic care
solutions provider system, data representative of the biometric
reading acquired by the biometric device; presenting, by the
chronic care solutions provider system within the practitioner
portal, the biometric reading acquired by the biometric device;
receiving, by the chronic care solutions provider system by way of
the practitioner portal, input provided by the health care
practitioner and representative of an actionable task based on the
biometric reading, the actionable task configured to assist the
patient in improving a health characteristic associated with the
chronic medical condition as measured by the biometric reading; and
presenting, by the chronic care solutions provider system, a
notification of the actionable task to the patient by way of the
patient portal.
20. The method of claim 19, embodied as computer-executable
instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable
medium.
21. A system comprising: a storage facility configured to maintain
data representative of a chronic care plan for a patient with a
chronic medical condition; and a chronic care management facility
communicatively coupled to the storage facility and configured to
provide, in accordance with the chronic care plan, a notification
by way of a patient portal for the patient to use a biometric
device to acquire a biometric reading associated with the patient,
receive data representative of the biometric reading acquired by
the biometric device, determine that the biometric reading is
outside an acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan,
generate, in response to the determination that the biometric
reading is outside the acceptable range specified in the chronic
care plan, an actionable task based on the biometric reading and in
accordance with the chronic care plan, the actionable task
configured to assist the patient in improving a health
characteristic associated with the chronic medical condition as
measured by the biometric reading, and present an interactive task
interface by way of the patient portal, the interactive task
interface configured to facilitate completion by the patient of the
actionable task.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C.
.sctn.119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/732,177,
filed Nov. 30, 2012. The contents of the provisional patent
application are hereby incorporated by reference in their
entirety.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
[0002] Chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart failure,
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and coronary artery disease,
cause about seventy percent of deaths and result in well over a
trillion dollars in health care spending each year in the United
States alone. In addition to the direct costs in health care,
chronic medical conditions are a significant burden to the economy,
through limitations in daily activities, lost productivity, and
employee absenteeism.
[0003] Conventional chronic care techniques often involve
prescribing a regimen that a chronic care patient is supposed to
follow in between follow-up visits with a health care practitioner
(e.g., a doctor or other chronic care provider). Unfortunately,
many patients fail to follow these regimens because the health care
practitioner is unable to constantly monitor and encourage them in
between the follow-up visits. As a result, their chronic medical
conditions worsen over time, thereby increasing the cost of caring
for them (e.g., in the form of frequent emergency room visits) and
inhibiting their ability to live a healthy and productive life.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0004] The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments and
are a part of the specification. The illustrated embodiments are
merely examples and do not limit the scope of the disclosure.
Throughout the drawings, identical or similar reference numbers
designate identical or similar elements.
[0005] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary configuration in which a
chronic care solutions provider system is communicatively coupled
to a customer computing system according to principles described
herein.
[0006] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary implementation of the
configuration shown in FIG. 1 according to principles described
herein.
[0007] FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary components of a chronic care
solutions provider system according to principles described
herein.
[0008] FIG. 4 shows an exemplary configuration in which a chronic
care management facility provides a patient portal and a
practitioner portal according to principles described herein.
[0009] FIGS. 5-17 illustrate exemplary interfaces according to
principles described herein.
[0010] FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary method of facilitating
chronic care of a patient with a chronic medical condition
according to principles described herein.
[0011] FIG. 19 illustrates an exemplary method of facilitating
chronic care of a patient with a chronic medical condition
according to principles described herein.
[0012] FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary implementation of the
chronic care solutions provider system shown in FIG. 3 according to
principles described herein.
[0013] FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary computing device according
to principles described herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0014] Methods and systems for facilitating chronic care of a
patient with a chronic medical condition are described herein. For
example, as will be described below, a chronic care solutions
provider system may 1) maintain data representative of a chronic
care plan for a patient with a chronic medical condition, 2)
provide, in accordance with the chronic care plan, a notification
by way of a patient portal for the patient to use a biometric
device to acquire a biometric reading associated with the patient,
3) receive data representative of the biometric reading acquired by
the biometric device, 4) determine that the biometric reading is
outside an acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan, 5)
generate, in response to the determination that the biometric
reading is outside the acceptable range specified in the chronic
care plan, an actionable task based on the biometric reading and in
accordance with the chronic care plan, and 6) present, by way of
the patient portal, an interactive task interface configured to
facilitate completion by the patient of the actionable task. As
will be described herein, the actionable task may be configured to
assist the patient in managing the chronic medical condition (e.g.,
by improving a health characteristic associated with the chronic
medical condition as measured by the biometric reading).
[0015] Compared with conventional chronic care techniques, the
methods and systems described herein may facilitate a relatively
more efficient, effective, and/or accessible standard of care for
people (i.e., patients) with chronic medical conditions. For
example, by generating actionable tasks based on biometric readings
acquired by the patient and then presenting the actionable tasks in
a way that incentivizes and makes it easy for the patient to
complete the actionable tasks, the patient may be relatively more
likely to consistently complete the actionable tasks and thereby
manage his or her chronic medical condition. Moreover, as will be
described below, the methods and systems described herein may allow
a health care practitioner assigned to the patient to remotely
monitor progress made by the patient in completing the actionable
tasks, thereby allowing the patient to interact with the health
care practitioner without having to make an in-person visit to a
health care clinic. This, in turn, may facilitate early
intervention if the biometric readings are outside an acceptable
range, thereby preventing costly emergency room visits, enabling
the patient to lead a healthy and productive life, and/or reducing
the overall cost of health care for everyone.
[0016] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary configuration 100 in which a
chronic care solutions provider system 102 is communicatively
coupled to a customer computing system 104. As illustrated by the
dashed lines in FIG. 1 and as will be described in more detail
below, chronic care solutions provider system 102 may provide a
chronic care platform 106 upon which a chronic care solution 108
may be built for one or more customers associated with customer
computing system 104.
[0017] Chronic care solutions provider system 102 may be
implemented by one or more appropriately configured computing
devices (e.g., one or more server devices) and associated with
(e.g., owned by, operated by, and/or managed by) a chronic care
solutions provider. For example, chronic care solutions provider
system 102 may be associated with one or more entities involved in
providing a chronic care solution to a customer. To illustrate,
chronic care solutions provider system 102 may be associated with a
first entity that provides chronic care platform 106 and a second
entity that provides chronic care solution 108, a single entity
that provides both chronic care platform 106 and chronic care
solution 108, and/or any other entity or combination of entities
involved in providing chronic care platform 106 and chronic care
solution 108 as may serve a particular implementation.
