Patent Issued for Systems and methods of assisting a user in discovering medical services (USPTO 11837369): IX Innovation LLC

2023 DEC 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Roh, Jeffrey (Seattle, WA, US), filed on May 6, 2022, was published online on December 5, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11837369 is IX Innovation LLC (Seattle, Washington, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Individuals of each country may have varied health care facilities available around them. The individuals use such facilities while medical assistance is required. The individuals may face challenges in seeking such medical assistance while they travel to different countries. An international health insurance can provide certain help in guiding and funding the individuals to health care facilities available in different countries.

“Many of these individuals are not accustomed with long wait times, poor access to medical care, few options for immediate response to health concerns, taxed health services, and more. Further, an individual may not expect to have uncertainty in his life especially when it comes to proper and immediate healthcare. A medical condition of the individual may require specialized medical professionals and medical services.

“Thus, there is a need for a system that can automatically integrate all the variables, for assisting an individual in conveniently accessing the nearby medical services.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present disclosure provides systems and related methods for assisting a user in discovering nearby medical services. In some embodiments, the systems disclosed herein are configured to identify relevant medical service providers based on user-specific information (e.g., user identity, geographical location, user preferences) and event data (e.g., data indicating that the user has experienced a medical event that may require emergency, urgent, or non-urgent medical services). For example, the system can automatically determine a set of medical service providers customized to the user’s particular location, preferences, and medical condition, and visually present that set to the user in an easily understandable format, such as an overlay map on the user’s smart phone. The embodiments disclosed herein can advantageously assist users in rapidly finding medical services that are convenient, accessible, and suitable for their specific medical preferences and needs, particularly in situations where the user is unfamiliar with the geographical area or uncertain of the availability of medical services.

“Thus, in one aspect, a method of providing assistance to a user in discovering nearby medical services is provided. The method can include providing one or more databases storing user details and support network data. The user details can include user personal data, user medical data, and user preference data, and the support network data can include data of individuals and agencies providing medical support. The user can be identified based on matching of at least one of a unique identity code or biometric details with the user details. The method can further include receiving event data provided by the user and determining a current geographical location of the user. Relevant support network data can be identified based on the event data and the current geographical location of the user. The relevant support network data can be presented to the user as a map overlaid with at least one of the event data and the user preference data.

“In another aspect, a method of providing assistance to a user in discovering medical services is provided. The method can include receiving user identifier data and event data provided by a user. The user identifier data can include at least one of a unique identity code or user biometric data. A user can be identified based on the user identifier data and reference user data associated with the user. The method can further include receiving geographical location data associated with the user. Relevant support network data can be identified based on the event data and the geographical location data. The relevant support network data can be transmitted for viewing by the user. The relevant support network data can be configured to be displayed on a map with at least one of the event data or the user preference data.

“In another aspect, a system for providing assistance to a user in discovering nearby medical services is provided. The system can include one or more databases storing user details and support network data. The user details can include user personal data, user medical data, and user preference data, and the support network data can include data of individuals and agencies providing medical support. The system can further include one or more processors, and memory. The memory can comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to identify the user based on matching of at least one of a unique identity code and biometric details with the user details. The system can receive event data provided by the user and obtain geographical location data associated with the user. Relevant support network data can be identified based on the event data and the geographical location data. The system can provide relevant support network data to the user. The relevant support network data can be presented as a map overlaid with at least one of the event data and the user preference data.

“In another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium is provided. The non-transitory computer-readable medium can store instructions that, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for providing assistance to a user in discovering nearby medical services. The method can include receiving user details and support network data. The user details can include user personal data, user medical data, and user preference data, and the support network data can include data of individuals and agencies providing medical support. The user can be identified based on matching of at least one of a unique identity code and biometric details with the user details. The method can further include receiving event data provided by the user and receiving a current geographical location of the user. Relevant support network data can be identified based on the event data and the current geographical location of the user. The relevant support network data can be provided to the user as a map overlaid with at least one of the event data and the user preference data.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method of providing assistance to a personal mobile device user in obtaining medical services, the method comprising: providing one or more databases storing user details and support network data, wherein the user details include medical and healthcare data, and wherein the support network data comprises data of individuals and agencies providing medical support and service capabilities; communicating event data associated with the user, wherein the event data indicates a medical event that requires a medical recourse; determining a current geographical location of the user based on information received from a geographical location sensing circuit; determining that the current geographical location corresponds to a non-residential area for the user; identifying relevant support network data based on comparing the event data, the user details, and the current geographical location of the user, wherein the relevant support network data at least partially represents a set of medical service providers that satisfy real-time restrictions on estimated travel time and transportation availability associated with the current geographical location, wherein the real-time restrictions correspond to the medical recourse; and presenting the relevant support network data through the personal mobile device, wherein the relevant support network data is presented overlaid on a map with at least one of the event data and user preference data.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: predicting a future geographical location for the user according to a travel itinerary data, wherein the relevant support network data is identified based on the current and the future geographical locations of the user.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein: identifying the relevant support network data includes identifying the set of medical service providers that have service capabilities suitable for responding to the medical event; the event data represents a medical emergency automatically detected based on data from one or more wearable devices and/or one or more continuous health-monitoring devices and related to a past or existing health condition of the user; the communicated event data represents an image associated with the medical event; and the identified relevant support network data includes an available urgent care facility.

