WO2016010649A1

WO2016010649A1 - System for providing on-demand healthcare and care coordination

Info

Publication number: WO2016010649A1
Application number: PCT/US2015/034568
Authority: WO
Inventors: Aaron BABB
Original assignee: Qwiklife, Inc.
Priority date: 2014-07-18
Filing date: 2015-06-05
Publication date: 2016-01-21

Abstract

A healthcare coordination service provides on-demand healthcare services to patients that improve access to care, care coordination and quality while ensuring patient safety and privacy of patient information. The service receives an appointment request for at-location healthcare from a client device (e.g., a mobile phone) associated with a client and identifies mobile healthcare professionals and remote healthcare professionals to serve the patient. A mobile healthcare professional, e.g., a nurse, is available to travel to the location of the patient and to provide a set of services related to the healthcare requested by the patient. A remote healthcare professional, e.g., a physician, is available to remotely provide a second set of services related to the requested healthcare. Based on the patient's selection of a mobile healthcare professional, the service schedules an at-location appointment for the patient, where a remote healthcare professional will join the appointment via a two-way communication channel.

Description

SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING ON-DEMAND HEALTHCARE AND CARE

COORDINATION

BACKGROUND

[0001] The present invention relates generally to healthcare software applications, and, more particularly, to a system for providing on-demand healthcare services.

[0002] The traditional healthcare system burdens the patient in several ways. First, a patient typically expends significant time and effort in scheduling appointments with healthcare professionals. Often such appointments are scheduled weeks and months in the future. Second, in emergency situations, patients often have to travel to a hospital or a similar facility and wait many hours before the emergency is addressed. Third, patients who are in remote or rural locations typically do not have many options when it comes to specialized healthcare services. Therefore, patients who suffer healthcare problems requiring a specialist's attention often have to travel several hundred miles to receive such healthcare.

SUMMARY

[0003] A system and method for providing on-demand healthcare services to patients, e.g., at-location appointment scheduling, medical emergency services and connecting multiple parties to appointments at a patient's location. The provided healthcare services improve access to care, care coordination and quality while ensuring patient safety and privacy of patient information. In one embodiment, the on-demand health care service receives an appointment request for at-location (e.g., at home) healthcare from a client device (e.g., a mobile phone) associated with a client and identifies mobile healthcare professionals and remote healthcare professionals to serve the patient. A mobile healthcare professional, e.g., a nurse, is available to travel to the location of the patient and to provide a set of services related to the healthcare requested by the patient. A remote healthcare professional, e.g., a physician, is available to remotely provide a second set of services related to the requested healthcare. Based on the patient's selection of a mobile healthcare professional, the service schedules an at-location appointment for the patient, where a remote healthcare professional will join the appointment via a two-way communication channel, e.g., a video call, an audio call and a text messaging feed.

[0004] As one example of the on-demand healthcare service, the patient can have an at home visit from a healthcare professional, such as a physician, without the physician traveling to the patient's home. Instead, a second healthcare professional, such as a nurse, travels to the patient's home. The on-demand healthcare service coordinates this visit and provides an interface via which the patient can identify to nurse and request a visit, and an interface via which a nurse can accept the visit and can communicate with the physician at the patient location, such as via a video conference. The nurse can diagnose or provide treatment to the patient at the patient location under the physician's direction including using medical instruments (e.g., stethoscope, otoscope, ultrasound, dermatoscope, camera, blood or urine testing materials, pulmonary testing device, intravenous line equipment, materials for performing a blood draw, medications, etc.) to perform the examination. The nurse can provide the results of the examination directly to the physician, and the physician can watch and participate via the video conference. The medical instruments can also be configured to directly provide (e.g., via network connection) the examination result data to the physician such that the physician can review the results in real-time on a computer screen. This coordinated at-location healthcare visit allows for patients in remote locations or who cannot leave the home to have a physician-supervised visit, but still have the benefit of an at-home, in-person examination by a healthcare professional.

[0005] The features and advantages described in this summary and the following detailed description are not all-inclusive. Many additional features and advantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the drawings, specification, and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] FIG. 1 is an illustration of a computing environment for providing on-demand healthcare and care coordination in accordance with one embodiment.

[0007] FIG. 2 illustrates a user interface configured by an appointment preference module in accordance with one embodiment.

[0008] FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method for scheduling an appointment in accordance with one embodiment.

[0009] FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method for servicing a medical emergency in accordance with one embodiment.