[0018] Customer computing system 104 may be associated with (e.g.,
owned by, operated by, and/or managed by) customers of the chronic
care solutions provider and/or users of the chronic care solutions
provided by the chronic care solutions provider. For example,
customer computing system 104 may be associated with one or more
patients with one or more chronic medical conditions, one or more
health care practitioners, one or more chronic care solution
administrators, one or more health insurance companies, one or more
health care practitioner staffing agencies, and/or any other user
and/or entity as may serve a particular implementation.
[0019] In some examples, chronic care solution 108 may comprise an
abstraction of one or more high-level, customer-visible chronic
care services ("customer services") provided by the chronic care
solutions provider as part of the chronic care solution 108. Such
chronic care services may include, but are not limited to, portal
services, remote monitoring services, e-prescribing services,
payment services, virtual consultation services, etc.
[0020] Chronic care platform 106 may comprise an abstraction of one
or more lower-level services ("platform services") that support
and/or perform the customer services of chronic care solution 108.
Platform services may include platform-level services provided by
chronic care solutions provider system 102 as part of chronic care
platform 106 and that may support, underlie, and/or perform one or
more customer services of chronic care solution 108 provided on top
of chronic care platform. For example, platform services may
include, without limitation, access services, messaging services,
biometric device provisioning and fulfillment services,
communication services, support services, data transport services,
etc.
[0021] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary implementation 200 of the
configuration 100 shown in FIG. 1. As shown, implementation 200 may
include a patient computing device 202 and a practitioner computing
device 204 each communicatively coupled to chronic care solutions
provider system 102 by way of a network (e.g., network 206 and
network 208). In some examples, patient computing device 202 and
practitioner computing device 204 may implement customer computing
system 104.
[0022] As shown, patient computing device 202 may be associated
with (i.e., used by) a patient 210. Patient 210 may include any
person with a chronic medical condition (i.e., a chronic care
patient) and who uses patient computing device 202 to avail himself
or herself of the chronic care services described herein. Exemplary
chronic medical conditions that patient 210 may have include, but
are not limited to, diabetes, heart disease (e.g., heart failure,
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery disease,
etc.), obesity, and/or any other long-term illness, disease, or
condition that may require chronic care (i.e., long-term medical
care).
[0023] Likewise, practitioner computing device 204 may be
associated with (i.e., used by) a health care practitioner 212. As
used herein, a health care practitioner may include a physician, a
physician assistant, a nurse, a dietitian, a therapist, and/or any
other chronic care giver or provider.
[0024] Patient computing device 202 may be implemented by a mobile
device (e.g., a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer,
etc.), a personal computer, and/or any other suitable computing
device that may be configured to access a patient portal provided
by chronic care solutions provider system 102. For example, patient
computing device 202 may be implemented by a computing device
configured to execute and/or otherwise access an application (e.g.,
a web application or a mobile application) configured to facilitate
access by the patient to the chronic care services described
herein.
[0025] Likewise, practitioner computing device 204 may be
implemented by a mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone, a tablet
computer, a laptop computer, etc.), a personal computer, and/or any
other suitable computing device that may be configured to access a
practitioner portal provided by chronic care solutions provider
system 102. For example, practitioner computing device 204 may be
implemented by a computing device configured to execute and/or
otherwise access an application (e.g., a web application or a
mobile application) configured to facilitate access by the
practitioner to the chronic care services described herein.
[0026] It will be recognized that although a single patient
computing device 202 and a single practitioner computing device 204
are shown in FIG. 2, any number of patient computing devices and
practitioner computing devices may be communicatively coupled to
chronic care solutions provider system 102 as may serve a
particular implementation. Additional computing devices used by
other types of patients (e.g., chronic care solution
administrators, etc.) may also be communicatively coupled to
chronic care solutions provider system 102.
[0027] As shown, patient computing device 202 may communicate with
chronic care solutions provider system 102 by way of a network 206.
Likewise, practitioner computing device 204 may communicate with
chronic care solutions provider system 102 by way of a network 208.
Networks 206 and 208 may each include one or more wireless
networks, cellular networks (e.g., 3G, 4G, or long term evolution
("LTE") networks), carrier-specific networks, broadband networks,
closed media networks, cable networks, satellite networks, the
Internet, intranets, wide area networks, local area networks,
public networks, private networks, optical fiber networks, and/or
any other networks or combination of networks capable of carrying
data and communications signals between patient computing device
202 and chronic care solutions provider system 102 and/or between
practitioner computing device 204 and chronic care solutions
provider system 102. While networks 206 and 208 are shown to be
separate networks in FIG. 2 (e.g., network 206 may include one or
more telecommunication carrier networks and network 208 may include
the Internet), it will be recognized that, in some examples,
networks 206 and 208 may alternatively be a single network.
[0028] Patient computing device 202, practitioner computing device
204, and chronic care solutions provider system 102 may communicate
using any communication technologies suitable for transporting
data, including known communication devices, media, and protocols
supportive of remote or local data communications. Examples of such
communication technologies include, but are not limited to, data
transmission media, communications devices (e.g., network devices
such as routers, switches, etc.), Transmission Control Protocol
("TCP"), Internet Protocol ("IP"), Hypertext Transfer Protocol
("HTTP"), Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure ("HTTPS"), Session
Initiation Protocol ("SIP"), Ethernet, and any other suitable
communications technologies, devices, media, and protocols,
including any of those disclosed herein.
[0029] As further illustrated in FIG. 2, patient 210 may utilize
one or more biometric devices 214 (e.g., biometric devices 214-1
through 214-3) to acquire biometric readings associated with
patient 210. As used herein, a "biometric reading" refers to any
measurement of one or more biometrics (i.e., one or more health
characteristics) of a patient.
[0030] Biometric devices 214 may include any suitable device
configured to measure one or more biometrics of patient 210.
Exemplary biometric devices 214 that may be used in accordance with
the methods and systems described herein include, but are not
limited to, a glucometer configured to measure blood glucose level
of patient 210, a blood pressure monitor configured to measure a
blood pressure of patient 210, a weight scale configured to measure
a weight of patient 210, and a pulse oximeter configured to measure
the level of oxygen saturation in the patient's blood. Some types
of biometric devices 214 (e.g., a pulse oximeter) may be configured
to continuously monitor a particular biometric of patient 210.
Other types of biometric devices 214 (e.g., a weight scale) may be
configured to measure a particular biometric of patient 210 only in
response to a specific action performed by patient 210 (e.g., when
patient 210 steps on the weight scale).
[0031] In some examples, as will be described below, it may be
desirable for chronic care solutions provider system 102 to process
data representative of the biometric readings acquired by biometric
devices 214. To this end, data representative of the biometric
readings may be communicated to chronic care solutions provider
system 102 in any suitable manner depending on the communication
capabilities of the various biometric devices 214 that the patient
may use.
[0032] For example, biometric device 214-1 does not have any
communication capabilities. Hence, patient 210 may utilize
biometric device 214-1 to acquire a biometric reading and then
manually input data representative of the biometric reading into
patient computing device 202, which in turn may provide the data
representative of the biometric reading to chronic care solutions
provider system 102 by way of network 206.