“4. A method of providing assistance to a user of a mobile device in obtaining medical services, the method comprising: receiving user identifier data and event data provided by the user; receiving, via a network interface, geographical location data associated with the user and representative of information determined by a geographical location sensing circuit; estimating a future location for the user according to user schedule data; identifying relevant support network data based on the event data, the estimated future location, and the geographical location data, wherein the relevant support network data represents a set of medical service providers that satisfy real-time restrictions on estimated travel time and transportation availability associated with the geographical location data and the estimated future location; and communicating the relevant support network data for presentation through the mobile device, wherein the relevant support network data is configured to be displayed on a map with at least one of the event data or user preference data.

“5. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving user data and support network data, wherein the user data comprises user medical data and healthcare data, and wherein the support network data comprises data of medical service providers.

“6. The method of claim 4, wherein the relevant support network data is configured to be overlaid on the map when presented through the mobile device.

“7. The method of claim 4, wherein the user identifier data is received from a smart phone, a laptop, a tablet, or a phablet.

“8. The method of claim 4, wherein the event data comprises data related to the user’s current health and/or geographical locations associated with the user, and wherein the geographical location data include current geographical location data and/or predicted future geographical location data.

“9. The method of claim 4, wherein the relevant support network data comprises locations and information related to one or more pharmacies, doctors, hospitals, clinics, third parties, insurance agents, or payment agents.

“10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: estimating required services based on the event data; and filtering the relevant support network data based on comparing corresponding service capabilities of the represented set of medical service providers to the estimated required services.

“11. A system for providing assistance to a user of a personal device in obtaining medical services, the system comprising: one or more databases storing user details and support network data, wherein the user details comprise medical data and healthcare data for a set of users, and wherein the support network data comprises data of individuals and agencies providing medical support and service capabilities; a network interface configured to obtain geographical location data associated with the user, wherein the geographical location data represents a current location of the user as determined by a geographical location sensing circuit; one or more processors; and memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: receive event data associated with the user, wherein the event data indicates a medical event that requires a medical recourse, access the user details associated with the user; identify relevant support network data based on comparing the event data, the user details, and the geographical location data, wherein the relevant support network data at least partially represents a set of medical service providers that satisfy real-time restrictions on estimated travel time and transportation availability associated with the current geographical location, wherein the real-time restrictions correspond to the medical recourse, and communicate the relevant support network data for presentation through the personal device the user, wherein the relevant support network data is presented through the personal device as at least one of the event data and the user preference data overlaid on a map.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions cause the system to present the relevant support network data through a smart phone, a laptop, a desktop, a tablet, or a phablet.

“13. The system of claim 11, wherein the user detail is received from the personal device.

“14. The system of claim 11, further comprising a geographical location sensing device configured to determine the current geographical location of the user.

“15. The system of claim 11, further comprising one or more interfaces configured to receive the event data from the user and present the relevant support network data to the user.

“16. The system of claim 11, wherein the relevant support network data comprises locations and information related to one or more pharmacies, doctors, hospitals, clinics, third parties, or insurance and payment agents.

“17. The system of claim 16, wherein the locations and information are filtered based on the current geographical location of the user.

“18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for providing assistance through a personal device to a user in obtaining medical services, comprising: receiving user details and support network data, wherein the user details comprise user medical and healthcare data, and wherein the support network data comprises data of individuals and agencies providing medical support; identifying the user based on the user details; communicating event data provided by the user; receiving, via a network interface, a current geographical location of the user determined by a geographical location sensing circuit; predicting a future geographical location for the user according to user schedule data; identifying relevant support network data based on the event data, the future geographical location, and the current geographical location of the user, wherein the relevant support network data at least partially represents a set of medical service providers that satisfy real-time geographic restrictions, wherein the geographic restrictions are based on the event data and estimated travel time and/or transportation availability associated with the current and future geographical locations; and presenting the relevant support network data through the personal device of the user, wherein the relevant support network data is configured for presentation overlaid on a map with at least one of the event data and the user preference data.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the at least one of unique identity code and biometric details is received from a smart phone, a laptop, a desktop, a tablet, or a phablet.

“20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the event data comprises data related to the user’s current health.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Roh, Jeffrey. Systems and methods of assisting a user in discovering medical services. U.S. Patent Number 11837369, filed May 6, 2022, and published online on December 5, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11837369)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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