Patent Application Titled “Social Media Dissemination of Health Information via Hybrid Architecture” Published Online (USPTO 20160224733)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Clinical Trials Week -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventor FAFARA, Glen Michael (Clearwater, FL), filed on April 14, 2015, was made available online on August 11, 2016 (see also Systems Made Simple, Inc.).

The assignee for this patent application is Systems Made Simple, Inc.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "In recent years, social media has become an increasingly important tool for businesses as the number of active social media users and the amount of time each user spends on social media continue to grow. Social media, for example, allows businesses to have direct communication with potential customers, and is a convenient way for potential customers to see such communications. Due to the private nature of health care information, and the legal risks involved with sharing such information, health care information related to individuals is generally not shared via social media. As such, the use of social media in the health care industry is typically restricted to providing general information or marketing materials to a non-specific group of people. These and other drawbacks exist."

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventor's summary information for this patent application: "One aspect of the disclosure relates to a method and system for communicating health care information and/or facilitating health care services via a hybrid architecture (e.g., a social media component and a website), in accordance with one or more implementations. In an implementation, a system may obtain and anonymize health care information associated with one or more individuals to generate anonymized versions of the health care information (or the anonymized health care information) for the individuals, respectively. With regard to the anonymized health care information associated with a given individual, the system may identify one or more users of a social media platform as authorized receipts, and provide the anonymized health care information for presentation to the users via the social media platform. As an example, a social media communication may be generated via one or more social media addresses associated with the users (e.g., generating a post via a user's social media page address, via the user's account identifier on the social media platform, etc.).

"The anonymized health care information may, for example, be provided with a link (e.g., URL) to a specific portion of a website (e.g., separate from the social media platform) that pertains to the health care information associated with the given individual. Responsive to providing the anonymized health care information and the link to the pertinent portion of the website, a request from an authorized receipt for access to the health care information may be received at the website. Upon determination that the request should be authorized, the system may provide access to a non-anonymized version of the health care information (e.g., via the website). In this way, health care information may be more conveniently accessed by authorized recipients (e.g., via the anonymized version, the non-anonymized version, etc.) while minimizing risk of regulatory violations (e.g., Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) violations) associated with the sharing of such information.

"In an implementation, the system may enable users to request health care services (e.g., requests for more information regarding an event pertaining to an individual, requests for scheduling an appointment with a health care provider, requests for filling and/or refilling a prescription, etc.) via social media. In some implementations, the system may receive a social media communication of a user from a social media platform. The social media communication may, for example, indicate a health care service (e.g., requested by the user on behalf of the user, on behalf of an individual related to the user, etc.). The system may process the social media communication to determine the health care service and generate a user request for the health care service (e.g., based on information regarding a health care service provider that is able to provide the health care service, patient information of the individual (or the user) on whose behalf the health care service is requested, or other information). The user request may then be provided to the health care service provider. Among other benefits, the system facilitates health care services by enabling users to request and obtain health care services via a social media platform with which they are already familiar as active users, thereby reducing barriers to obtaining health care services.

"In an implementation, the system may enable users to respond to its generated social media communications that include anonymized health care information. In some implementations, where a social media communication includes a link that enables a user to initiate one or more actions (e.g., requesting more information regarding an event pertaining to an individual, requesting scheduling of an appointment with a health care provider, requesting for filling and/or refilling of a prescription, etc.), the user may initiate the actions via the link. In some implementations, a user may respond to the system's social media communications by submitting a social media communication related to the anonymized information of the system's social media communications. The user's social media communication may, for example, be interpreted by the system to include a request for a particular health care service.

"In some implementations, individuals whose health care information is shared, on whose behalf health care services are requested, etc., as described herein may include patients, subjects of a clinical trial, long-term care recipients, nursing home residents, residents of a psychiatric facility, rehabilitation participants, and/or other individuals. Social media platforms via which health care information is shared (e.g., anonymized versions) and/or via which health care services are requested may include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MySpace, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and/or other social media platforms.

"These and other objects, features, and characteristics of the system and/or method disclosed herein, as well as the methods of operation and functions of the related elements of structure and the combination of parts and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification, wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in the various figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration and description only and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. As used in the specification and in the claims, the singular forms of 'a', 'an', and 'the' include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In addition, as used in the specification and the claims, the term 'or' means 'and/or' unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

"FIG. 1 illustrates a system for communicating health care information and/or facilitating health care services via a hybrid architecture, in accordance with an implementation.

"FIGS. 2-4 illustrate use cases of communicating health care information and/or facilitating health care services via a hybrid architecture, in accordance with various implementations.

"FIG. 5 illustrates a method for communicating health care information and/or facilitating health care services via a hybrid architecture, in accordance with an implementation.

"FIG. 6 illustrates a method for communicating health care information and/or facilitating health care services via a hybrid architecture, in accordance with another implementation."

For more information, see this patent application: FAFARA, Glen Michael. Social Media Dissemination of Health Information via Hybrid Architecture. Filed April 14, 2015 and posted August 11, 2016. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=2961&p=60&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20160804.PD.&OS=PD/20160804&RS=PD/20160804

Keywords for this news article include: Systems Made Simple Inc.

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