[0033] As another example, biometric device 214-2 may be configured
to communicate directly with patient computing device 202. For
example, biometric device 214-2 and patient computing device 202
may communicate by way of a wireless communication link (e.g., a
local area network connection, Bluetooth, infrared, etc.), a wired
communication link, and/or any other communication technology as
may serve a particular implementation. Hence, in this example, once
patient 210 utilizes biometric device 214-2 to acquire a biometric
reading, biometric device 214-2 may transmit data representative of
the biometric reading to patient computing device 202, which in
turn may provide the data representative of the biometric reading
to chronic care solutions provider system 102 by way of network
206.
[0034] As yet another example, biometric device 214-3 may include
one or more communication components (e.g., a wireless network
card, a cellular modem, and/or any other type of communication
component) configured to facilitate direct communication with
chronic care solutions provider system 102 and/or any other system
by way of network 206 (e.g., by way of a Wi-Fi or cellular link).
In this manner, biometric device 214-3 may transmit data
representative of a biometric reading directly to chronic care
solutions provider system 102 by way of network 206. In some
alternative examples, biometric device 214-3 may be managed by a
third party entity not directly associated with chronic care
solutions provider system 102. In these examples, biometric device
214-3 may transmit data representative of the biometric reading to
a server or other type of system associated with the third party
entity by way of network 206. The third party entity may then
forward the data representative of the biometric reading to chronic
care solutions provider system 102.
[0035] FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary components of chronic care
solutions provider system 102. As mentioned, chronic care solutions
provider system 102 may provide a chronic care platform and one or
more chronic care solutions by way of the chronic care platform. To
this end, chronic care solutions provider system 102 may include a
chronic care management facility 302 and a storage facility 304
selectively and communicatively coupled to one another. It will be
recognized that although facilities 302 and 304 are shown to be
separate facilities in FIG. 3, any of facilities 302-306 may be
combined into fewer facilities, such as into a single facility, or
divided into more facilities as may serve a particular
implementation.
[0036] Storage facility 304 may be configured to maintain chronic
care plan data 306 representative of one or more chronic care plans
associated with one or more patients, actionable task data 308
representative of one or more actionable tasks generated or
otherwise used by chronic care management facility 302, and/or any
other data generated and/or utilized by chronic care management
facility 302 as may serve a particular implementation.
[0037] As used herein, a "chronic care plan" represented by chronic
care plan data 306 refers to a particular set of guidelines, action
items, metrics, and/or regimen that a chronic care patient may
follow in order to manage, treat, or otherwise care for a chronic
medical condition. For example, a chronic care plan may specify an
acceptable range for a particular type of biometric reading
associated with a patient, one or more actionable tasks that the
patient should perform in order to manage the chronic medical
condition, one or more incentives (e.g., reward points) that may be
offered to the patient for completing the one or more actionable
tasks, a schedule for follow-up visits with a health care
practitioner, and/or any other attribute associated with the care
of the patient. An "actionable task" represented by actionable task
data 308 refers to any task or action item that may be performed by
a patient and/or a health care practitioner associated with the
patient and that may be configured to assist the patient in
managing the chronic medical condition (e.g., by assisting the
patient in improving a health characteristic associated with the
chronic medical condition as measured by a biometric reading
acquired by a biometric device).
[0038] Chronic care management facility 302 may be configured to
perform one or more chronic care management operations. For
example, chronic care management facility 302 may provide various
types of portals that may be accessed by various types of users
participating in or otherwise associated with a chronic care
solution provided by chronic care solutions provider system
102.
[0039] To illustrate, FIG. 4 shows an exemplary configuration in
which chronic care management facility 302 provides a patient
portal 402 configured to be accessed by patient 210 by way of
patient computing device 202 and a practitioner portal 404
configured to be accessed by health care practitioner 212 by way of
practitioner computing device 206. Patient portal 402 and
practitioner portal 404 may be provided and accessed in any
suitable manner. As will be described in more detail below, various
types of interfaces may be presented to patient 210 and/or health
care practitioner 212 by way of patient portal 402 and practitioner
portal 404, respectively. It will be recognized that chronic care
management facility 302 may provide additional or alternative types
of portals as may serve a particular implementation. For example,
chronic care management facility 302 may provide an administrator
portal configured to be accessed by a chronic care solution
administrator.
[0040] Returning to FIG. 3, chronic care management facility 302
may be further configured to perform one or more operations with
respect to a chronic care plan associated with the patient. For
example, as will be described in more detail below, chronic care
management facility 302 may, in accordance with the chronic care
plan, provide one or more notifications, process biometric
readings, generate actionable tasks, and/or present various types
of content by way of a patient portal and/or a practitioner portal
for experiencing by the patient and/or a health care practitioner
assigned to the patient.
[0041] In some examples, a chronic care plan may include a general
plan that may be used by a plurality of patients that have the same
chronic medical condition. Alternatively, a chronic care plan may
be personalized to a particular patient. For example, chronic care
management facility 302 may receive (e.g., by way of a practitioner
portal) input provided by a health care practitioner representative
of one or more attributes of a chronic care plan personalized to a
particular patient. In response, chronic care management facility
302 may store data representative of the personalized chronic care
plan within storage facility 304 for use by the particular
patient.
[0042] In some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may
provide, in accordance with a chronic care plan associated with a
patient, a notification by way of a patient portal for the patient
to use a biometric device to acquire a biometric reading associated
with the patient. For example, chronic care management facility 302
may provide an alert to the patient for the patient to check her
blood glucose level with a glucometer, her blood pressure level
with a blood pressure monitor, her weight with a weight scale, her
oxygen saturation level with a pulse oximeter, and/or any other
biometric reading with any other type of biometric device may serve
a particular implementation. Exemplary notifications such as these
will be described in more detail below.
[0043] In response to the notification, the patient may use a
biometric device to acquire a biometric reading. Chronic care
management facility 302 may receive data representative of the
acquired biometric reading in any suitable manner. For example, as
described above, the biometric device may automatically transmit
the data representative of the biometric reading to chronic care
management facility 302 by way of cellular connection between the
biometric device and a network (e.g., network 206) interconnecting
the biometric device and chronic care solutions provider system
102.
[0044] Alternatively, chronic care management facility 302 may
receive the data representative of the biometric reading from a
computing device (e.g., patient computing device 202) associated
with the patient. For example, the biometric device may
automatically transmit the data representative of the biometric
reading to the computing device, as described above. The computing
device may then forward the data representative of the biometric
reading to chronic care management facility 302 (e.g., by way of
network 206). Alternatively, the patient may manually input the
data representative of the biometric reading into the computing
device, which may then forward the data representative of the
biometric reading to chronic care management facility 302.
