Patent Application Titled “Digital Health Proxy System And Device” Published Online (USPTO 20200388390)

2020 DEC 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Business Daily -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors SINGH, Portia E. (Everett, MA); PARVANEH, Saman (Danvers, MA), filed on December 21, 2018, was made available online on December 10, 2020.

The assignee for this patent application is Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Eindhoven, Netherlands).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “For informal caregivers (ICG), accompanying their loved one (e.g., a child or an elder loved one) to the emergency department during an acute event can be a stressful, frightening and overwhelming time. The informal caregiver may need to be the voice of the patient even if he or she does not understand the situation fully themselves. Because of this, informal caregivers rely heavily on the direction of the physician and the physician recommendations, which may or may not be the correct course of action for the care recipient.

“To the extent a caregiver relies upon additional resources, those resources may simply be generic websites such as medical and/or health news and publications (e.g., WebMD.RTM.). However, parsing through online and/or printed materials is time-consuming and ineffective in time-sensitive scenarios such as the acute care setting. Additionally, the information may not be available in a manner that is easily understood by a lay person and therefor is an ineffective resource for many individuals. Accordingly, by relying solely on a medical professional, a caregiver may not be thoroughly aware of alternative testing, diagnosis or treatment options. And, as a result, a caregiver may not be able to identify the best testing, diagnosis, and/or treatment options specific to the care recipient based at least on the care recipient’s specific medical history.

“In addition, current systems and devices lack the ability to provide medically secure assistance and optimized assistive technology. For example, a device that may operate the assistive technology may include a caregiver device that may at times remain unsecured (e.g., unlocked, open to public wireless networks, and/or the like). It is estimated that about 250,000 people die in the United States alone due to medical errors every year. Given an advanced medical proxy device with at least enhanced medical databasing and an improved processing technologies as described herein, these drawbacks in current technologies may be addressed so that caregivers may gather diagnosis, treatment, protocol, and clinical data and/or determine an optimal treatment plan for the care recipient.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “The present disclosure is directed to inventive methods and apparatus for a device, system, and methods that provide health proxy technologies. Generally, in one aspect a caregiver device is disclosed where the caregiver device includes an antenna that communicates wirelessly with a network; an input/output interface comprising a display; and a processor that: receives an indication to begin a medical guidance session; transmits, via the antenna and in response to receiving an indication to begin a medical guidance session, a request to generate a dynamic database comprising patient specific data, population-based clinical data, and medical ontology data, wherein the dynamic database is dynamically reduced in response to each query to the dynamic database during the medical guidance session; receives current patient event data comprising a treatment recommendation and at least one of: diagnosis data, clinical notes, and image data; executes a query process comprising: querying the dynamic database using the current patient event data to identify a refined dataset used to determine (a) a preliminary treatment confidence associated with the treatment recommendation and (b) additional data that could increase the preliminary treatment confidence; generating a question for the user, wherein the question is associated with the determined additional data; receiving a response to the generated question via the input/output interface; and determining an updated treatment confidence associated with the treatment recommendation; and transmits, via the input/output interface, caregiver data comprising at least one of: the updated treatment confidence and a description of the treatment recommendation associated with the medical guidance session.

“In some aspects of the invention the processor further determines a security setting based on network settings associated with the network, and wherein the indication to begin a medical guidance session comprises a security feature based on the security setting comprising at least one of: a username, a password, a personal identification number (PIN), and a biometric data.

“In some aspects of the invention the processor, prior to receiving the indication to begin the medical guidance session, transmits a notification to change a network setting to increase security.

“Generally, in some aspects of the invention the patient specific data comprises at least one of: prior medical record data, caregiver observation data, personal emergency response system (PERS) data, care recipient wearable device data, medication adherence data, and medication data.

“Generally, in some aspects of the invention the query process is repeated until the updated treatment confidence is above a predetermined threshold, wherein for each repetition, the preliminary treatment confidence is substituted with a further updated treatment confidence. In still other aspects of the invention, wherein the treatment recommendation is changed when the updated treatment confidence associated with the treatment recommendation drops below a predetermined threshold.

“Generally, in some aspects of the invention the patient specific data comprises patient insurance data, and wherein at least one of the preliminary treatment confidence and updated treatment confidence is based on the patient insurance data, and wherein the generated question is related to the patient insurance data.

“In some aspects of the inventions, a device may further comprise a location detection unit that detects a location of the device, wherein when the location of the device is within a predefined distance of a medical facility, the processor generates a notification to begin the medical guidance session prior to receiving an indication to begin the medical guidance session. In still other aspects of the invention, when the location detection unit determines the location of the device is within a predefined distance of a medical facility, the device generates a notification to alter a network setting, wherein the notification comprises selectable data to automatically alter the network setting.

“Generally, in some aspects of the invention, a device may further comprise a camera, wherein image data is received via the camera. In still other aspects of the invention, a treatment recommendation may comprise at least two treatment options, and wherein the preliminary treatment confidence comprises a treatment option confidence for each treatment option, and wherein the determined additional data could increase the treatment option confidence for at least one of the treatment options.

“In some aspects, a device may further comprise a memory whereby the dynamic database is cached in the memory. Generally, in some aspects of the invention the dynamic database may be cached upon reaching a predefined size. In still some aspects of the invention, the antenna may become inactive once the dynamic database is cached on the device. And, in some aspects of the invention, the antenna may be and/or remain inactive until the medical guidance session ends.