[0010] FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method for connecting remote parties to appointments at a patient's location in accordance with one embodiment.

[0011] FIG. 6 is a high-level block diagram illustrating an example computer in accordance with one embodiment.

[0012] One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0013] FIG. 1 is an illustration of a computing environment 100 for providing on- demand healthcare and care coordination in accordance with one embodiment. The computing environment 100 includes a healthcare coordination service 108 that manages the delivery of healthcare services to patients 102. Patients 102, tier 1 healthcare professionals 104, and tier 2 healthcare professionals 106 (collectively, "users of the healthcare service") access the healthcare coordination service 108 via client devices (not shown).

[0014] An individual user may access the healthcare coordination service 108 via a personal client device, such as a smart phone operated by the individual user. Alternatively, the user may access the healthcare coordination service 108 via a client device shared by a group of users, such as a computer terminal or a conferencing system at a hospital. In other embodiments, the client devices may include a wireless telephone or other devices capable of connecting to the healthcare coordination service 108. In some embodiments, the specialized software configured to access and interface with the healthcare coordination service 108 may be installed on the client devices. Such software may be different depending on whether the user accessing the healthcare coordination service 108 is a patient 102, a tier 1 healthcare professional 104 or a tier 2 healthcare professional 106. In various embodiments, the client devices connect to the healthcare coordination service 108 via a communications network, such as a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless network, an intranet, or the Internet, for example.

[0015] The healthcare coordination service 108 provides healthcare services that improve access to care, care coordination and quality while ensuring patient safety and the privacy of patient information. In operation, the healthcare coordination service 108 extends the reach of tier 2 healthcare professionals to remote patients with the help of tier 1 healthcare professionals. The tier 1 healthcare professionals 104 (collectively, "tier 1 professionals 104," or, individually, "tier 1 professional 104") include healthcare personnel who can provide healthcare services to the patients 102 at the patients' locations. For example, a tier 1 healthcare professional 104 may be a medical assistant, a dental assistant, a mental health provider, a social worker, a phlebotomist, a physical therapist, a nursing assistant, a therapist, a nurse, a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant, or a doctor. The tier 2 healthcare professionals 106 (collectively, "tier 2 professionals 106," or, individually, "tier 2

professional 106") include healthcare personnel who can remotely provide healthcare services to the patients 102. For example, a tier 2 healthcare professional may be a poison expert, a dentist, a pharmacist, a psychologist, a therapist, a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant, or a doctor (specialist or otherwise).

[0016] The tier 2 professionals rely on the at-location tier 1 professionals to collect the requisite information from the patient and perform at-location procedures and/or tests. As such, a tier 1 professional operates as an extension of the tier 2 professional at the patient's location. Because the tier 1 and tier 2 professional operate together seamlessly, this healthcare model protects the patient-physician relationship and promotes improved care coordination by remotely connecting the tier 2 professionals to any healthcare appointment. Specifically, even though a tier 2 professional is remote, the tier 2 professional remotely oversees and supervises an at-location tier 1 professional and also provides face-to-face service to the patient through the tier 1 professional. In some embodiments, the at-location tier 1 professional is a team of professionals that travel to the patient location. Similarly, the tier 2 professionals can be a team that oversees the one or more at-location tier 2

professionals.

[0017] Examples of connections that might be made between tier 1 and tier 2 professionals include a nurse who connects: .1 ) a doctor/nurse practitioner for urgent care type visits, primary care or preventative type visits or for specialty consult, 2) a

pharmacist/doctor for medication, therapy management, 3 ) a psychologist/therapist for therapy, 4) a physical therapist for therapy, 5) an occupational therapist for therapy, or 6) a speech therapist for therapy. Another example is a nurse midwife who connects to OB/GYN for consultation or support. A further example is a nurse practitioner who connects to: 1) a doctor for consultation, 2) a pharmacist for consultation, or 3) a psychologist/therapist for consultation. An additional example is a doctor who connects to: 1) a pharmacist for consultation, 2) a poison expert for consultation, 3) a psychologist/therapist for consultation, 4) a dentist for consultation, 5) another doctor/nurse practitioner for consultation. Use cases for the on demand healthcare services include for urgent care, chronic care management (e.g., diabetes care, asthma, hypertension), preventative care, (e.g., vaccines, well child or adult visits, well- woman exams: home pap smear - HPV testing), hospice or end-of-iife care, alternative to nursing home - 24hr care, specialty drug administration (e.g., chemotherapy, or IV or I M injection therapy), post-hospital rehabilitation, post-surgery rehabilitation, dialysis, among others.