[0045] In some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may
present the acquired biometric reading within the patient portal
and/or within the practitioner portal for experiencing by the
patient and/or the health care practitioner. In this manner, the
patient and/or health care practitioner may immediately be aware of
the biometric reading and take any action deemed necessary in
response to the biometric reading.
[0046] For example, a health care practitioner may be automatically
notified (e.g., by way of an alert presented within a practitioner
portal, a text message, etc.) by chronic care management facility
302 that the biometric reading is outside an acceptable range as
specified in the chronic care plan associated with the patient. In
response, the health care practitioner may contact (e.g., call,
initiate a virtual consultation, etc.) the patient to discuss the
biometric reading and/or one or more actions that should be taken
by the patient to remedy the out of range biometric reading.
[0047] In some examples, if the biometric reading is outside an
acceptable range as specified in the chronic care plan, chronic
care management facility 302 may automatically initiate a
consultation between the patient and the health care practitioner.
In some examples, the consultation may include a virtual
consultation by way of the patient portal and the practitioner
portal. Exemplary virtual consultations that may be provided by
chronic care management facility 302 are described in more detail
in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed the
same day as the present application, and entitled "Methods and
Systems for Facilitating a Virtual Consultation Between a User and
a Health Care Practitioner," the contents of which are incorporated
herein by reference in their entirety.
[0048] Additionally or alternatively, the health care practitioner
may specify one or more actionable tasks that may be performed by
the patient in order to improve a health characteristic associated
with the medical condition as measured by the biometric reading. In
some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may receive
input representative of the one or more actionable tasks provided
by the health care practitioner by way of the practitioner portal,
present a notification of the one or more actionable tasks to the
patient by way of the patient portal, and/or update the chronic
care plan associated with the patient in accordance with the newly
specified one or more actionable tasks. Examples of this will be
described in more detail below.
[0049] In some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may
generate an actionable task based on the biometric reading and in
accordance with the chronic care plan. For example, chronic care
management facility 302 may determine that the biometric reading is
outside an acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan. In
response, chronic care management facility 302 may automatically
generate an actionable task configured to assist the patient in
improving a health characteristic associated with the chronic
medical condition as measured by the biometric reading. In this
manner, actionable tasks may be dynamically generated in
substantially real-time as the patient takes biometric readings,
which may allow the patient to more quickly and effectively respond
to the biometric reading.
[0050] Chronic care management facility 302 may automatically
generate an actionable task in any suitable manner. For example, a
library of actionable tasks may be maintained by storage facility
304. Chronic care management facility 302 may use the biometric
reading to automatically select an appropriate actionable task from
the library of actionable tasks. By so doing, the need for a health
care practitioner to personally specify the actionable task may be
avoided, thereby saving costs associated with the services of the
health care practitioner and allowing the patient to more readily
respond to an unfavorable biometric reading.
[0051] Additionally or alternatively, chronic care management
facility 302 may generate an actionable task in response to input
provided by a health care practitioner. For example, as described
above, chronic care management facility 302 may present the
biometric reading to a health care practitioner assigned to the
patient. Chronic care management facility 302 may then receive
input provided by the health care practitioner in response to the
biometric reading and generate the actionable task based on the
input provided by the health care practitioner.
[0052] In some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may
generate an actionable task based on a plurality of biometric
readings. For example, a patient may use a particular biometric
device to acquire a plurality of biometric readings over the course
of a particular time period (e.g., a day, a week, etc.). Chronic
care management facility 302 may generate an actionable task based
on these biometric readings as a whole. For example, the biometric
readings may be indicative of a biometric trend that may not be
readily apparent based on a single biometric reading. Hence,
chronic care management facility 302 may generate an actionable
task that is configured to reverse or otherwise address the
biometric trend identified using the plurality of biometric
readings.
[0053] In some examples, chronic care management facility 302 may
generate an actionable task based on biometric readings generated
by different biometric devices. For example, chronic care
management facility 302 may provide a first notification to the
patient by way of the patient portal for the patient to weigh
herself using a weight scale. Chronic care management facility 302
may also provide a second notification to the patient by way of the
patient portal for the patient to measure her blood glucose level
with a glucometer. Chronic care management facility 302 may then
generate an actionable task based on the patient's weight and blood
glucose level.
[0054] Chronic care management facility 302 may be further
configured to present an interactive task interface by way of the
patient portal. The interactive task interface may be configured to
facilitate completion by the patient of one or more actionable
tasks generated by chronic care management facility 302. For
example, the interactive task interface may include a notification
of an actionable task generated in response to a biometric reading
and one or more instructions (e.g., step-by-step instructions)
regarding how to complete the actionable task. As will be described
in more detail below, chronic care management facility 302 may also
present other content (e.g., a graphical object representative of
progress made by the patient towards one or more goals associated
with the chronic care plan and at least one recommendation for
managing the chronic medical condition) within the interactive task
interface.
[0055] In some scenarios, chronic care management facility 302 may
generate multiple actionable tasks based on the biometric reading
in accordance with the chronic care plan. In these scenarios,
chronic care management facility 302 may graphically portray the
actionable tasks within the interactive task interface in a manner
that allows the patient to readily ascertain what the actionable
tasks are and in a manner that encourages the patient to interact
with and complete the actionable tasks.
[0056] For example, chronic care management facility 302 may
concurrently present, within the interactive task interface, a
plurality of graphical task cards each representative of a distinct
actionable task included in the plurality of actionable tasks. The
graphical task cards may be presented in any suitable manner. For
example, as will be illustrated below, the graphical task cards may
be presented in a staggered stack arrangement such that at least a
portion of each of the graphical task cards is visible within the
patient portal.
[0057] Chronic care management facility 302 may be further
configured to detect a completion by the patient of an actionable
task and, in response, reward the patient with one or more reward
points. In this manner, the patient may be incentivized to work on
and complete actionable tasks. In some examples, chronic care
patient management facility 302 may present, within the patient
portal, an option to redeem the one or more reward points for one
or more prizes (e.g., gift cards, massages, items of clothing,
and/or any other suitable item as may serve a particular
implementation).
[0058] Various examples of the methods and systems described herein
will now be provided. It will be recognized that the examples
provided herein are merely illustrative of the many different
implementations that may be realized in accordance with the methods
and systems described herein. For example, additional or
alternative interfaces to those described below may be presented in
accordance with the methods and systems described herein.
[0059] FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary patient portal 500 that may
be provided by chronic care management facility 302 for
presentation to a patient (e.g., by way of patient computing device
202). Patient portal 500 may be presented in any suitable manner.
For example, patient portal 500 may be presented in the context of
a standalone application (e.g., a mobile application), a webpage,
and/or in any other manner as may serve a particular
implementation. As will be described herein, various interfaces may
be presented within patient portal 500 to facilitate management of
a chronic medical condition associated with a patient.
