Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Healthcare Management System and Method for Evaluating Patients”, for Approval (USPTO 20170177824)

Politics & Government Week

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Politics & Government Week -- From Washington, D.C., VerticalNews journalists report that a patent application by the inventors Merrick, Laura (Chicago, IL); Jones, Arthur (Chicago, IL); Spector, Tina (Chicago, IL); Lulias, Cheryl (Chicago, IL), filed on December 18, 2015, was made available online on June 29, 2017.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "Healthcare is a patchwork of different healthcare providers from hospitals to medical homes to health insurance providers that provide different services to patients. The patchwork includes coordination between the healthcare providers attending to the needs of their patients. With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act ('ACA') in the United States, healthcare providers are being judged and compensated based on outcome, therefore quality rather than quantity. Consequently, healthcare providers are being incentivized to provide higher quality healthcare at a lower cost."

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, VerticalNews correspondents also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent application: "Embodiments described herein enable efficient communication between client members (i.e., healthcare clinics, medical homes, or hospitals) and health management service providers, wherein patient data and the results of various different patient analyses can be transmitted and communicated between client members and health management service providers in real time or in close to real time, e.g., a few minutes or hours as opposed to days or months to facilitate managing the healthcare needs of patients. For example, in some embodiments, a healthcare management system is provided that includes a client member that is configured to receive data associated with a patient, wherein the data includes a plurality of health condition variables. A health management service provider is configured to couple to the client member via a network, wherein the health management service provider is further configured to receive the data transmitted from the client member and to determine a plurality of weighted values that are associated with the health condition variables. The health management service provider is also configured to compute a risk score associated with the patient based on the weighted values associated with the health condition variables and output a message to an external device based on the risk score.

"In other embodiments, a method for evaluating a patient using a computing device is provided. Data associated with the patient is obtained via the computing device, wherein the data includes a plurality of health condition variables. A plurality of weighted values that are associated with the plurality of health condition variables are determined. A risk score associated with the patient is computed based on the plurality of weighted values associated with the health condition variables. A message is transmitted to an external device based on the risk score.

"In yet other embodiments, a method for evaluating a patient using a computing a device is provided, wherein the method includes obtaining data associated with the patient via the computing device, and wherein the data includes a plurality of identification variables and a plurality of health condition variables. A database that includes a plurality portfolios that each corresponds to a different existing patient member is accessed. The identification variables for the patient are compared with the portfolios in the database to identify whether a match exists for the patient. A risk score for the patient is computed when the match is identified, wherein the risk score is based on a plurality of weighted values associated with the health condition variables. A message is transmitted to an external device based on the risk score."

For additional information on this patent application, see: Merrick, Laura; Jones, Arthur; Spector, Tina; Lulias, Cheryl. Healthcare Management System and Method for Evaluating Patients. Filed December 18, 2015 and posted June 29, 2017. Patent URL: http://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=%2220170177824%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20170177824&RS=DN/20170177824

Keywords for this news article include: Patents, Hospital.