“Method And System For Distribution Of Fax Transmissions Of An Organization” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20220345588): Patent Application

2022 NOV 10 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventors Seneviratne, Menik (Culver City, CA, US); Toscano, Francis (Kendall Park, NJ, US), filed on April 26, 2021, was made available online on October 27, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application has not been assigned to a company or institution.

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Fax messaging continues to be an important avenue for delivery of secure messages between individuals world-wide despite the proliferation of message delivery services that use the Internet. Traditional fax messaging services require both a dedicated fax machine and a dedicated fax number to receive a fax transmission. Modern fax messaging services have eliminated the requirement for a dedicated fax machine, utilizing the Internet to provide greater flexibility for subscribers of those services to transmit and receive fax messages. For instance, a subscriber of a modern fax messaging service is assigned a direct inward dialing (DID) telephone number, which the subscriber distributes to others who wish to send a fax message to the subscriber. The DID telephone number is in effect the subscriber’s individual fax number. When an incoming fax transmission is received at a particular DID telephone number, the fax messaging service generates a fax message from the fax transmission in a format that is suitable for transmission over a data network such as the Internet, and sends the fax message to the subscriber (e.g., to the subscriber’s e-mail address).”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Interoperability is the ability of different computer systems or software programs to exchange and make use of information. In the case of the healthcare industry, interoperability refers to the ability of healthcare service providers (e.g., doctors, insurers, etc.) and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems (or Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems) to seamlessly share patient information, which may lead to better coordinated care and lower healthcare costs. For example, in a perfect scenario, when a patient is treated at a hospital, the patient’s medical record may be distributed by the hospital’s doctor (e.g., via fax, e-mail, etc.) to an EMR system, which then routes the record to other EMR systems and/or to other healthcare service providers who treat the patient (e.g., the patient’s personal physician). Interoperability, however, is difficult to achieve. For instance, the healthcare industry has several different EMR service providers, each with different system architectures and each providing EMR services to different groups within the industry (e.g., some EMR service providers focusing on hospitals, while other focusing on smaller healthcare service provider practices). As a result, some EMR service providers do not seamlessly exchange patient data between each other and/or other healthcare service providers, which limits the scope of patient record sharing. Thus, there is a need for a document distribution system that provides interoperability for existing healthcare systems.

“The instant disclosure is directed to a method performed by (e.g., a programmed processor of an electronic device, such as a server, of) a fax service provider to distribute incoming fax transmissions. As described herein, such a fax service provider may assign subscribers with a Direct Inward Dialing (DID) (or fax) telephone number to which others may send fax messages. In the case of EMR system interoperability, a healthcare service provider (e.g., a doctor, or more specifically the doctor’s practice group) may be permanently assigned the fax telephone number as a unique identifier for use by the healthcare service provider. Such a permanent and unique identifier may serve multiple purposes. For instance, the fax telephone number may be permanently associated with an organization, to which others may transmit documents. In addition, the fax telephone number may uniquely identify the organization from other organizations. For example, many organizations, such as healthcare service providers, may require an identification number that may be issued by a (e.g., government) entity. Healthcare service providers may be assigned a National Provider Identifier (NPI) that distinguishes the providers from one another, and allow the providers to perform certain services. Thus, the fax telephone number may be used in conjunction with (or in lieu of) the NPI to distinguish a service provider from other service providers. The electronic device may receive, over a computer network, an electronic message that includes an electronic document (e.g., a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, etc.) and a fax telephone number of an organization The device may determine a destination address of the organization based on the fax telephone number. Such a destination address (e.g., an e-mail address, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, etc.) may belong to another healthcare service provider, a EHR service provider, and/or a patient. The device transmits the electronic document and the fax telephone number to the destination address. Specifically, the fax service provider may distribute a patient’s medical record to one or more EMR systems and/or one or more other healthcare service providers, thereby providing interoperability within the healthcare industry.

“The above summary does not include an exhaustive list of all aspects of the present disclosure. It is contemplated that the disclosure includes all systems and methods that can be practiced from all suitable combinations of the various aspects summarized above, as well as those disclosed in the Detailed Description below and particularly pointed out in the claims filed with the application. Such combinations have particular advantages not specifically recited in the above summary.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method performed by a programmed processor of an electronic device, the method comprising: receiving a request by an organization of a plurality of organizations for a fax telephone number to be assigned to the organization; permanently assigning the fax telephone number to the organization such that the fax telephone number will never be recycled to a different organization; receiving, over a computer network, an electronic message that includes an electronic document and the fax telephone number of the organization, wherein the fax telephone number uniquely identifies the organization from other organizations of the plurality of organizations; determining a destination address of the organization using the fax telephone number, wherein the destination address is different than the fax telephone number; and transmitting the electronic document and the fax telephone number to the destination address.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of organizations are healthcare service providers and the fax telephone number is one of a plurality of fax telephone numbers each of which uniquely identifying a different one of the healthcare service providers.