[0060] As shown, a login interface 502 may be initially presented
within patient portal 500. A patient may utilize login interface
502 to access one or more of the chronic care services described
herein. For example, as shown, the patient may enter a login ID and
password and select a "sign in" option 504. It will be recognized
that a patient may alternatively access one or more of the chronic
care services described herein in any other manner. For example, a
user of a mobile device may simply initiate a mobile application
executed by the mobile device to access the chronic care services
described herein.
[0061] FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary notification interface 602
that may be presented within patient portal 500 after the patient
has logged in using login interface 502. As shown, chronic care
management facility 302 may provide, in accordance with a chronic
care plan associated with the patient, a notification 604 for
presentation within notification interface 602 for the patient to
use a biometric device to acquire a biometric reading associated
with the patient. In the particular example of FIG. 6, notification
604 is for the patient to weigh herself using a weight scale. It
will be recognized that additional or alternative types of
notifications may be provided by way of patient portal 500 as may
serve a particular implementation.
[0062] As shown, the patient may select a "cancel" option 606 to
ignore notification 604. Alternatively, the patient may select a
"start" option 608 to access an interface configured to facilitate
acquisition of the biometric reading.
[0063] To illustrate, FIG. 7 shows an exemplary instructions
interface 702 that may be presented within patient portal 500 in
response to the patient selecting the "start" option 608 shown in
FIG. 6. As shown, instructions 704 about how to acquire the
biometric reading may be provided within instructions interface
702. In this particular example, instructions 704 detail a number
of steps that may be taken by the patient in order to weigh herself
using a weight scale. As shown, one or more options 706 (e.g.,
options 706-1 through 706-4) may be selected by the patient in
order to access additional content (e.g., video content) that
describe in more detail how to perform each of the steps included
in instructions 704. For example, in response to the patient
selecting option 706-1, chronic care management facility 302 may
present, within patient portal 500, a video illustrating how to
take one's shoes off. Once the patient is aware of how to use the
biometric device to acquire the biometric reading, she may select
option 708 to proceed with acquiring the biometric reading.
[0064] FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary results interface 802 that
may be presented within patient portal 500 in response to the
patient using the biometric device to acquire the biometric
reading. As shown, a notification 804 may be presented within
results interface 802 that includes information representative of
the biometric reading. In this particular example, notification 804
shows that the weight scale acquired a biometric reading of 167.1
pounds ("lbs") at 11:35 .mu.m. In this manner, the patient may
immediately know the results of the biometric reading.
[0065] In some examples, the patient may select a "view history"
option 806 to view a log of previously acquired weight
measurements. The patient may also select a "send now" option 808
to send data representative of the biometric reading from patient
computing device 202 to chronic care solutions provider system 102.
Alternatively, as described above, chronic care solutions provider
system 102 may receive the data representative of the biometric
reading directly from the biometric device (i.e., the weight
scale). In this embodiment, the "send now" option 808 may be
omitted.
[0066] In instances in which the biometric device is not configured
to communicate with either patient computing device 202 or chronic
care solutions provider system 102, an interface may be presented
within patient portal 500 requesting the patient to manually enter
data representative of the biometric reading. The patient may then
direct patient computing device 202 transmit the data
representative of the biometric reading in any suitable manner.
[0067] In some examples (e.g., in cases where the biometric reading
is outside an acceptable range specified in the chronic care plan),
chronic care management facility 302 may notify a health care
practitioner assigned to the patient of the biometric reading. For
example, FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary practitioner portal 900
that may be accessed by a health care practitioner assigned to the
patient described in connection with FIGS. 5-8. As shown, a
notification 902 (i.e., a graphical object representative of an
alert) may be presented within practitioner portal 900 in response
to chronic care management facility 302 determining that the weight
of the patient has deviated outside an acceptable range as
specified in the patient's chronic care plan.
[0068] In some examples, notification 902 may include one or more
options that the health care practitioner may select in order to
address and/or ignore the biometric reading. For example, the
health care practitioner may select an "ignore" option 904 to
ignore the notification.
[0069] Alternatively, the health care practitioner may select an
"initiate consultation" option 906 to initiate a consultation with
the patient. As described above, the consultation may include a
virtual consultation by way of patient portal 500 and practitioner
portal 900 (e.g., an online video conference, an online audio
conference, an online chat session, and or any other form of
real-time communication as may serve a particular implementation).
Alternatively, the consultation may include a phone call and/or any
other type of communication as may serve a particular
implementation.
[0070] As shown, the health care practitioner may alternatively
select a "create actionable task" option 908 to create one or more
actionable tasks based on the biometric reading. To illustrate,
FIG. 10 shows an exemplary task manager interface 1002 that may be
presented within practitioner portal 900 in response to the health
care practitioner selecting option 908.
[0071] As shown, task manager interface 1002 may provide one or
more input fields into which the health care practitioner may enter
data representative of one or more actionable tasks and or other
types of data associated with the actionable tasks. For example,
task manager interface 1002 may include a "task" field column 1004
into which the health care practitioner may enter text descriptive
of an actionable task, an "order" field column 1006 into which the
health care practitioner may enter a preferred order of completion
for various actionable tasks, and a "reward points" field column
1008 into which the health care practitioner may enter a number of
reward points that may be awarded to the patient upon completion of
the various tasks. To illustrate, FIG. 10 shows that the health
care practitioner has created four actionable tasks (e.g., "tell us
how much you exercised today," "take medicine," "read article," and
"complete questionnaire") and assigned each of the four actionable
tasks a particular order number and a particular amount of reward
points to the awarded upon completion of the tasks.
[0072] Once the health care practitioner has created a desired
number of actionable tasks, he or she may select a "submit" option
1010. In response, chronic care management facility 302 may
generate the actionable tasks based on the input provided by the
health care practitioner.
[0073] Alternatively, as described above, chronic care management
facility 302 may automatically generate one or more actionable
tasks based on the biometric reading. For example, in response to
the biometric reading that the patient's weight is outside the
acceptable range specified in the patient's chronic care plan,
chronic care management facility 302 may automatically select one
or more actionable tasks from a library of actionable tasks
maintained by storage facility 304.
[0074] FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary interactive task interface
1102 that may be presented within patient portal 500 and that may
be configured to facilitate completion by the patient of one or
more actionable tasks generated in response to an acquisition of
the biometric reading associated with the patient.