“In other aspects of the invention, an input/output interface of a device may further comprise a microphone, wherein at least a portion of the current patient event data is received via the microphone.

“In other aspects of the invention, the current patient event data is preprocessed using natural language processing. In still other aspects, caregiver data may be preprocessed prior to transmission, wherein the preprocessing of the caregiver data comprises performing natural language processing on at least one of the updated treatment confidence and the description of the treatment recommendation. In other aspects of the invention, the caregiver data may further comprise at least one follow-up question.

“Generally, in some aspects of the invention, determining the preliminary treatment confidence and the updated treatment confidence may comprise using a machine learning technique such as at least one of: decision tree learning, association rule learning, neural networks, deep learning, inductive logic programming (ILP), a support vector machine (SVM), clustering, Bayesian networks, reinforcement learning, and a learning classifier system (LCS). In still some aspects of the invention the preliminary treatment confidence and the updated treatment confidence are each based on matched cases.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A device comprising: an antenna that communicates wirelessly with a network; an input/output interface comprising a display; and a processor that: receives an indication to begin a medical guidance session; transmits, via the antenna and in response to receiving an indication to begin a medical guidance session, a request to generate a dynamic database comprising patient specific data, population-based clinical data, and medical ontology data, wherein the dynamic database is dynamically reduced in response to each query to the dynamic database during the medical guidance session; receives current patient event data comprising a treatment recommendation and at least one of: diagnosis data, clinical notes, and image data; executes a query process comprising: querying the dynamic database using the current patient event data to identify a refined dataset used to determine (a) a preliminary treatment confidence associated with the treatment recommendation and (b) additional data that could increase the preliminary treatment confidence; generating a question for the user, wherein the question is associated with the determined additional data; receiving a response to the generated question via the input/output interface; and determining an updated treatment confidence associated with the treatment recommendation; and transmits, via the input/output interface, caregiver data comprising at least one of: the updated treatment confidence and a description of the treatment recommendation associated with the medical guidance session.

“2. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor further determines a security setting based on network settings associated with the network, and wherein the indication to begin a medical guidance session comprises a security feature based on the security setting comprising at least one of: a username, a password, a personal identification number (PIN), and a biometric data.

“3. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor, prior to receiving the indication to begin the medical guidance session, transmits a notification to change a network setting to increase security.

“4. The device of claim 1, wherein the patient specific data comprises at least one of: prior medical record data, caregiver observation data, personal emergency response system (PERS) data, care recipient wearable device data, medication adherence data, medication data and patient insurance data, and further wherein when the patient specific data comprises patient insurance data, at least one of the preliminary treatment confidence and updated treatment confidence is based on the patient insurance data, and the generated question is related to the patient insurance data.

“5. The device of claim 1, wherein the query process is repeated until the updated treatment confidence is above a predetermined threshold, wherein for each repetition, the preliminary treatment confidence is substituted with a further updated treatment confidence.

“6. The device of claim 1, wherein the treatment recommendation is changed when the updated treatment confidence associated with the treatment recommendation drops below a predetermined threshold.

“7. (canceled)

“8. The device of claim 1 further comprising: a location detection unit that detects a location of the device, wherein when the location of the device is within a predefined distance of a medical facility, the processor generates a notification to begin the medical guidance session prior to receiving an indication to begin the medical guidance session, optionally wherein when the location detection unit determines the location of the device is within a predefined distance of a medical facility, the device generates a notification to alter a network setting, wherein the notification comprises selectable data to automatically alter the network setting.

“9. (canceled)

“10. The device of claim 1 further comprising a camera and/or memory, wherein if the device comprises a camera, image data is received via the camera, and wherein if the device comprises a memory, the dynamic database is cached in the memory.

“11. The device of claim 1, wherein the treatment recommendation comprises at least two treatment options, and wherein the preliminary treatment confidence comprises a treatment option confidence for each treatment option, and wherein the determined additional data could increase the treatment option confidence for at least one of the treatment options.

“12. (canceled)

“13. The device of claim 1, wherein the input/output interface further comprises a microphone, and wherein at least a portion of the current patient event data is received via the microphone.

“14. The device of claim 1, wherein the current patient event data is preprocessed using natural language processing.

“15. The device of claim 1, wherein the caregiver data is preprocessed prior to transmission, wherein the preprocessing of the caregiver data comprises performing natural language processing on at least one of the updated treatment confidence and the description of the treatment recommendation.

“16. The device of claim 1, wherein determining the preliminary treatment confidence and the updated treatment confidence comprises using a machine learning technique comprising at least one of: decision tree learning, association rule learning, neural networks, deep learning, inductive logic programming (ILP), a support vector machine (SVM), clustering, Bayesian networks, reinforcement learning, and a learning classifier system (LCS), optionally wherein the preliminary treatment confidence and the updated treatment confidence are each based on matched cases.

“17. The device of claim 1, wherein the caregiver data further comprises at least one follow-up question.

“18. (canceled)

“19. The device of claim 1, wherein the antenna is configured such that it becomes inactive once the dynamic database is cached on the device and/or such that it remains inactive until the medical guidance session ends.

“20. (canceled)”

For more information, see this patent application: SINGH, Portia E.; PARVANEH, Saman. Digital Health Proxy System And Device. Filed December 21, 2018 and posted December 10, 2020. Patent URL: http://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=%2220200388390%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20200388390&RS=DN/20200388390

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