Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Cloud-Based Medical Record Management System With Patient Control”, for Approval (USPTO 20210304859): Patent Application

2021 OCT 19 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventor Bharucha, Nariman (Kingston/Saint Andrew, JM), filed on March 29, 2021, was made available online on September 30, 2021.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Medical records related to a patient’s health information are critical to the provision of medical care by health care providers. Personal and medical information must be accessible and manageable by medical professionals in order to provide effective patient medical care. Hospitals, medical professional practices and individual doctor’s offices are charged with the collection, updating and maintenance of such personal and medical information during each patient encounter where medical treatment is sought and delivered. Patient medical records are typically created, accessed and updated by doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and other medical personnel during various stages of patient treatment. Given the diversification and specialization in the medical field a patient may be treated by multiple doctors or specialists and may receive treatments in multiple medical facilities. In addition, a patient may require unexpected emergency care in a hospital emergency room, for example, that will require access to patient medical records and also generate additional updates from this medical facility that the patient may be unfamiliar. Of course, it is not uncommon for there to be required access to such personal and medical information by medical professionals outside of a particular patient’s hospital or general practitioner’s office in seeking outside expert opinions and/or evaluation of medical imaging and laboratory test results.

“Traditionally, such medical records were paper-based in format and required significant amounts of physical storage. Furthermore, the paper records may have been stored in multiple locations making their aggregation difficult, time consuming and costly Security of paper records is also a major issue in modern medical care scenarios. In view of these issues, the emergence and use of electronic health records (EHR) (also sometimes referred to as electronic medical records (EMR)) has grown exponentially and is replacing the use of paper records in their entirety.

“EMRs, a digital version containing the same or substantially the same information as a paper medical record, offer medical professionals the power and convenience of accessing and managing an enormous amount of patient data in ways simply not practical in a paper-based system. EMRs are structured to contain a patient’s complete medical history with medical information including, but not limited to, medical history, prescription history, allergies, vital signs, immunization history, laboratory testing results, medical imaging results, personal statistics (e.g., height, weight, eye color, gender, etc.), emergency contacts, family medical histories and medical insurance coverage information.

“In addition to these many advantages over paper-based record, EMRs also provide enhanced security and privacy protection. In the United States, the medical field is charged with compliance to all current health information laws and regulations. One major U.S. federal regulation is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that regulates the use and disclosure of defined protected health information. In particular, these regulations provide restrictions on disclosure and access to protected health information to and by third parties. HIPAA may require any access to hardware or other equipment containing medical information be carefully monitored and controlled with access limited to authorized personnel only.

“HIPAA is also concerned with ensuring data integrity and that data stored in a medical records system cannot be accessed or altered in any unauthorized way. The so-called HIPAA Security Rule provides for additional constraints with respect to electronic data security and the transmission and storage of protected health information. Additionally, the large amounts of data that needs electronic storage in today’s medical environments present unique challenges to the medical providers and information infrastructure providers in terms of infrastructure requirements to effectively manage the data. Significantly, a HIPAA violation may result in a federal investigation with possible civil penalty money damages. Therefore, compliance is an area taken very seriously by the medical professional ecosystem.

“Not unexpectedly with the establishment of HIPAA and today’s focus on personal data security including, but not limited to, personal medical health information there is an ever-increasing demand for patient control and protection of their personal medical health information. For example, patients are currently provided portal access by a medical provider that allows the patient to access their electronic medical records, as maintained by the particular medical provider, through a login process to the provider’s patient portal. However, the patient portal is specific to that provider’s system and associated medical data and is not typically in communication with other systems that may be required to treat the patient and/or that hold other patient records necessary for treatment. As such, patients continue to demand better control of and access to their medical histories with higher degrees of transparency, security and portability across multiple medical providers.

“Accordingly, there is need for a solution providing improved patient control and access to their medical histories with higher degrees of transparency, security and portability across multiple medical providers.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “The present invention is directed to a cloud-based medical record management system that provides patient control for storing, accessing, managing, securing and sharing their patient medical records.

