Patent Issued for Precision data collection for digital health monitoring (USPTO 11467813): VigNet Incorporated

2022 NOV 02 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, 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 September 29, 2020, was published online on October 11, 2022.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11467813, is VigNet Incorporated (Fairfax, Virginia, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “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.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors 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 an electronic device, the method comprising: receiving, by the electronic device which has a software application installed on the electronic device, a module comprising configuration information to adjust a configuration of the software application, the module being received by the electronic device from a server system over a communication network, wherein the module directs the software application to collect health data describing health of a user of the electronic device, and wherein the module specifies a condition for presenting a user interface comprising an interactive form or survey comprising interactive elements to obtain health information of the user, wherein the condition for presenting the user interface to the user of the electronic device is based on one or more properties of health data for the user; after receiving the module, processing, by the electronic device, the received module to adjust the configuration of the software application at the electronic device, wherein the adjusted configuration changes interactions of the software application with the user of the electronic device to collect health data for the user as directed by the module; after processing the received module, monitoring, by the electronic device, health of the user to generate health data as directed by the module; evaluating, by the electronic device, the health data to determine whether the condition specified by the module is satisfied; based on the evaluating, determining, by the electronic device, that the condition specified by the module for presenting the user interface is satisfied; and in response to determining that the condition is satisfied, providing, by the electronic device, the user interface comprising the interactive form or survey using content specified by the module.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the module comprises content of a module template and a set of customizations applied to the template.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the server system provides multiple different modules that each adjust the configuration of the software application when processed, the multiple different modules being developed for and being configured to collect data for different organizations.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the module comprises media for display in the software application; and wherein the module specifies, without modifying executable content of the software application, functionality of the software application to expose to the user.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the module specifies (i) rules or conditions for the software application to analyze characteristics of user data and (ii) actions of the electronic device to perform based on results of the analysis.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the module is configured to cause the software application to provide a game.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the module is configured to cause the software application to provide a medical treatment regimen or wellness plan for the user.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the module is configured to cause the software application to provide reminders, messages, or notifications to the user.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the module configures the application by specifying how the application accesses sensor data, provides user interface elements, interacts with an operating system or other applications, or interacts over a network.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the module customizes a layout of user interface components of the software application or customizes transitions between different sections or user interface components shown in the software application.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the module specifies a features of the software application to provide to the user, and wherein processing the module configures the software application to provide functionality for real-time remote health care or real-time messaging with a healthcare provider.

“12. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the module configures the software application to provide functionality to establish a video conference between the user and a healthcare provider.

“13. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the module configures the software application to receive updates to a treatment plan or goal for the user from an organization associated with the module.

“14. The method of claim 1, wherein the module specifies one or more types of data about the user to be collected by the software application and a frequency for the software application to collect the one or more types of data about the user.

“15. The method of claim 1, wherein the module designates one or more conditions or contexts to trigger the software application to perform a measurement regarding the user.

“16. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the module configures the software application to provide, over the communication network, at least one of sensor data collected by the electronic device, user input to the software application, or information indicating compliance of the user with a health plan.

“17. The method of claim 1, wherein the module specifies (i) a particular type of data to collect about the user using one or more sensors and (ii) a particular condition to trigger a measurement using the one or more sensors; detecting, by the electronic device, that the particular condition specified by the module has occurred based on results of monitoring that the electronic device performed as directed by the module; and performing, by the electronic device, a measurement using the one or more sensors in response to detecting the particular condition specified by the module has occurred.

“18. The method of claim 1, wherein the module specifies (i) a particular type of data to collect about the user using one or more sensors, (ii) a particular condition or context to trigger a measurement using the one or more sensors; detecting, by the electronic device, that the particular context specified by the module has occurred based on results of monitoring that the electronic device performed as directed by the module; and performing, by the electronic device, a measurement using the one or more sensors in response to detecting the particular context specified by the module has occurred.

“19. The method of claim 1, wherein the module includes rules that cause the software application to (i) use one or more responses of the user to the interactive form or survey to predict a health risk of the user and (ii) provide an intervention that presents a preventative measure to reduce the health risk.

“20. The method of claim 1, wherein user interface interactive form or survey comprises a survey that requests health data used to determine a user’s progress within a treatment program.

“21. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition is based on measurements of one or more monitored biometric parameters of the user that the module causes the electronic device to measure using one or more sensors of the electronic device.

“22. The method of claim 1, wherein the module includes one or more instructions configured to cause the software application to download additional content over the communication network based on processing of the module by the software application.

“23. The method of claim 22, wherein the instructions of the module are configured to cause the software application to download the additional content in response to the software application detecting one or more triggering conditions specified by the module.

“24. The method of claim 1, wherein the module is a particular module from among multiple modules provided by the server system over the communication network, and wherein the method further comprises: displaying, by the electronic device, a graphical user interface of the software application that lists multiple modules that are respectively configured to adjust the software application in different ways to cause the software application to perform different sets of health monitoring operations; receiving, by the electronic device, user input to the graphical user interface that interacts with a user interface element corresponding to the particular module; and in response to receiving the user input, providing, by the electronic device, data to the server system that indicates a selection of the particular module; wherein receiving the module comprises receiving the particular module from the server system over the communication network following the electronic device providing the data to the server system indicating selection of the particular module.”

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

For more information, see this patent: Cao, Yue. Precision data collection for digital health monitoring. U.S. Patent Number 11467813, filed September 29, 2020, and published online on October 11, 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=11467813.PN.&OS=PN/11467813RS=PN/11467813

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