Patent Issued for Digital health system for effective behavior change (USPTO 11450223): VigNet Incorporated

2022 OCT 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Cao, Yue (Vienna, VA, US), Jain, Neeta (Fairfax, VA, US), Jain, Praduman (Fairfax, VA, US), Klein, Dave (Oakton, VA, US), filed on October 28, 2020, was published online on September 20, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11450223 is assigned to VigNet Incorporated (Fairfax, Virginia, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Applications for computers, mobile devices, and other devices can provide useful functionality to users. Users generally install and run many different applications, each with a different purpose and set of functionality. Frequently, applications are coded and maintained separately, at considerable effort and cost. Applications are often individually stored and distributed through application store or marketplace, requiring significant server resources for distribution and storage. Further, user devices have limited storage space. This limited space is often taken by applications that are each useful for only limited functions, or by applications that each only partially serve the user’s needs.

“Many applications operate using a series of fixed user interfaces or dialogs that may not be appropriate for all users. For example, many applications provide the same general layout and type of content for novice users and expert users, without tailoring the content to the user’s specific needs. As another example, in the area of healthcare management, applications are generally not able to customize their user interfaces and content to address users’ diverse range of medical conditions, unique rates of progress, and varying preferences.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In some implementations, an application architecture uses a server system that interacts with client devices to dynamically provide personalized content in mobile applications. The server system can store and update program data that defines multiple different programs that are each available to users through the same single application. The program data can divide each program into a sequence of multiple segments corresponding to different time periods. The program data can also define different tracks that represent different types of content or functionality within the program, as well as different levels within each track. These tracks and levels can span many or all of the segments, allowing a user to transition between different experiences while maintaining a consistent progression through the segments of the program over time.

“In some instances, mobile applications can be used to deliver healthcare content to electronic devices of users. However, some applications can be under-inclusive because they are designed to target a specific patient population affected by a complex medical condition that is not prevalent among the general population. For example, an application focused on the needs of patients receiving chemotherapy is generally inapplicable to users who are not affected by cancer. Other applications can be over-inclusive because they are designed to target a large population but fail to adequately provide a personalized experience for an individual user. For example, mobile applications that target a broad user audience by providing general services often fail to provide the necessary personalized experience to keep users engaged and meet their specific needs. As a result, many health-related mobile applications are often unable to be used to treat a variety of disease conditions while also being relevant to a broad spectrum of patient populations.

“To address these concerns, programs can designed with modular features to provide individual users within a general population with different groups of content that are each personalized for the specific needs of the individual users. For instance, such modularized features can include different time period segments within a single program, and different groups (or arrangements) of content to be provided for each time period. In this regard, the overall program can be applicable for the general population whereas individual modules can be used to segment specific user groups and provide personalized groups using the modular features. In some implementations, a system stores program data for a program that provides interactive content over a series of multiple time periods. In some instances, the transitions between the multiple time periods can be used to represent different milestones associated with an individual user’s progress through the program. In other instances, the transitions can simply represent the passage of time since a user has enrolled into a program. Each time period also includes a set of user-selectable tracks that provide different categories of personalized content to analyze the progress of the individual user through the program. For example, a performance level for the user can be measured based on the individual user’s activity within each track.

“As the user progresses through the different time periods of the program, the system can periodically adjust the content displayed on a mobile device associated with the individual user based on the user’s activity within the different tracks. For instance, the system uses a set of rules that specify the content to be displayed on the mobile device based on satisfying corresponding conditions and triggers. This content can be of a variety of types, including, for example, notifications, media (e.g., images, animations, videos, audio, text), interactive elements including surveys and assessments, and so on. The triggers and conditions can be specified for the different time periods, tracks and performance levels such that the content provided to the program is adaptive to the user’s ongoing activity throughout the program.

“The system enables an administrator such as a healthcare provider or insurer to monitor the ongoing activity of the individual user and adjust the triggers and conditions of the set of rules to provide content that is directed to increasing the likelihood that the individual user will complete the program. In this regard, the system can be used as a content delivery platform to a variety of users using different programs that supply different content and user experiences, and also personalize each program for each individual user.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method performed by one or more computers, the method comprising: providing, by the one or more computers, an interface for an administrator to create or adjust a program configured to provide content to users through an application, the program having a set of rules configured to vary the content and interactions of the program to personalize how the program interacts with respective users of the program based on results of health monitoring for the respective users; receiving, by the one or more computers, input data provided by the administrator through the interface, wherein the input data indicates conditions or triggers for rules that initiate interaction of the program with the users, wherein the rules are configured such that users satisfying different combinations of the conditions or triggers over time are provided different combinations of interactions specified by the rules; generating, by the one or more computers, program data that defines characteristics of the program based on the input data provided by the administrator, wherein the program data specifies (i) a series of multiple different segments of the program and (ii) the set of rules for the program including different subsets of rules configured to be used during the respective segments of the program; performing, by the one or more computers, health monitoring for a user of the program, including receiving health monitoring data from a user device of the user, the health monitoring data indicating activity of the user performed outside the application during a particular segment of the program; and instructing, by the one or more computers, the user device to provide content to the user that is selected based on detecting that a condition or trigger of one or more rules corresponding to the particular segment is satisfied based on the health monitoring data.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received input data is used to build a new program.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein: the received input data includes one or more alterations to the program; and generating the program data comprises updating, by the one or more computers, previous program data for the program based on the one or more alterations to the program.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the received input data adds a new rule that affects selection of the content provided to the user through the application.