[0018] The healthcare coordination service 108 (also referred to herein as "the coordination service 108") manages the delivery of healthcare by: (i) enabling appointment scheduling, (ii) servicing emergency situations, and (iii) providing a diagnosis and communication platform for healthcare professionals. To perform these various functions, the coordination service 108 includes an appointment preference module 110, an appointment scheduling module 112, an emergency management module 114, and an in-appointment module 116. The coordination service 108 also includes data stores for storing data associated with the various users of the healthcare service and other data needed to schedule and/or support appointments. Each of the modules and data stores included in the

coordination service 108 is discussed in detail below.

Data Maintained by the Coordination Server

[0019] The coordination service 108 includes a professional personnel information store 118, a patient information store 120, and an appointment information store 130 for storing data. Each of these stores may be a database or any other data storage system. While the illustrated embodiment shows the stores as being internal to the coordination service 108, other embodiments where the stores are external to the coordination service 108, such as executing in a complementary computer server or on a cloud-based computer system managed by a third-party, are within the scope.

[0020] The personnel information store 118 stores information associated with the tier 1 professionals 104 and the tier 2 professionals 106. For a given professional, the store 118 stores personal information that is typically provided by the professional or an institution with which the professionals is affiliated. Personal information includes the professional's name, residence city and/or state, contact information, gender, qualification(s), institutional affiliations, practice specialties, and professional experience.

[0021] The personnel information store 118 also stores feedback information associated with the professional that indicates how highly the professional is perceived as a practitioner. The feedback information may be collected from the patients 102 who have previously had experience with the professional, from publicly available ratings resources, or from the professional's peers. In one embodiment, the feedback information is captured using a ratings scale, such as a five-star rating system. In another embodiment, the feedback information is captured in a raw textual format, such as textual reviews. In other

embodiments, the feedback information may be captured using a combination of a ratings scale and a textual format.

[0022] The personnel information store 118 also stores appointment preferences provided by the professional. The appointment preferences provided by the professional collectively indicate the types of appointments that the professional has agreed to service. Appointment preferences include preferences for appointment times, medical categories (e.g., urgent care, lab collection (e.g., blood, urine, saliva, sputum) or general labs (e.g., STDs, drug screen), vaccines, life insurance/health, insurance physicals, pre-natal care,

chemotherapy, dialysis, hospice care, post-hospital or post-surgery rehab visit, etc.) patient age (e.g., elderly, adult, teenager, toddler, infant) and gender, and whether the professional has previously worked with the patient, whether the patient is a new or established patient, etc. For tier 1 professionals 104 who travel to a patient's location to provide healthcare services, the professional may also provide a distance preference that indicates the maximum distance the professional is willing to travel to a patient location. As one example, the professional might select preferences that include limiting travel to a 20 mile radius around a location, only seeing established patients, and only seeing patients 12 and under.

[0023] In operation, the appointment preference module 110 in the coordination service 108 collects appointment preferences from each tier 1 professional 104 and tier 2 professional 106 who accesses the healthcare coordination service 108 for the purpose of providing healthcare services. The preferences may be collected when the professional first joins the coordination service 108. Further, the appointment preference module 110 enables the professional to modify and edit the preferences at a later time, if desired. In one embodiment, the appointment preference module 110 enables a professional to assign a weight to each preference such that preferences having a high weight (e.g., a weight above a threshold weight value) must be satisfied when an appointment is being scheduled and preferences having a relatively lower weight (or a weight below the threshold value) are important but need not be satisfied when an appointment is being scheduled.

[0024] FIG. 2 illustrates a user interface 202 configured by the appointment preference module 110 in accordance with one embodiment. The user interface may be displayed on a client device operated by a tier 1 or a tier 2 professional. As shown, the user interface 202 includes input elements that enable a professional interacting with the user interface 202 to set appointment preferences. The appointment preferences are stored in the personnel information store 118. The input elements include a distance selector 204, a patient type selector 206, a new patient toggle 208, a category selector 210, and an on call button 212.

[0025] The distance selector 204 enables the professional to set a preferred distance that the professional is willing to travel to provide healthcare services. In one embodiment, this selector is available only to tier 1 professionals who will be travelling to a patient's location. The patient type selector 206 enables the professional to select a preferred patient type.

