Patent Issued for Arrangement for proactively notifying and advising users in terms of potentially health-affecting location-related phenomena, related method and computer program (USPTO 11696721): Medikro Oy

2023 JUL 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Medikro Oy (Kuopio, Finland) has been issued patent number 11696721, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventor is Salorinne, Seppo (Helsinki, FI).

This patent was filed on September 6, 2018 and was published online on July 11, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “A variety of factors influence the condition of a person suffering from a respiratory disease such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), many of these factors being environment-related. Such factors may include e.g. allergens, smoke, dust, particulates, or pollutants.

“It would thus be beneficial for a person to be aware of e.g. environmental conditions that may influence his/her condition in order to prepare for or prevent exacerbations. There is technology available, for example, to warn patients if it is known that a certain environmental trigger potentially affecting their condition is generally present at their location. However, mere presence of a certain potentially detrimental condition does not necessarily affect all persons equally or at all. Yet, taking the necessary measures by a certain person to minimize the effect may be challenging if not impossible, when the condition is already on at the location of the person.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “A purpose of the invention is to alleviate at least some of the problems relating to the known prior art. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an arrangement typically of substantially electronic type is provided for prediction of data related to health conditions, wherein the arrangement comprises at least one communication interface configured to receive health-related data, preferably comprising measurement data, from a first user device of a first user, associated with a first time, wherein the first time preferably substantially corresponds to or comprises the instant or interval of measuring and/or recording the data, and a first location, wherein the first location preferably corresponds to or comprises the measurement location.

“The arrangement additionally comprises at least one processor configured to utilize said received health-related data to generate predictive data related to a second user and related/to be indicated to a second user device in the possession of or generally associated with the second user, and further related to a second time and a second location, wherein the second time preferably corresponds to a later instant or interval (e.g. future instant/interval) than the first time so that the received health-related data associated with the first user corresponding to the first instant is already available and may be readily utilized having regard to and by the second user relative to the second location, which may be at a distance from the first location. The second location may be an estimated future location of the second user, if not the current location, for instance.

“According to one other aspect, a method is provided for prediction of data related to health conditions wherein the method comprises: providing at least one first user device, providing at least one second user device, receiving health-related data from the at least one first user device associated with a first time and a first location, and generating predictive data related to the at least one second user device associated with a second time and a second location.

“Having regard to the utility of the present invention, according to an embodiment, an arrangement may predict data affecting the health of e.g. an asthma or COPD patient, or a user suffering from some other medical such as a respiratory or specifically a pulmonary condition. The data may be related to e.g. environmental conditions.

“Utilizing embodiments of the invention, a user of the arrangement may thus become aware of for example environmental conditions (e.g. circumstances) affecting his/her health status associated with a time instant or interval in the future and a location in which the user is situated at the present time and/or e.g. a location in which the user will or might be situated at said future time or close to said future time. Preferably, the user may select a time and/or location of interest for obtaining a related prediction. The selection may be provided via a user interface (UI) of the arrangement, which may comprise e.g. a graphical UI accessible via a user device, such as a smartphone, wearable electronics, or a personal computer. Alternatively or additionally, the arrangement may be configured to estimate a future location of the user by extrapolating a future location based on past location(s) and/or relying on e.g. available calendar data that may be preferably automatically retrieved or received from a digital repository stored locally in a user device or in a network entity such as a server or service implemented by a number of servers, for instance.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An arrangement for prediction of health condition related data, wherein the arrangement comprises at least one communication interface configured to receive first health-related data, comprising measurement data, from at least one first user device of at least one first user, associated with a first time and a first location and at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to utilize first additional data received from the at least one first user device to generate user profile data for the at least one first user, the first additional data comprising information related to one or more health conditions of the at least one first user, wherein the at least one processor is additionally configured to receive temporospatial environmental data from at least one external source, said temporospatial environmental data comprising weather data, air pollution data, allergen data, particulate data, and/or data related to pulmonary infections, and further utilize said received first health-related data, temporospatial environmental data, and first additional data to generate predictive data to be indicated to a second user device of a second user and associated with a second time and a second location, based on comparison or matching of second additional data and/or second health-related data associated with the second user with corresponding additional data and/or corresponding health-related data associated with a plurality of other users comprising said at least one first user and determining that the at least one first user is a user whose user profile data matches user profile data or the second health-related data of the second user and is to be utilized for generating the predictive data, wherein if the first health-related data indicates that the at least one first user has experienced a worsening in health condition that is associated with the first time and first location, the predictive data indicates an increased risk associated in health condition of the second user if worsening environmental conditions are determined.

“2. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein the arrangement additionally comprises at least one health measurement apparatus, integral with or at least functionally connected to said at least one first user device, configured to take a respiratory measurement.

“3. The arrangement of claim 2, wherein said first health-related data comprises measurement data provided by the health measurement apparatus.

“4. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to send a notification to the second user device based on said predictive data if one or more predefined criteria are met.

“5. The arrangement of claim 4, wherein the notification is indicative of a predicted future change in the health status of the second user of the second user device.

“6. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to utilize demographics data and/or medical records or diagnosis data indicative of a medical condition or disease, associated with the at least one first user and the second user and received from the at least one first user device and the second user device, respectively, to generate the predictive data.

“7. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is additionally configured to send recommendations regarding actions to be taken related to a health condition.

“8. A method for prediction of health condition related data to be performed by an electronic arrangement comprising at least one computing device, wherein the method comprises: receiving first health-related data from at least one first user device, associated with a first time and a first location, generating user profile data for at least one first user utilizing first additional data received from the at least one first user device, the first additional data comprising information related to one or more health conditions of the at least one first user, receiving temporospatial environmental data from at least one external source, said temporospatial environmental data comprising weather data, air pollution data, allergen data, particulate data, and/or data related to pulmonary infections, matching second additional data and/or second health-related data associated with the second user with corresponding additional data and/or corresponding health-related data associated with a plurality of other users comprising said at least one first user and determining that the at least one first user is a user whose user profile data matches the user profile data or the second health-related data of the second user, and generating predictive data related to at least one second user device and associated with a second time and a second location, based on said first health-related data, temporospatial environmental data, first additional data, and said matching, the predictive data indicating an increased risk associated in health condition of the second user if worsening environmental conditions are determined and if the health-related data indicates that the at least one first user has experienced a worsening in health condition that is associated with the first time and first location.

“9. A non-transitory carrier medium comprising a computer-executable instruction program configured, when executed by at least one processor, to perform: receiving first health-related data from at least one first user device, associated with a first time and a first location, generating user profile data for at least one first user utilizing first additional data received from the at least one first user device, the first additional data comprising information related to one or more health conditions of the at least one first user, receiving temporospatial environmental data from at least one external source, said temporospatial environmental data comprising weather data, air pollution data, allergen data, particulate data, and/or data related to pulmonary infections, matching second additional data and/or second health-related data associated with the second user with corresponding additional data and/or corresponding health-related data associated with a plurality of other users comprising said at least one first user and determining that the at least one first user is a user whose user profile data matches the user profile data or the second health-related data of the second user, and generating predictive data related to at least one second user device and associated with a second time and a second location, based on said first health-related data, temporospatial environmental data, first additional data, and said matching, the predictive data indicating an increased risk associated in health condition of the second user if worsening environmental conditions are determined and if the health-related data indicates that the at least one first user has experienced a worsening in health condition that is associated with the first time and first location.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Salorinne, Seppo. Arrangement for proactively notifying and advising users in terms of potentially health-affecting location-related phenomena, related method and computer program. U.S. Patent Number 11696721, filed September 6, 2018, and published online on July 11, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11696721)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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