“3. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a secure direct message by encrypting the electronic document, wherein transmitting the electronic document comprises transmitting the secure direct message.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the generated secure direct message is encrypted according to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements.

“5. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining whether to perform document processing upon the electronic document based on the fax telephone number, in response to determining that the electronic document is to be processed, generating a searchable electronic document from the electronic document; and authenticating the searchable electronic document by adding an electronic signature to the searchable electronic document that includes at least one of a timestamp of when the electronic message was received, a number of pages of the searchable electronic document, and information of a source device from which the electronic message was received.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination address is an Internet Protocol (IP) address or a domain name of a destination device, wherein transmitting the electronic message comprises: establishing, over the computer network and using the IP address or the domain name, a communication data connection with the destination device; and transmitting the electronic message via the communication data connection.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein the communication data connection is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection.

“8. A system comprising: a processor; and non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein which when executed by the processor causes the system to receive a request by an organization of a plurality of organizations for a fax telephone number to be assigned to the organization, permanently assign the fax telephone number to the organization such that the fax telephone number will never be recycled to a different organization, receive, over a computer network, an electronic message that includes an electronic document and the fax telephone number of the organization, wherein the fax telephone number uniquely identifies the organization from other organizations of the plurality of organizations, determine a destination address of the organization using the fax telephone number, wherein the destination address is different than the fax telephone number, and transmit the electronic document and the fax telephone number to the destination address.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of organizations are healthcare service providers and the fax telephone number is one of a plurality of fax telephone numbers each of which uniquely identifying a different one of the healthcare service providers.

“10. The system of claim 8, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium has further instructions to generate a secure direct message by encrypting the electronic document, wherein transmitting the electronic document comprises instructions to transmit the secure direct message.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein the generated secure direct message is encrypted according to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements.

“12. The system of claim 8, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium has further instructions to determine whether to perform document processing upon the electronic document based on the fax telephone number; in response to determining that the electronic document is to be processed, generate a searchable electronic document from the electronic document; and authenticate the searchable electronic document by adding an electronic signature to the searchable electronic document that includes at least one of a timestamp of when the electronic message was received, a number of pages of the searchable electronic document, and information of a source device from which the electronic message was received.

“13. The system of claim 8, wherein the destination address is an Internet Protocol (IP) address or a domain name of a destination device, wherein instructions to transmit the electronic message comprises instructions to establish, over the computer network and using the IP address or the domain name, a communication data connection with the destination device; and transmit the electronic message via the communication data connection.

“14. (canceled)

“15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which when executed by a processor: receive a request by an organization of a plurality of organizations for a fax telephone number to be assigned to the organization, permanently assign the fax telephone number to the organization such that the fax telephone number will never be recycled to a different organization, receive, over a computer network, an electronic message that includes an electronic document and the fax telephone number of the organization, wherein the fax telephone number uniquely identifies the organization from other organizations of the plurality of organizations, determine a destination address of the organization using the fax telephone number, wherein the destination address is different than the fax telephone number, and transmit the electronic document and the fax telephone number to the destination address.

“16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of organizations are healthcare service providers and the fax telephone number is one of a plurality of fax telephone numbers each of which uniquely identifying a different one of the healthcare service providers.

“17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 has further instructions to generate a secure direct message by encrypting the electronic document, wherein transmitting the electronic document comprises instructions to transmit the secure direct message.

“18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the generated secure direct message is encrypted according to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements.

“19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 has further instructions to determine whether to perform document processing upon the electronic document based on the fax telephone number; in response to determining that the electronic document is to be processed, generate a searchable electronic document from the electronic document; and authenticate the searchable electronic document by adding an electronic signature to the searchable electronic document that includes at least one of a timestamp of when the electronic message was received, a number of pages of the searchable electronic document, and information of a source device from which the electronic message was received.

“20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the destination address is an Internet Protocol (IP) address or a domain name of a destination device, wherein instructions to transmit the electronic message comprises instructions to establish, over the computer network and using the IP address or the domain name, a communication data connection with the destination device; and transmit the electronic message via the communication data connection.

“21. (canceled)”

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Seneviratne, Menik; Toscano, Francis. Method And System For Distribution Of Fax Transmissions Of An Organization. Filed April 26, 2021 and posted October 27, 2022. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220220345588%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220345588&RS=DN/20220345588

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