Examples of patient types include adult, pediatric, infant, minor, critically ill, male, female, and hospice patients. The new patient toggle 208 enables the professional to indicate whether the professional is willing to provide healthcare services to a new patient, i.e., a patient to whom the organization and/or the professional has not previously provided healthcare services. The category selector 210 enables the professional to select the type of healthcare category for which the professional is willing to provide services. Finally, the on call button 212 enables the professional to indicate that the professional is currently on call and, therefore, available to provide healthcare services at the patient's location (in the case of tier 1 professionals) or remotely (in the case of tier 2 professionals).

[0026] Referring back to FIG. 1, the patient information store 120 stores information associated with the patients 102. For a given patient, the store 120 stores personal information such as the patient's name, residence address, contact information, gender, medical history, primary healthcare providers, and insurance provider(s). In one

embodiment, the store 120 also stores payment information associated with the patient, such as identity information and credit card information. Such payment information may be validated using a third party service (not shown).

[0027] The patient information store 120 also stores feedback information associated with the patient provided by professionals who have previously provided healthcare services to the patient. In one embodiment, the feedback information is captured using a ratings scale, such as a five-star rating system. In another embodiment, the feedback information is captured in a raw textual format, such as textual reviews. In other embodiments, the feedback information may be captured using a combination of a ratings scale and a textual format. For example, the various professionals who have visited a particular patient can provide comments about whether the patient is polite, cranky, or other comments about typical disposition, and whether the patient has been easy to examine, whether the patient has special needs, is handicapped, etc., among other comments.

[0028] The appointment information store 130 stores information associated with past and future appointments between patients and tier 1 and/or tier 2 professionals. For an appointment that is scheduled but has not yet occurred, the store 130 stores information associated with the patient, the tier 1 and/or tier 2 professional who will be providing healthcare services during the appointment, the reason for the appointment, the time and place of the appointment, and the communication means for contacting the tier 2 professional if he/she is scheduled to remotely attend the appointment. For an appointment that has already occurred, the store 130 additionally stores any data that was collected from the patient during the appointment, any diagnosis that was made during or after the appointment, feedback about the appointment collected from the patient and/or the professional who the healthcare services, and any follow-up information provided by professional who provided the healthcare services. In one embodiment, the tier 1 professional carries a recording device to record a patient appointment. In other embodiments, the tier 1 professional wears the recording device that can be monitored in real-time and/or stored and later uploaded to store 130. The data collected by the recording device is also stored in the store 130.

Scheduling Non-Emergency Appointments

[0029] The appointment scheduling module 112 facilitates the scheduling of nonemergency appointments between the patients 102 and the tier 1 professionals 104 and/or the tier 2 professionals 106. In operation, the appointment scheduling module 112 receives a request from a client device associated with a patient for scheduling an appointment at the patient's location. The appointment scheduling module 112 responds to an appointment request by identifying one or more tier 1 professionals who are able to provide healthcare services to the patient at the patient's location. The appointment scheduling module 112 transmits information associated with the identified tier 1 professionals to the client device of the patient. The patient may then select the tier 1 professional with whom the patient would like to schedule the appointment. Once the selection is made, the appointment schedule module 112 confirms the appointment with the tier 1 professional and, if confirmed, creates the appointment and stores the information relevant to the appointment in the appointment store 130.

[0030] FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method for scheduling an appointment in accordance with one embodiment. The method begins with the appointment scheduling module 112 receiving 302 an appointment request from the client device associated with a patient. In alternative embodiments, the appointment request is received from a client device associated with another individual who is scheduling an appointment for the patient, e.g., a guardian of a minor patient. The appointment request includes selection criteria specified by the patient via the client device. Such criteria may include the location of the patient and the type of healthcare issue for which the patient is looking to schedule an appointment. In some embodiments, the selection criteria also include a preferred date and time for the

appointment. In other embodiments, the preferred date and time for the appointment is defaulted to the earliest possible date and time.

[0031] The user interface 312 illustrates an exemplary user interface that may be operated by the patient to transmit the appointment request. As shown, the user interface 312 includes a location selector 318, a healthcare issue selector 320, and a submit button 322. The location selector 318 enables the patient to provide the patient's current location or the location at which the appointment is to be conducted. In some embodiments, the location selector 318 is auto-filled (without requiring input from the patient) based on the coordinates of the device on which the user interface 312 is being displayed. The coordinates may be determined using a global positioning system (GPS) included in the device. The healthcare issue selector 320 enables the patient to provide details regarding the type of healthcare service that the patient needs. In the illustrated embodiment, the healthcare issue selector 320 is a drop-down user interface element that allows the patient to select the type of healthcare service from a list of pre-populated services. In other embodiments, the healthcare issue selector 320 may be a free form text box that allows the patient to describe the service that she desires. The submit button 322 enables the patient to submit the appointment request. The submitted appointment request is received at the appointment scheduling module 112.