[0075] As shown, a plurality of graphical task cards 1104 (e.g.,
graphical task cards 1104-1 through 1104-4) each representative of
a distinct actionable task included in a plurality of actionable
tasks generated in response to the acquisition of the biometric
reading may be concurrently presented within interactive task
interface 1102. It will be recognized that chronic care management
facility 302 may graphically portray the actionable tasks within
interactive task interface 1102 in any other suitable manner. For
example, chronic care management facility 302 may alternatively
graphically portray the actionable tasks as a list of selectable
links each configured to facilitate access to additional details
about an associated actionable task, a series of non-overlapping
graphical objects, and/or in any other manner as may serve a
particular implementation. Interactive task interface 1102 and
graphical task cards are described in more detail in co-pending
U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed the same day as the
present application, and entitled "Methods and Systems for
Facilitating Access by a Patient to Actionable Tasks Associated
with a Chronic Care Plan," the contents of which are incorporated
herein by reference in their entirety.
[0076] As shown, graphical task cards 1104 are presented in a
staggered stack arrangement such that at least a portion of each of
the graphical task cards 1104 is visible within patient portal 500
(i.e., within interactive task interface 1102). In some examples,
graphical task cards 1104 may be ordered within the staggered stack
arrangement in accordance with an order in which the actionable
tasks represented by graphical task cards 1104 are to be completed
by the patient. For example, in the example of FIG. 11, the
"exercise report" actionable task represented by graphical task
card 1104-1 is to be completed first by the patient, followed by
the "blood pressure" actionable task, the "complete questionnaire"
actionable task, and the "read article" actionable task,
represented by graphical task cards 1104-2 through 1104-4,
respectively.
[0077] In some examples, the patient may interact with graphical
task cards 1104 in order to view or otherwise access content
presented within each of the graphical task cards 1104. For
example, the patient may use one or more touch gestures to shuffle
through the graphical task cards 1104. To illustrate, chronic care
management facility 302 may detect a touch gesture performed by the
patient with respect to a touch screen within which patient portal
500 is displayed. The touch gesture may include any suitable touch
gesture, such as a swipe gesture by an object (e.g., a finger,
stylus, or other object) in any direction while the object is in
contact with the touch screen, a tap gesture by the object, and/or
any other suitable touch gesture as may serve a particular
implementation. In response to the touch gesture, chronic care
management facility 302 may shuffle the graphical task cards 1104
within the staggered stack arrangement.
[0078] Chronic care management facility 302 may shuffle graphical
task cards 1104 in any suitable manner. For example, chronic care
management facility 302 may shuffle the graphical task cards 1104
by graphically bringing a graphical task card (e.g., graphical task
card 1104-2) located beneath a top of the staggered stack
arrangement prior to the touch gesture being performed to being
located at the top of the staggered stack arrangement. To
illustrate, FIG. 12 shows interactive task interface 1102 after
graphical task cards 1104 have been shuffled in response to a touch
gesture performed by the patient. As shown, graphical task card
1104-2 has been brought to the top of the staggered stack
arrangement and graphical task card 1104-1 has been placed at the
bottom of the staggered stack arrangement.
[0079] In some examples, each graphical task card 1104 is
interactive and configured to facilitate completion by the patient
of a corresponding actionable task. For example, the patient may
select graphical task card 1104-1 (e.g., by tapping graphical task
card 1104-1) to access content associated with and/or complete the
actionable task represented by graphical task card 1104-1. In
response, chronic care management facility 302 may enlarge the
selected graphical task card 1104-1 within patient portal 500. FIG.
13 shows patient portal 500 after graphical task card 1102-1 has
been enlarged. As shown, the enlarging may include maximizing a
size of graphical task card 1102-1 within patient portal 500 such
that the remaining number of graphical task cards (i.e., graphical
task cards 1104-2 through 1104-4) are not visible within patient
portal 500.
[0080] The patient may then select a "begin" option 1302 included
within graphical task card 1104-1 in order to complete the
actionable task represented by graphical task card 1104-1. It will
be recognized that option 1302 may be selected at any time (e.g.,
before graphical task card 1104-1 has been enlarged).
[0081] FIG. 14 shows patient portal 500 after option 1302 has been
selected by the patient. As shown, a plurality of input fields 1402
(i.e., input fields 1402-1 through 1402-4) may be presented within
patient portal 500 and used to complete the actionable task
specified by graphical task card 1104-1. It will be recognized that
any other content configured to assist the patient in completing
the actionable task may be presented within patient portal 500 as
may serve a particular implementation.
[0082] FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary interface 1502 that may be
presented within patient portal 500 in response to completion by
the patient of an actionable task. As shown, interface 1502 may
include a message 1504 congratulating the patient for completing
the actionable task. Interface 1502 may include any other content
as may serve a particular implementation.
[0083] FIG. 16 illustrates another exemplary patient portal 1600
that may be presented to the patient. As shown, patient portal 1600
may include a variety of types of content related to a chronic care
plan associated with the patient. For example, chronic care
management facility 302 may concurrently present, within patient
portal 1600, a plurality of graphical objects 1602 (e.g., graphical
task cards) each representative of a distinct actionable task
included in a plurality of actionable tasks configured to assist
the patient in managing the chronic medical condition, a graphical
object 1604 representative of progress made by the patient towards
one or more goals associated with the chronic care plan, and at
least one recommendation 1606 for managing the chronic medical
condition. Patient portal 1600 may further include information 1608
associated with (e.g., descriptive of) one or more chronic care
plans associated with the patient, social network content 1610
associated with the patient (e.g., social network posts by other
patients with the same chronic medical condition as the patient,
and one or more advertisements (e.g., advertisements 1612 and 1614)
associated with (e.g., selected in accordance with) the chronic
medical condition and one or more biometric readings acquired by
the patient.
[0084] Each of these types of content may be dynamically updated as
the patient takes various biometric readings, completes various
actionable tasks, and/or in response to any other factor as may
serve a particular implementation. For example, advertisements 1612
and 1614 may be dynamically changed as the patient improves in
caring for his or her chronic medical condition (as evidenced by a
trend of completed actionable tasks). To illustrate, an
advertisement 1612 for a smoking cessation program may be initially
presented to the patient by way of patient portal 1600 when the
patient first starts accessing the chronic care services described
herein. As the patient completes actionable tasks configured to
help the patient stop smoking, advertisement 1612 may be updated to
include an advertisement for exercise equipment.
[0085] As shown, patient portal 1600 may also include rewards
content 1616 associated with a rewards program in which the patient
is enrolled. As described above, a patient may receive reward
points for completing an actionable task and/or for any other
reason. In this manner, the patient may be incentivized to access
the chronic care services described herein (e.g., by working on and
completing actionable tasks). Patient portal 1600 may also include
an option 1618 that may be selected to redeem one or more reward
points for one or more prizes (e.g., gift cards, massages, items of
clothing, and/or any other suitable item as may serve a particular
implementation).