“In a first implementation of the invention, a cloud-based medical record management system is provided employing a HIPAA-compliant cloud comprising at least one or more servers and databases. The HIPAA-compliant cloud facilitates the storage of patient medical records that are under patient-control thereby allowing the patient to directly control and provide access to such medical-related information by and through two primary mechanisms, in particular, a patient device for executing mobile applications and a control card. The HIPAA-compliant cloud facilitates communications between a variety of medical facilities and health care establishments including but not limited to hospitals, clinics, emergency services, pharmacies and telemedicine providers. Electronic communications between various networks, the HIPAA-compliant cloud and the aforementioned institutions are facilitated by communications links.

“In a second aspect, a method is provided for patient control for storing, accessing, managing, securing and sharing their patient medical records using the cloud-based medical system.

“In a third aspect, a healthcare information exchange system is provided comprising one or more servers and one or more databases, the healthcare information exchange system being in communication with a plurality of healthcare entities over one or more networks, and the one or more databases storing a plurality of patient specific medical records, a patient device comprising a processor and a memory storing instructions that when executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising transmitting, under control by a patient associated with the patient device, a patient medical record access request specific to the patient, the patient medical access request including at least a patient identification code and an access code that are specific to identifying and authenticating the patient. Wherein the healthcare information exchange system, in response to receiving the patient medical record access request through the one or more servers, verifies an authenticity of the patient using the patient identification code and the access code and, only if the authenticity is verified, retrieves, from the one or more databases, a particular one patient specific medical record of the plurality of patient specific medical records, the particular one patient specific medical record being associated with the patient, and transmits, over a particular one network of the one or more networks, the at least one patient specific medical record to a particular one healthcare entity of the plurality of healthcare entities.

“In a fourth aspect, patient control over and access to personal medical records may be facilitated by a patient device comprising a mobile application that when executed delivers operations for patient control for storing, accessing, managing and sharing their patient medical records.

“In a fifth aspect, patient control over and access to personal medical records may be facilitated by a patient control card comprising a processor, memory power supply, magnetic strip and smart card interface. When the patient control card is in physical possession of the patient and presented by the patient this will facilitate a method for patient control for storing, accessing, managing, securing and sharing their patient medical records.

“In another aspect, the patient control delivered the patient device or patient control card, as the case may be, facilitates procuring necessary prescription drugs in view of the patient’s direct control and authority over fulfillment in view of the communicated price levels and visibility into the price variations among the competing pharmacies.

“In another aspect, the patient device may be a mobile device such as a smartphone, laptop computer, tablet and/or wearable device.

“In another aspect, the patient control card may include a patient photograph, provider name, patient account number, patient name and logo.

“These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the attached drawings and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments, which follow.

“Like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A medical record management system comprising: a healthcare information exchange comprising: at least one database for storing a plurality of patient specific medical records; a processor; a memory storing instructions that when executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising: receiving, in real-time, a patient medical record access request specific to and controlled solely by a patient, the patient medical access request including at least a patient identification code and an access code that are specific to identifying and authenticating the patient; verifying, in response to receiving the patient medical record access request an authenticity of the patient using the patient identification code and the access code and, only if the authenticity is verified, retrieving in real-time, from the at least one database, a particular one patient specific medical record of the plurality of patient specific medical records, the particular one patient specific medical record being associated with the patient; and transmitting, in real-time, the particular one patient specific medical record to at least one healthcare entity of the plurality of healthcare entities.

“2. The medical record management system of claim 1, wherein the verifying the authenticity of the patient operation further comprises: routing, in real-time, the patient medical record access request to a medical professional associated with the at least one healthcare entity indicating the patient is seeking medical treatment.

“3. The medical record management system of claim 2, wherein the verifying the authenticity of the patient operation further comprises: determining, by and through the medical professional and in real-time, whether the patient is an existing patient of the medical professional.

“4. The medical record management system of claim 3, wherein the operations further comprise: retrieving, but only if the patient is determined to be the existing patient of the medical professional, a patient profile specific to the patient.

