Patent Application Titled “Publishing Customized Application Modules” Published Online (USPTO 20180121187)

Managed Care Weekly Digest

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Jain, Praduman (Fairfax, VA); Klein, Dave (Oakton, VA); Jain, Neeta (Fairfax, VA); Cao, Yue (Vienna, VA); Shamsundar, Bakare Swapnil (Maharashtra, IN), filed on December 29, 2017, was made available online on May 10, 2018 (see also Patent Application).

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "Applications for computers, mobile devices, and other devices can provide useful functionality to users. However, it can be very costly and time consuming to create, distribute, and maintain an application.

"Typically, it is very difficult for organizations to create and distribute mobile applications and other solutions that can meet the needs of their members. Different organizations have widely varying health policies. For example, different organizations may have different insurance options and health goals for their members. Similarly, individuals have widely varying healthcare needs."

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent application: "In some implementations, a system provides a platform that allows efficient creation and distribution of customized program modules to users. Individual users can download a single application from a server for an application store or marketplace. Separately, a publishing system provides modules for the application that define different sets of functionality and different user experiences. Various organizations can use the publishing system to quickly create and customize a program module to meet their needs, based on predetermined templates offered by the publishing system. For example, the publishing system allows an organization to customize the module templates to use the organization's own name, logo, media, and other branding assets. Organizations can also select which aspects of the application will be made available to the user and in what manner. By creating a custom module, an organization can define a unique, branded user experience for an application, e.g., for a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet computer, without requiring the organization to invest the time and effort to code, test, publish, and maintain an application.

"When a user downloads and installs the application associated with the publishing system, the user can select and download an appropriate customized module. The module can include a variety of elements that adjust the user's experience. For example, a module can include custom content from the organization that customized it, as well as interactive elements, media, and features from the template used to generate the module. After downloading the module, the application may reconfigure its interface as directed by the module, as if the organization that customized the module had provided the user a customized, stand-alone application.

"In some implementations, organizations may use the publishing system to customize modules that enhance the wellbeing of users. For example, an organization may provide various modules that support health initiatives of a company. Using the publishing system, the employer may select module templates for various aspects of wellbeing, such as general fitness, weight loss, diabetes management, and so on. The module templates may include clinically validated information and recommendations tailored for a specific medical condition or health goal. This template information provides the employer effective, validated techniques to improve a user's health, without requiring the employer to invest in research to identify appropriate user experiences supporting health. The employer may customize the template, for example, specifying additional goals or incentives specific to the employer, as well as health insurance information that is applicable for the employer. Additionally, the employer may include the employer's name, logo, and other content, so that once the module is downloaded and incorporated into the application, the application may appear as if it were a fully customized application from the employer. In a similar manner, health insurance companies, doctors and hospitals, government entities, and other organizations may all create their own respective customized modules to be published.

"In some implementations, customized health management modules can be used to provide organization-specific information on user interfaces of mobile applications from a third-party application store. The customized health management modules can be published by a publishing system that supports data collection and monitoring processes associated with health management programs provided by multiple healthcare providers. The customized health management modules can be used to integrate various types of information from different entities associated with healthcare services such as insurance companies, providers, pharmacies, and patients into a common platform with limited costs of implementation for organizations that provide modules through the publishing system.

"In one general aspect, a computer-implemented method includes: providing, by a server system, a user interface for designing a health management module, the user interface identifying a plurality of health management module templates; receiving, by the server system, data indicating a user input received through the user interface that selects of one of the plurality of module templates; receiving, by the server system, customization parameters that customize the selected module template for a particular organization; generating, by the server system, a customized health management module for the particular organization based on the selected template and the customization parameters; and publishing, by the server system, the customized health management module for the particular organization, the customized health management module including instructions that configures an application provided by a third-party application store.

"Implementations can include one or more optional features. For instance, in some implementations, each of the particular organization, an operator of the third-party application store, and the provider of the application are independent entities.

"In some implementations, the plurality of health management module templates include multiple templates corresponding to different medical conditions, each of the multiple templates including clinical information for the corresponding medical condition.

"In some implementations, the user interface for designing the health management module additionally identifies a set of interactivity settings.

"In some implementations, the customization parameters specify one or more access conditions for the customized health management module for the particular organization.

"In some implementations, the customization parameters include information identifying healthcare initiatives provided by the particular organization.

"In some implementations, generating the customized health management module for the particular organization includes: identifying a module template based on user input; associating media content for the particular organization; and defining one or more user interaction settings for the customized health management module.

"In some implementations, publishing the customized health management module for the particular organization includes providing the customized health management module over a network for access by the application provided by the third-party application store.

"In some implementations, publishing the customized health management module for the particular organization includes: receiving, by the server system and from a client device having the application from the third party application store installed, a request for the customized health management module for the particular organization; and in response to receiving the request for the customized health management module for the particular organization, transferring, over a network, the customized health management module to the client device that has previously installed the application from the third-party application store such that the customized health management module performs a set of operations to adjust the application on the client device.

"In some implementations, the customized health management module includes one or more tracking modules, the one or more tracking modules configured to initiate monitoring and reporting of predetermined content items associated with the application provided by the third party application store according to predetermined conditions specified by the customized health management module.

"In some implementations, the customization parameters that customize the selected module template specify branding items, associated with the particular organization, to be displayed on the customized health management module.

"In some implementations, the customization parameters that customize the selected module template specify interaction rules that specify techniques for submitting information on a user interface of the application provided by the third party application store.

"In some implementations, generating the customized health management module for the particular organization includes: determining one or more healthcare providers that are supported by the particular organization to provide healthcare services; and generating the customized health management module to include information associated with the one or more healthcare providers that are supported by the particular organization to provide healthcare services.

"In another general aspect, a computer-implemented method includes: installing, at an electronic device, an application downloaded over a computer network from an application store provided by a first server system; after installing the application, displaying, at the electronic device, a list of health management modules provided by a second server system that is independent of the first server system; providing, by the electronic device and to the second server system, data indicating one of the listed health management modules that was selected by a user of the electronic device; receiving, by the electronic device and from the second server system, the selected health management module; and installing, by the electronic device, the received health management module to modify the application to interact with the user according to the received health management module.

"In some implementations, providing the data indicating one of the listed health management modules that was selected by the user of the electronic device includes information of a particular organization associated with the one of the listed health management modules that was selected by the user of the electronic device, and receiving the selected health management module includes receiving a list of health management modules that correspond to the particular organization.

"In some implementations, installing the received health management module to modify the application includes: storing the received health management module on the electronic device; and designating the received health management module as a health management module to be displayed on the application during a subsequent application session.

"In some implementations, modifying the application to interact with the user includes at least one of adjusting the user interface of the application, or adjusting tracking and reporting operations associated with the application.

"In some implementations, the computer-implemented method for installing the received health management module includes modifying the application based on a set of instructions within the received health management module, the set of instructions enabling one or more functions of the application during a subsequent application session.

"In some implementations, the application provided by the third-party application store is configured according to a local application configuration.

"In some implementations, the computer-implemented method for installing the received health management module includes, after installing the received health management module, receiving, from the second server system, data indicating one or more updates to the received health management module.

"The details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other potential features and advantages will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims."

For more information, see this patent application: Jain, Praduman; Klein, Dave; Jain, Neeta; Cao, Yue; Shamsundar, Bakare Swapnil. Publishing Customized Application Modules. Filed December 29, 2017 and posted May 10, 2018. 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=%2220180121187%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20180121187&RS=DN/20180121187

Keywords for this news article include: Computers, Health Insurance, Patent Application, Health and Medicine.