Patent Issued for On-demand decentralized collection of clinical data from digital devices of remote patients (USPTO 11954470): VigNet Incorporated

2024 APR 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- VigNet Incorporated (Fairfax, Virginia, United States) has been issued patent number 11954470, 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 August 8, 2022 and was published online on April 9, 2024.

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 method performed by one or more computers, the method comprising: storing, by the one or more computers, modules that are respectively configured to customize monitoring performed by an application, wherein at least some of the modules are configured to cause different items to be monitored by the application; providing, by the one or more computers, a module to a client device over a communication network, wherein the module is configured to enable a third-party system to initiate data collection from devices that have the application installed and that have received and processed the module; after the module is provided to the client device and has been received and processed by the client device, receiving, by the one or more computers, a request from the third-party system to collect information from the client device, wherein the request is provided over the communication network; in response to receiving the request from the third-party system, communicating, by the one or more computers, with the client device over the communication network to cause the client device to use elements from the module previously received and processed by the client device to (i) obtain the information requested by the request from the third-party system and (ii) transmit the obtained information to the one or more computers over the communication network; and providing, by the one or more computers, the obtained information from the client device to the third-party system over the communication network.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the third-party system is a healthcare provider system.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored modules include modules for different third-party systems, such that at least some of the modules are customized to cause the application to enable communication with different third-party systems.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored modules include different modules for different sets of healthcare providers, such that each of the different modules is customized to cause the application to enable communication between users of the application and the set of healthcare providers corresponding to the module.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the module to the client device comprises providing a module configured to cause the application to provide two-way asynchronous or synchronous communication between a user of the client device and one or more healthcare providers corresponding to the module.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request from the third-party system to collect information from the client device comprises receiving a request from the third-party system to collect health information for a particular user; wherein communicating with the client device over the network comprises obtaining, from the client device of the particular user, the requested health information for the particular user in response to the request; and wherein providing the obtained information comprises providing the obtained health information for the particular user to the third-party system in response to the request.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the module provided to the client device is configured to enable the application to present content provided by the third-party system; and wherein the method includes: receiving, from the third-party system over the communication network, a message for a user of the client device; and providing the message to the client device over the communication network for presentation to the user in the application.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the modules are configured to enable different healthcare providers to monitor health of users through the application; wherein the module provided to the client device enables a particular set of healthcare providers associated with the third-party system to remotely monitor health of a user of the client device on an ongoing basis; and wherein the module provided to the client device includes content to configure the application to monitor particular types of health information and provide the health information periodically or in response to predetermined triggers or conditions.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the module provided to the client device is configured to cause the application to: capture health data for a user of the client device; detect an event based on the captured health data; and provide a notification of the event to the one or more computers over the communication network over the communication network; and wherein the method includes, based on the received notification of the event, providing information about the event to the third-party system.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the module specifies permissions including (i) a set of information that is permitted to be collected by the application when using the module and (ii) a set of recipients authorized to receive the information generated as directed by the module.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the obtained information to the third-party system comprises providing obtained information comprising at least one of sensor data from the client device, comments of a user of the client device, or health plan compliance information.

“12. The method of claim 1, wherein the module includes content to configure the application to receive communications or updates to treatment plans or goals for a user of the client device.

“13. The method of claim 1, wherein the module includes content to configure the application to modify interactions of the application on the client device with a user of the client device based on communication from the third-party system.

“14. The method of claim 1, wherein the module includes content to configure the application to enable chat or video conference communication between a user of the client device and one or more healthcare providers associated with the third-party system.

“15. A system comprising: one or more computers; and one or more computer-readable media storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising: storing, by the one or more computers, modules that are respectively configured to customize monitoring performed by an application, wherein at least some of the modules are configured to cause different items to be monitored by the application; providing, by the one or more computers, a module to a client device over a communication network, wherein the module is configured to enable a third-party system to initiate data collection from devices that have the application installed and that have received and processed the module; after the module is provided to the client device and has been received and processed by the client device, receiving, by the one or more computers, a request from the third-party system to collect information from the client device, wherein the request is provided over the communication network; in response to receiving the request from the third-party system, communicating, by the one or more computers, with the client device over the communication network to cause the client device to use elements from the module previously received and processed by the client device to (i) obtain the information requested by the request from the third-party system and (ii) transmit the obtained information to the one or more computers over the communication network; and providing, by the one or more computers, the obtained information from the client device to the third-party system over the communication network.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein the stored modules include modules that are respectively customized to cause the application to enable communication with a different third-party system.

“17. The system of claim 15, wherein the stored modules include different modules for different sets of healthcare providers, such that each of the different modules is customized to cause the application to enable communication between users of the application and the set of healthcare providers corresponding to the module.

“18. The system of claim 15, wherein providing the module to the client device comprises providing a module configured to cause the application to provide two-way asynchronous or synchronous communication between a user of the client device and one or more healthcare providers corresponding to the module.

“19. The system of claim 15, wherein receiving the request from the third-party system to collect information from the client device comprises receiving a request from the third-party system to collect health information for a particular user; wherein communicating with the client device over the network comprises obtaining, from the client device of the particular user, the requested health information for the particular user in response to the request; and wherein providing the obtained information comprises providing the obtained health information for the particular user to the third-party system in response to the request.”

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

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Cao, Yue. On-demand decentralized collection of clinical data from digital devices of remote patients. U.S. Patent Number 11954470, filed August 8, 2022, and published online on April 9, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11954470)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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