“5. The medical record management system of claim 1, wherein the patient medical record access request specific to and controlled solely by the patient is transmitted from a user device associated with the patient.

“6. The medical record management system of claim 5, wherein the user device is one of a smartphone, a laptop computer, a tablet or a wearable device.

“7. The medical record management system of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise: fulfilling, using the patient profile retrieved and in real-time, at least one prescription as prescribed by the medical professional for the patient.

“8. A medical record management system comprising: a healthcare information exchange comprising: at least one database for storing a plurality of patient specific medical records; a processor; a memory storing instructions that when executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising: receiving, in real-time, a patient medical record access request specific to and controlled solely by a patient, the patient medical access request triggered by the patient using a patient control card, the patient control card comprising at least a patient identification code and an access code that are specific to identifying and authenticating the patient; verifying, in response to receiving the patient medical record access request an authenticity of the patient using the patient identification code and the access code and, only if the authenticity is verified, retrieving in real-time, from the at least one database, a particular one patient specific medical record of the plurality of patient specific medical records, the particular one patient specific medical record being associated with the patient; and transmitting, in real-time, the particular one patient specific medical record to at least one healthcare entity of the plurality of healthcare entities.

“9. The medical record management system of claim 8, wherein the verifying the authenticity of the patient operation further comprises: routing, in real-time, the patient medical record access request to a medical professional associated with the at least one healthcare entity indicating the patient is seeking medical treatment.

“10. The medical record management system of claim 9, wherein the verifying the authenticity of the patient operation further comprises: determining, by and through the medical professional and in real-time, whether the patient is an existing patient of the medical professional.

“11. The medical record management system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: retrieving, but only if the patient is determined to be the existing patient of the medical professional user, a patient profile specific to the patient.

“12. The medical record management system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise: transmitting, in real-time, a plurality of prescription fulfillment quotes generated as a function of at least one prescription as prescribed the medical professional for the patient to a user device associated with the patient.

“13. The medical record management system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprising: fulfilling, using the patient profile retrieved and in real-time, the at least one prescription from a particular one of the prescription fulfillment quotes.

“14. The medical record management system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: adding, but only if the patient is determined to be the existing patient of the medical professional user and in real-time, a name of the patient to an examination queue.

“15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer program instructions for executing medical records management, which, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: receiving, in real-time, a patient medical record access request specific to and controlled solely by a patient, the patient medical access request including at least a patient identification code and an access code that are specific to identifying and authenticating the patient; verifying, in response to receiving the patient medical record access request an authenticity of the patient using the patient identification code and the access code and, only if the authenticity is verified, retrieving in real-time, from at least one database, a particular one patient specific medical record of the plurality of patient specific medical records, the particular one patient specific medical record being associated with the patient; and transmitting, in real-time, the particular one patient specific medical record to at least one healthcare entity of the plurality of healthcare entities.

“16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the verifying the authenticity of the patient operation further comprises: routing, in real-time, the patient medical record access request to a medical professional associated with the at least one healthcare entity indicating the patient is seeking medical treatment.

“17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the verifying the authenticity of the patient operation on further comprises: determining, by and through the medical professional and in real-time, whether the patient is an existing patient of the medical professional.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise: retrieving, but only if the patient is determined to be the existing patient of the medical professional and in real-time, a patient profile specific to the patient.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the patient medical record access request specific to and controlled solely by the patient is transmitted from a user device associated with the patient.

“20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise: transmitting, in real-time, a plurality of prescription fulfillment quotes generated as a function of at least one prescription as prescribed by the medical professional for the patient, to a user device associated with the patient; and fulfilling, using the patient profile retrieved, the at least one prescription from a particular one of the prescription fulfillment quotes.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Bharucha, Nariman. Cloud-Based Medical Record Management System With Patient Control. Filed March 29, 2021 and posted September 30, 2021. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220210304859%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20210304859&RS=DN/20210304859

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