Patent Application Titled “Method And System For Enabling Patient Pseudonymization Or Anonymization In A Telemedicine Session Subject To The Consent Of A Third Party” Published Online (USPTO 20220273986): Patent Application

2022 SEP 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventor Mason, Steven (Las Vegas, NV, US), filed on May 20, 2022, was made available online on September 1, 2022.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Remote medical assistance, also referred to, inter alia, as remote medicine, telemedicine, telemed, telmed, tel-med, or telehealth, is an at least two-way communication between a healthcare provider or providers, such as a physician or a physical therapist, and a patient using audio and/or audiovisual and/or other sensorial or perceptive (e.g., tactile, gustatory, haptic, pressure-sensing-based or electromagnetic (e.g., neurostimulation) communications (e.g., via a computer, a smartphone, or a tablet).

“As used herein, “anonymization” includes the meaning of the term “anonymization” and the meaning of the term “anonymisation,” as these may otherwise have different meanings in, e.g., the United States vs. Europe. Similarly, as used herein, “pseudonymization” includes the meaning of the term “pseudonymization” and the meaning of the term “pseudonymisation,” as these may otherwise have different meanings in, e.g., the United States vs. Europe.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “An aspect of the disclosed embodiments includes a method for protecting healthcare information associated with an individual. The method may include receiving at least a first electronic medical record associated with the individual and generating a patient identifier associated with the individual. The method may also include generating, using the patient identifier and at least a portion of the first electronic medical record, at least one protected electronic medical record corresponding to the first electronic medical record. The patient identifier may be associated with at least one characteristic of the individual. The method may also include providing, at least at a healthcare provider interface, at least one of the patient identifier and at least a portion of the at least one protected electronic medical record. Further, the patient identifier and the one or more characteristics may each be protected by one or more privacy enhancing technologies or PETs, as defined elsewhere herein.

“Another aspect of the disclosed embodiments includes a system that includes a processing device and a memory communicatively coupled to the processing device and capable of storing instructions. The processing device executes the instructions to perform any of the methods, operations, or steps described herein.

“Another aspect of the disclosed embodiments includes a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a processing device to perform any of the methods, operations, or steps described herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method for protecting healthcare information associated with an individual, the method comprising: receiving at least a first electronic medical record associated with the individual; generating a patient identifier associated with the individual; generating, using the patient identifier and at least a portion of the first electronic medical record, at least one protected electronic medical record corresponding to the first electronic medical record, wherein the patient identifier is associated with at least one characteristic of the individual; and providing, at least at a healthcare provider interface, at least one of the patient identifier and at least a portion of the at least one protected electronic medical record.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the first electronic medical record is in plaintext and at least a portion of the first electronic medical record in plaintext is further protected by one or more privacy enhancing technologies.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one protected electronic medical record is associated with at least the portion of the first electronic medical record in plaintext.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one protected electronic medical record is configured to be used in place of at least the portion of the first electronic medical record in plaintext.

“5. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more privacy enhancing technologies is configured to support aspects of at least one of health insurance portability and accountability act requirements, Gramm-Leach-Bliley act requirements, and general data protection regulation requirements.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, at least at the healthcare provider interface during a telemedicine session, the at least one of the patient identifier and at least the portion of the at least one protected electronic medical record.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying, based on at least one healthcare service indicated by the individual, a healthcare provider associated with providing the at least one healthcare service.

“8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one healthcare service includes at least one of erectile dysfunction, sexual transmitted disease test results or diagnoses, hemorrhoids, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome or disorder, Crohn’s disease, diseases or conditions related to the genitourinary systems of males, female or other genders, gender reassignment surgery or medications and hormones prescribed and associated therewith, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer diagnoses, treatments or conditions.

“9. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one healthcare service includes one or more orthopedic condition.

“10. The method of claim 7, further comprising identifying, based on at least one of the at least one healthcare service and the identified healthcare provider, relevant information of the first electronic medical record.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein the relevant information corresponds to the at least the portion of the first electronic medical record used to generate the at least one protected electronic medical record.

“12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving input, from the individual, indicating a selected portion of the first electronic medical record.

“13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating, using the input indicating the selected portion of the electronic medical record, at least one other protected medical record.

“14. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing, at least at the healthcare provider interface, at least a portion of the at least one other protected electronic medical record.

“15. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing, at least at the healthcare provider interface during a telemedicine session, at least a portion of the at least one other protected electronic medical record.

“16. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a processing device to: receive at least a first electronic medical record associated with an individual; generate a patient identifier associated with the individual; generate, using the patient identifier and at least a portion of the first electronic medical record, at least one protected electronic medical record corresponding to the first electronic medical record, wherein the patient identifier is associated with at least one characteristic of the individual; and provide, at least at a healthcare provider interface, at least one of the patient identifier and at least a portion of the at least one protected electronic medical record.

“17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein at least a portion of the first electronic medical record is in plaintext and at least a portion of the first electronic medical record in plaintext is further protected by one or more privacy enhancing technologies.

“18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the at least one protected electronic medical record is associated with at least the portion of the first electronic medical record in plaintext.

“19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the at least one protected electronic medical record is configured to be used in place of at least the portion of the first electronic medical record in plaintext.

“20. A system comprising: a processing device; and a memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: receive at least a first electronic medical record associated with an individual; generate a patient identifier associated with the individual; generate, using the patient identifier and at least a portion of the first electronic medical record, at least one protected electronic medical record corresponding to the first electronic medical record, wherein the patient identifier is associated with at least one characteristic of the individual; and provide, at least at a healthcare provider interface, at least one of the patient identifier and at least a portion of the at least one protected electronic medical record.”

For more information, see this patent application: Mason, Steven. Method And System For Enabling Patient Pseudonymization Or Anonymization In A Telemedicine Session Subject To The Consent Of A Third Party. Filed May 20, 2022 and posted September 1, 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=%2220220273986%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220273986&RS=DN/20220273986

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