“5. The method of claim 1, the received input data alters a condition, trigger, or system action of a rule used to determine content to include in a set of personalized content for the user.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the received input data adjusts applicability of one or more rules for the program.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein adjusting the applicability of the one or more rules changes a subset of the different segments of the program that are impacted by the rule.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein: the program is structured to include multiple tracks, levels, and segments, wherein the tracks correspond to different collections of content to be provided, the levels correspond to different degrees of difficulty or performance of a user, and the segments represent sequential portions of the program; the generated program data alters the rules for the program according to at least the respective tracks, levels, and segments of the program that are associated with the different users; and the method comprises instructing, by the one or more computers, the user device to apply the altered rules for the program to adjust interaction of the application of the user device with the user.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein: each segment included in the multiple different segments corresponds to a different time period; the program further comprises multiple selectable tracks and multiple levels for each track, the levels representing different degrees of difficulty or performance; and the different subsets of rules vary interactive content provided to different users according to at least the respective tracks, levels, and segments of the program that are associated with the different users.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device is a mobile device, and the application is a mobile device application on the mobile device; and wherein the set of rules is configured to personalize, for each user that participates in the program, which portions of the content of the program are provided and a timing of delivery of the content.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity of the user performed outside the application comprises physical activity of the user that is monitored by a device of the user.

“12. The method of claim 1, wherein the health monitoring data includes one or more physiological measurements for the user made using a sensor of the user device of the user or another device of the user; and wherein detecting that the condition or trigger of one or more rules corresponding to the particular segment is satisfied is based at least in part on the one or more physiological measurements for the user.

“13. The method of claim 1, after the set of rules for the program is used to provide interactions of the program responsive to health monitoring data received for the program, providing, by the one or more computers, information indicating activity of one or more users in participating in the program; after providing the information, receiving, by the one or more computers, second input data indicating a change to the set of rules; updating, by the one or more computers, the set of rules to obtain an updated set of rules; and applying, by the one or more computers, the updated set of rules to generate one or more additional interactions with the user through the user device.

“14. A system comprising: one or more computers; and one or more storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising: providing, by the one or more computers, an interface for an administrator to create or adjust a program configured to provide content to users through an application, the program having a set of rules configured to vary the content and interactions of the program to personalize how the program interacts with respective users of the program based on results of health monitoring for the respective users; receiving, by the one or more computers, input data provided by the administrator through the interface, wherein the input data indicates conditions or triggers for rules that initiate interaction of the program with the users, wherein the rules are configured such that users satisfying different combinations of the conditions or triggers over time are provided different combinations of interactions specified by the rules; generating, by the one or more computers, program data that defines characteristics of the program based on the input data provided by the administrator, wherein the program data specifies (i) a series of multiple different segments of the program and (ii) the set of rules for the program including different subsets of rules configured to be used during the respective segments of the program; performing, by the one or more computers, health monitoring for a user of the program, including receiving health monitoring data from a user device of the user, the health monitoring data indicating activity of the user performed outside the application during a particular segment of the program; and instructing, by the one or more computers, the user device to provide content to the user that is selected based on detecting that a condition or trigger of one or more rules corresponding to the particular segment is satisfied based on the health monitoring data.

“15. The system of claim 14, wherein the received input data is used to build a new program.

“16. The system of claim 14, wherein: the received input data includes one or more alterations to the program; and generating the program data comprises updating, by the one or more computers, previous program data for the program based on the one or more alterations to the program.

“17. The system of claim 14, wherein the received input data adds a new rule that affects selection of the content provided to the user through the application.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

URL and more information on this patent, see: Cao, Yue. Digital health system for effective behavior change. U.S. Patent Number 11450223, filed October 28, 2020, and published online on September 20, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11450223.PN.&OS=PN/11450223RS=PN/11450223

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)