Patent Issued for Interative gallery of user-selectable digital health programs (USPTO 11340878): VigNet Incorporated

2022 JUN 10 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- VigNet Incorporated (Fairfax, Virginia, United States) has been issued patent number 11340878, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Cao, Yue (Vienna, VA, US), Jain, Neeta (Fairfax, VA, US), Jain, Praduman (Fairfax, VA, US), Klein, Dave (Oakton, VA, US).

This patent was filed on May 18, 2020 and was published online on May 24, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “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.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “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.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by an electronic device that has an application installed on the electronic device, a first user input provided to the installed application; providing, by the electronic device, the first user input to a server system over a communication network; receiving, by the electronic device, a list of one or more program modules from the server system over the communication network, wherein program modules in the list are selected by the server system, based on the first user input, from among a set of program modules available to extend the functionality of the installed application, wherein the program modules in the list are configured to cause the application collect health information; displaying, by the electronic device, at least a portion of the received list of program modules in a user interface; receiving, by the electronic device, a second user input that selects a program module from the list of program modules displayed in the user interface; providing, by the electronic device, selection data to the server system over the communication network, the selection data indicating the program module selected from the list of program modules by the second user input; after providing the selection data to the server system, receiving, by the electronic device, the selected program module over the communication network; and updating, by the electronic device, the installed application based on the received program module such that the installed application is configured to collect health information, as specified by the received program module, for a user of the electronic device.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of program modules lists program modules respectively developed for different organizations; and wherein the method includes displaying, in the list of program modules, information identifying the different organizations associated with the respective program modules.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the program modules correspond to different organizations and are customized for the corresponding organizations.

“4. The method of claim 1, comprising: providing, by the electronic device, identifying information to the server system over the communication network, wherein the identifying information identifies at least one of an organization or the user of the electronic device; and receiving, by the electronic device, response data that the server system provides over the communication network in response to the electronic device providing the identifying information, the response data indicating a set of program modules identified based on the identifying information; wherein displaying the list of program modules comprises displaying a list of the program modules in the set of program modules indicated by the response data from the server system.

“5. The method of claim 4, comprising providing a user interface that includes one or more controls for receiving user input of the identifying information that identifies at least one of the user or an organization; and receiving user input of the identifying information through the user interface.

“6. The method of claim 1, comprising: receiving text input by the user to a text field of a user interface of the installed application; and identifying, from among a set of program modules compatible with the installed application, a proper subset of program modules that are relevant to the text input by the user; wherein displaying at least the portion of the list of program modules comprises displaying a list of the identified proper subset of program modules.

“7. The method of claim 1, comprising providing a user interface comprising an element configured to receive a code from a user, wherein the code is used to verify a user’s authorization to obtain one or more of the program modules; and wherein the selected program module is received in response to verification of a code received through the user interface.

“8. The method of claim 1, comprising requesting input of a code in order to provide access to one of the program modules in the list.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the installed application comprises: storing the received program module on the electronic device; and designating the received program module as a program module to be displayed on the installed application during a subsequent session of use of the installed application.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the received program module is configured to cause the installed application to acquire the health information for the user by acquiring and storing sensor data generated using a sensor of the electronic device, the sensor data describing a physiological or behavioral characteristics of the user.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the installed application is an application that was downloaded over network from an application store provided by a first server system; and wherein the list of program modules is a list of program modules that are provided by a second server system that is independent of the first server system and the application store.

“12. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected program module modifies the installed application to adjust the information displayed in the installed application based on real-time biometric measurements for a user of the electronic device.

“13. The method of claim 1, wherein the received program module specifies a condition or context to trigger collection of a particular type of information about the user; and wherein updating the installed application updates the installed application to trigger collection of the particular type of information about the user in response to the condition or context specified in the received program module.

“14. The method of claim 1, wherein the received program module is configured to cause the installed application to collect measurement data generated using one or more sensors; and wherein updating the installed application configures the installed application to collect measurement data generated using the one or more sensors and to send the measurement data over the communication network.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein the measurement data comprises a physiological measurement for the user determined using the one or more sensors.

“16. The method of claim 1, comprising, in response to receiving the second user input that selects the program module, displaying a user interface that provides information regarding the selected program module.

“17. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user input is an identifier or code provided by the user.

“18. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, with the displayed list of program modules including a particular program module, an indication of a requirement for obtaining access to the particular program module included in the displayed list of program modules.

“19. The method of claim 1, wherein the program modules are associated with corresponding medical conditions, and the user interface displays the listed program modules organized in different categories based on the medical conditions corresponding to the program modules.

“20. The method of claim 1, wherein the installed application is an application that was downloaded over the communication network from an application store provided by a first server system; wherein the list of program modules is a list of program modules that are provided by a second server system that is independent of the first server system and the application store; and wherein the received list of program modules includes one or more program modules that are configured to cause the installed application to collect measurement data generated using a sensor and to send the measurement data over the communication network.

“21. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying at least a portion of the received list of program modules displaying multiple user interface elements in which each user interface element corresponds to a different program module that is indicated by the received list and is available to be downloaded over a communication network to extend the functionality of the installed application; wherein receiving the second user input comprises receiving a second user input that selects a particular program module indicated by the received list by interacting with a particular user interface element corresponding to the particular program module; wherein providing the selection data comprises providing selection data to the server system that indicates selection of the particular program module; wherein receiving the selected program module comprises receiving at least one of software or content of the particular program module over the communication network, wherein the received program module is configured to cause the installed application to collect information from the user of the electronic device; and wherein updating the installed application based on the received program module comprises updating, by the electronic device, the installed application based on the received program module, wherein updating the installed application configures the installed application to collect information from the user of the electronic device and to send the information from the user to the server system or another system over the communication network.”

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

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Cao, Yue. Interative gallery of user-selectable digital health programs. U.S. Patent Number 11340878, filed May 18, 2020, and published online on May 24, 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=11340878.PN.&OS=PN/11340878RS=PN/11340878

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