Electronic provider—patient interface system

Details Electronic provider—patient interface system Electronic provider—patient interface system

2000-01-18

2004-06-29

Follansbee, John (Department: 2127)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: virtual mac

Task management or control

Process scheduling

C600S300000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06757898

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates, in general, to an automated system of electronic communications between a health-care or medical service provider and his/her patient, for the purpose of providing a simple, reliable and effective interface for rapidly exchanging inquiries, responses, data, services and information between the both parties for the mutual benefit and satisfaction of each.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Health care used to be simple and reliable. When symptoms of an illness appeared, either the doctor visited the patient's home or the patient went to the doctor's office. But such services no longer exist. Home care by doctors stopped decades ago, and even visits to the doctor's office or hospital must now be preceded by authorization from a managed health care provider. Under certain conditions, care may now be refused entirely unless payment is made in advance. Consequently, consumers have, by necessity, become more active in managing their own health, and they worry about how much they must spend on health-care services.
Meanwhile, health-care providers are now under more pressure than ever to treat a greater number of patients in the same amount of time, but with diminishing resources. The pressure began in the 1980's with the advent of managed health care and the associated reduction in physician compensation in the face of an inflated economy. This trend continued through the 1990's, but was exacerbated by patient demands for an increased voice in their care, better access to the doctor and more information about their medical situation. As a result of cost cutting, merging and reengineering, doctors have been left with the dilemma of either reducing service to their patients or increasing capacity. The effect has been a mutual disenfranchisement of both doctors and patients. This is evidenced by the increasing number of doctors, who are now leaving medicine to pursue other careers, and by the fact that the ones remaining are considering resorting to labor unions to protect their interests.
A number of commercial entities have attempted to assist doctors by creating “back-office” operations and management solutions. Back office solutions are defined as those processes applied to the current day-to-day management of a doctor's practice (i.e., eligibility, claims, on-line practice management, etc.). However, they do not address the doctor's relationship with the patient. Unfortunately, implementation of a back-office service has a high impact on the practice, because it requires a significant addition of resources and necessitates system and process modifications in the doctor's office, including substantial training of staff, integration and work process changes. Therefore, the back-office approach is tied to what have proven to be insurmountable problems involving additional time, cost and management expenditures for the practice.
Companies that sell in-house systems for the back-office space, include medical record vendors, such as Medicalogic and Epic, as well as practice office management vendors (POMS), such as IDX. Recently, such vendors have been redeveloping their burdensome back-office solutions to deliver them on-line and compete in the space currently occupied by Healtheon/WebMD. Nevertheless, whether delivered on-line or in-house, each of these solutions has a high impact on the operation of the doctor's office, and as a result will face significant hurdles before they can be adopted regardless of cost, delivery method or the like.
At the same time we now live in an age of information and technology. The Internet provides a number of services to its users, including the World Wide Web (WWW), which is essentially a collection of files, often referred to as Web pages, in a variety of formats stored on host computers, often called Web servers. A collection of Web pages published by an organization is typically termed a Web site, wherein its first or highest level page is termed a “homepage.” Consequently, Internet technology has spawned a health-care industry online to provide health-care information to both patients and professionals, and for any number of reasons, individuals are turning to the Internet with increasing frequency for expertise regarding diseases, medicines, treatments, alternative health products, and even the selection of doctors.
To provide greater access to the Internet the communication protocols and languages utilized by users and servers have become standardized. These protocols include (i) the Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems, and the communication protocol used for communications between users and servers, and (ii) the Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), wherein the TCP portion is the standard Internet transport specific protocol (or set of protocols) for communication and data exchange between computers or applications. TCP/IP handles issues such as packetization, packet addressing, handshaking and error correction. Also standardized is the language in which users (the patient or consumer seeking information) and servers (the information service providers) communicate, which is called the Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML).
Although most Web pages are textual documents described in HTML, the pages may also include images, still or moving, and audio data. The key feature of HTML is the ability to define Hypertext Links within the document, which provide access points to other parts of the same document, other Web pages or other Internet facilities.
To access the World Wide Web, the user employs software on his/her computer known as a Web “browser.” Commercially available browsers include, for example, Netscape Navigator™ and Microsoft Internet Explorer™. The browser provides an interface, a local cache, and a set of processes for accessing the Internet, navigating over the myriad sites, communicating with a selected site, including E-mail, error detection and correction, and security facilities.
HTTP messages consist of either requests from user to server or responses from server to user. The user enters the address (Uniform Resource Locator (URL)) of a Web page into his/her browser, or selects one from a list of previously stored addresses, often referred to as Bookmarks. The URL is a descriptor that specifically defines a type of Internet resource and its location, i.e., the address of the Web server holding that Web page, which has an address beginning “HTTP://”. Access to most Web pages is unrestricted; however, it is possible for access to be controlled by the use of passwords and security restrictions
After the Web page address is entered, the Web browser automatically contacts the user's service provider, dialing up a link over the telephone network if necessary, and issues a request for that Web page. The Web browser then sends an HTTP request to the Web server, which responds to the HTTP request by sending the requested HTTP object to the user. In most cases, the HTTP object is a plain text (ASCII) document that is written in HTML language, which the Web browser displays on the user's computer screen. The HTML document contains all of the information needed by the browser for displaying a Web page on the user's computer. Typically, the document contains “hyperlinks” that the user can click; doing so causes the Web browser to send a request to the Web server for one or more additional documents. The part of the link displayed to the user is generally distinguished from other parts of the page, for example text may be underlined or in a different color.
Generally the user's computer relies upon a mouse (or trackball) and an on-screen pointer for inputting commands. For example, the pointer is often arranged to change shape or color when located over a hypertext link. When the user selects a hypertext link, usually by positioning the pointer over it and clicking a mouse button, the Web Browser software automatically

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