[0086] In some examples, a chronic care plan may be personalized to
a patient. For example, a health care practitioner may define one
or more acceptable ranges associated with a biometric reading for
inclusion in the chronic care plan. To illustrate, FIG. 17 shows an
exemplary biometric reading management interface 1702 that may be
presented within practitioner portal 900 and that may be used by a
health care practitioner to provide input representative of one or
more acceptable ranges associated with a biometric reading for
inclusion in the chronic care plan. As shown, the practitioner has
specified a number of possible ranges 1704 (e.g., ranges 1704-1
through 1704-6) for a blood pressure reading taken by the patient.
As shown, a "low" range 1704-1 is between 60 and 90, a "low normal"
range 1704-2 is between 91 and 99, a "normal" range 1704-3 is
between 100 and 120, an "above" range 1704-4 is between 121 and
139, a "high" range 1704-5 is between 140 and 170, and a "critical"
range 1704-6 is between 171 and 999.
[0087] In some examples, one or more of the ranges 1704 defined in
biometric reading management interface 1702 may be designated as
being "acceptable." For example, in the example of FIG. 17, ranges
1704-2 through 1704-4 are designated as being acceptable (i.e., an
alert will not be sent to the health care practitioner and a
warning message will not be presented to the patient if a biometric
reading falls within any of these ranges). However, if the
biometric reading falls within ranges 1704-1, 1704-5, or 1704-6,
biometric reading management interface 1702 shows that an alert
will be sent to the health care practitioner and a warning message
(which, as shown in FIG. 17, may be specified by the health care
practitioner) will be presented to the patient by way of the
patient portal.
[0088] FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary method 1800 of facilitating
chronic care of a patient with a chronic medical condition. While
FIG. 18 illustrates exemplary steps according to one embodiment,
other embodiments may omit, add to, reorder, and/or modify any of
the steps shown in FIG. 18. One or more of the steps shown in FIG.
18 may be performed by chronic care solutions provider system 102
and/or any implementation thereof.
[0089] In step 1802, a chronic care solutions provider system
maintains data representative of a chronic care plan for a patient
with a chronic medical condition. Step 1802 may be performed in any
of the ways described herein.
[0090] In step 1804, the chronic care solutions provider system
provides, in accordance with the chronic care plan, a notification
by way of a patient portal for the patient to use a biometric
device to acquire a biometric reading associated with the patient.
Step 1804 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.
[0091] In step 1806, the chronic care solutions provider system
receives data representative of the biometric reading acquired by
the biometric device. Step 1806 may be performed in any of the ways
described herein.
[0092] In step 1808, the chronic care solutions provider system
determines that the biometric reading is outside an acceptable
range specified in the chronic care plan. Step 1808 may be
performed in any of the ways described herein.
[0093] In step 1810, the chronic care solutions provider system
generates, in response to the determination made in step 1808, an
actionable task based on the biometric reading and in accordance
with the chronic care plan. As described above, the actionable task
is configured to assist the patient in improving a health
characteristic associated with the chronic medical condition as
measured by the biometric reading. Step 1810 may be performed in
any of the ways described herein.
[0094] In step 1812, the chronic care solutions provider system
presents an interactive task interface by way of the patient
portal, the interactive task interface configured to facilitate
completion by the patient of the actionable task. Step 1812 may be
performed in any of the ways described herein.
[0095] FIG. 19 illustrates another exemplary method 1900 of
facilitating chronic care of a patient with a chronic medical
condition. While FIG. 19 illustrates exemplary steps according to
one embodiment, other embodiments may omit, add to, reorder, and/or
modify any of the steps shown in FIG. 19. One or more of the steps
shown in FIG. 19 may be performed by chronic care solutions
provider system 102 and/or any implementation thereof.
[0096] In step 1902, a chronic care solutions provider system
provides a practitioner portal accessible by a health care
practitioner assigned to a patient with a chronic medical
condition. Step 1902 may be performed in any of the ways described
herein.
[0097] In step 1904, the chronic care solutions provider system
receives, by way of the practitioner portal, input provided by the
health care practitioner and representative of a chronic care plan
personalized to the patient. Step 1904 may be performed in any of
the ways described herein.
[0098] In step 1906, the chronic care solutions provider system
provides, in accordance with the chronic care plan, a notification
by way of a patient portal accessible by the patient for the
patient to use a biometric device to acquire a biometric reading
associated with the patient. Step 1906 may be performed in any of
the ways described herein.
[0099] In step 1908, the chronic care solutions provider system
receives data representative of the biometric reading acquired by
the biometric device. Step 1908 may be performed in any of the ways
described herein.
[0100] In step 1910, the chronic care solutions provider system
presents, within the practitioner portal, the biometric reading
acquired by the biometric device. Step 1910 may be performed in any
of the ways described herein.
[0101] In step 1912, the chronic care solutions provider system
receives, by way of the practitioner portal, input provided by the
health care practitioner and representative of an actionable task
based on the biometric reading. Step 1912 may be performed in any
of the ways described herein.
[0102] In step 1914, the chronic care solutions provider system
presents a notification of the actionable task to the patient by
way of the patient portal. Step 1914 may be performed in any of the
ways described herein.
[0103] FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary implementation 2000 of
chronic care solutions provider system 102. In particular,
implementation 2000 shows various services (i.e., platform services
and/or customer services) that may be provided by chronic care
solutions provider system 102. For example, as shown, chronic care
solutions provider system 102 may provide communication services
2002, access services 2004, orchestration and message brokering
services 2006, data and transport services 2008, and reporting
services 2010. Additional or alternative platform services may be
provided as may serve a particular implementation. Together, the
various platform services illustrated in FIG. 20 provide a chronic
care platform (e.g., chronic care platform 106) upon which one or
more chronic care solutions may be built.
[0104] Communication services 2002 may facilitate communication by
chronic care solutions provider system 102 with various external
devices and/or systems. For example, communication services 2002
may provide a communication services layer by which chronic care
solutions provider system 102 may communicate with one or more
patient computing devices (e.g., patient computing device 202) and
one or more practitioner computing devices (e.g., practitioner
computing device 204).
[0105] Communication services 2002 may additionally or
alternatively facilitate communication by chronic care solutions
provider system 102 with external systems 2012. In some examples,
external systems 2012 may be associated with (e.g., managed by) one
or more entities not associated with chronic care solutions
provider system 102. As shown, such external systems 2012 may
include an electronic medical record ("EMR") system, one or more
legacy systems, and one or more biometric device manufacturer
systems configured to provide, maintain, or otherwise manage
biometric devices used in connection with the methods and systems
described herein.
[0106] Access services 2004 may be configured to facilitate access
by patients, health care practitioners, administrators, and/or
other types of users to the chronic care solutions provided by
chronic care solutions provider system 102. For example, access
services 2004 may provide participation and authorization services
2014, application services 2016, portal services 2018, error
handling and logging services 2020, and support services 2022.
[0107] Participation and authorization services 2014 may include
access management services configured to facilitate secure
collaboration with external systems (e.g., external systems 2012)
with regulatory mandates and enable comprehensive security for
applications, web services, and data. Participation and
authorization services 2014 may also include authentication
services configured to validate that a particular patient is
allowed to access one or more chronic care services (e.g., by
verifying login IDs and passwords). Participation and authorization
services 2014 may also include registration services configured to
provide a registration process that may be used by a patient and/or
health care practitioner to register for chronic care services.
[0108] Application services 2016 may include scheduling services
configured to facilitate scheduling by health care practitioners,
diagnosis and assessment services configured to facilitate remote
monitoring by health care practitioners of patients, payment
services configured to allow patients to securely submit payments
online, and virtual consultation services configured to facilitate
virtual consultations between patients and health care
practitioners.
[0109] Portal services 2018 may include administration services
configured to allow an administrator to manage the various portals
provided by chronic care solutions provider system 102,
e-prescribing services configured to allow a health care
practitioner to provide a patient with online prescriptions,
patient portal services configured to facilitate presentation of a
patient portal to a patient, and practitioner portal services
configured to facilitate presentation of a practitioner portal to a
health care practitioner.
[0110] Error handling and logging services 2020 may include one or
more services configured to handle and/or log faults that may occur
within any of the other services provided by chronic care solutions
provider system 102. Error handling and logging services 2020 may
be further configured to provide one or more options for auditing
the faults.
[0111] Support services 2022 may be configured to provide support
(e.g., customer support) for the various services provided by
chronic care solutions provider system 102.
[0112] Orchestration and message brokering services 2006 may be
configured to provide one or more workflow management services.
Orchestration and message brokering services 2006 may be further
configured to provide message routing and brokering services. For
example, the recipients of patient data (i.e., external systems
2012) may require data in a specific health care standard format.
This service ensures appropriate message transformation, message
validation and routing for each of the 2012 external systems.
Orchestration and message brokering services 2006 may be further
configured to provide message parser services.
[0113] Data and transport services 2008 may be configured to
provide a secure database and data warehouse for runtime as well as
complex analytics and reporting services. In some examples, the
underlying database for storing data may include a relational data
(e.g. MS SQL, Oracle, etc.) warehouse.
[0114] Reporting services 2010 may be configured to facilitate
creation and generation of various reports associated with the
chronic care services provided by chronic care solutions provider
system 102. For example, reporting services 2010 process data
acquired by chronic care solutions provider system 102 and generate
and present one or more reports based on the data.
[0115] In certain embodiments, one or more of the processes
described herein may be implemented at least in part as
instructions embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium
and executable by one or more computing devices. In general, a
processor (e.g., a microprocessor) receives instructions, from a
non-transitory computer-readable medium, (e.g., a memory, etc.),
and executes those instructions, thereby performing one or more
processes, including one or more of the processes described herein.
Such instructions may be stored and/or transmitted using any of a
variety of known computer-readable media.
[0116] A computer-readable medium (also referred to as a
processor-readable medium) includes any non-transitory medium that
participates in providing data (e.g., instructions) that may be
read by a computer (e.g., by a processor of a computer). Such a
medium may take many forms, including, but not limited to,
non-volatile media, and/or volatile media. Non-volatile media may
include, for example, optical or magnetic disks and other
persistent memory. Volatile media may include, for example, dynamic
random access memory ("DRAM"), which typically constitutes a main
memory. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for
example, a disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic
medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any other optical medium, a RAM, a PROM, an
EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any
other tangible medium from which a computer can read.
[0117] FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary computing device 2100 that
may be configured to perform one or more of the processes described
herein. As shown in FIG. 21, computing device 2100 may include a
communication interface 2102, a processor 2104, a storage device
2106, and an input/output ("I/O") module 2108 communicatively
connected via a communication infrastructure 2110. While an
exemplary computing device 2100 is shown in FIG. 21, the components
illustrated in FIG. 21 are not intended to be limiting. Additional
or alternative components may be used in other embodiments.
Components of computing device 2100 shown in FIG. 21 will now be
described in additional detail.
[0118] Communication interface 2102 may be configured to
communicate with one or more computing devices. Examples of
communication interface 2102 include, without limitation, a wired
network interface (such as a network interface card), a wireless
network interface (such as a wireless network interface card), a
modem, an audio/video connection, and any other suitable
interface.
[0119] Processor 2104 generally represents any type or form of
processing unit capable of processing data or interpreting,
executing, and/or directing execution of one or more of the
instructions, processes, and/or operations described herein.
Processor 2104 may direct execution of operations in accordance
with one or more applications 2112 or other computer-executable
instructions such as may be stored in storage device 2106 or
another computer-readable medium.
[0120] Storage device 2106 may include one or more data storage
media, devices, or configurations and may employ any type, form,
and combination of data storage media and/or device. For example,
storage device 2106 may include, but is not limited to, a hard
drive, network drive, flash drive, magnetic disc, optical disc,
random access memory ("RAM"), dynamic RAM ("DRAM"), other
non-volatile and/or volatile data storage units, or a combination
or sub-combination thereof. Electronic data, including data
described herein, may be temporarily and/or permanently stored in
storage device 2106. For example, data representative of one or
more executable applications 2112 configured to direct processor
2104 to perform any of the operations described herein may be
stored within storage device 2106. In some examples, data may be
arranged in one or more databases residing within storage device
2106.
[0121] I/O module 2108 may be configured to receive user input and
provide user output and may include any hardware, firmware,
software, or combination thereof supportive of input and output
capabilities. For example, I/O module 2108 may include hardware
and/or software for capturing user input, including, but not
limited to, a keyboard or keypad, a touch screen component (e.g.,
touch screen display), a receiver (e.g., an RF or infrared
receiver), and/or one or more input buttons.
[0122] I/O module 2108 may include one or more devices for
presenting output to a user, including, but not limited to, a
graphics engine, a display (e.g., a display screen, one or more
output drivers (e.g., display drivers), one or more audio speakers,
and one or more audio drivers. In certain embodiments, I/O module
2108 is configured to provide graphical data to a display for
presentation to a user. The graphical data may be representative of
one or more graphical user interfaces and/or any other graphical
content as may serve a particular implementation.
[0123] In some examples, any of the systems and/or facilities
described herein may be implemented by or within one or more
components of computing device 2100. For example, one or more
applications 2112 residing within storage device 2106 may be
configured to direct processor 2104 to perform one or more
processes or functions associated with chronic care management
facility 302. Likewise, storage facility 304 may be implemented by
or within storage device 2106.
[0124] In the preceding description, various exemplary embodiments
have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It
will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes
may be made thereto, and additional embodiments may be implemented,
without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in
the claims that follow. For example, certain features of one
embodiment described herein may be combined with or substituted for
features of another embodiment described herein. The description
and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative
rather than a restrictive sense.
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