[0032] In response to an appointment request, the appointment scheduling module 112 transmits 304 to the patient's client device information associated with tier 1 professionals who are able to provide healthcare services to the patient. In operation, the appointment scheduling module 112 matches one or more tier 1 professionals with the appointment request based on the selection criteria included in the appointment request. More

specifically, for each selection criterion, the appointment scheduling module 112 accesses the personnel information store 118 to identify a set of tier 1 professionals who satisfy the selection criterion. For example, if the selection criteria specify a particular location, every tier 1 professional who has previously specified a location preference that includes the particular location satisfies the location selection criteria. As another example, if the selection criteria specify a preferred time, every tier 1 professional who is available during the preferred time satisfies the time selection criteria.

[0033] The appointment scheduling module 112 identifies the tier 1 professionals who satisfy all of the selection criteria as being able to provide healthcare services to the patient. For each such tier 1 professional, the appointment scheduling module 112 retrieves the information associated with the professional from the personnel information store 108 and transmits the information to the patient's client device for display. For a given professional, the information transmitted to the client device includes personal information associated with the professional, such as the professional's name, education (e.g., professional graduated from Harvard Medical school in 1990), experience (e.g., professional has 20 years of experience), and current location (e.g., professional is based on Mountain View, California, or is based at Stanford Hospital). The information may also include feedback information associated with the professional. For example, patients can rate the professionals and provide comments about them, such as that the professional is very friendly, very knowledgeable, has a good disposition, was not very informative, has a poor bedside manner, came to the visit unprepared, arrived later than expected, etc.

[0034] The user interface 314 illustrates an exemplary user interface that may be operated by the patient to view information received from the appointment scheduling module 112. As shown, the user interface 312 includes a swipe region 324 and a

confirmation button 326. The swipe region 324 displays the information associated with the different tier 1 professionals and received from the appointment scheduling module 112. In the illustrated embodiment, the information associated with a single tier 1 professional is displayed within the swipe region 324. To navigate to information associated with a different tier 1 professional, the patient may swipe left or right on the swipe region 324. In some cases, the display on which the user interface 314 is displayed is not a touch interface and other mechanisms for navigating the information in the swipe region 324 may be

implemented, such as mouse-controlled navigation bars. Once the patient has viewed the information, the confirmation button 326 enables to the patient to select a particular tier 1 professional with whom to schedule the appointment. In some embodiments, the patient has access to a map via which the patient can view the real time locations of each of the tier 1 professionals that may be in transit nearby, and can view the professionals as icons or pins on the screen that move as the professionals travel in different directions. The user can select or hover over each nearby professional to review information about the professional. In this manner, the patient can select professionals of interest that are nearby, and send appointment requests to them. Similarly, the patient can watch progress of a selected professional as the professional travels to the patient.

[0035] The appointment scheduling module 112 receives 306 the selection of the tier 1 professional from the patient's device. In response, the appointment scheduling module 112 requests 308 an appointment confirmation from the selected tier 1 professional. The appointment scheduling module 112 also transmits information about the particular appointment to the tier 1 professional such as the location and time/date of the appointment. The appointment scheduling module 112 also transmits information associated with the patient and retrieved from the patient information store 120 to the tier 1 professional. Such information may include personal information about the patient (e.g., name, age, medical condition), the patient location (e.g., address, GPS coordinates, a map showing the location, a city or town), the distance between the patient location and the professional's current location (e.g., 2.6 miles), and feedback about the patient provided by other healthcare professionals who have previously provided services to the patient (e.g., 5 stars, patient is very friendly, patient is very cranky, etc.). The information is presented to the tier 1 professional, and the professional may either confirm or ignore the appointment.

[0036] The user interface 316 illustrates an exemplary user interface that may be operated by the tier 1 professional to view information about the appointment. As shown, the user interface 316 includes an appointment viewing region 328, an accept button 330, and an ignore button 332. The appointment viewing region 328 includes information about the appointment and the patient. Based on the information in the appointment viewing region 328, the tier 1 professional may decide to accept the appointment or ignore the appointment. The accept button 330 and the ignore button 332 enable the tier 1 professional to respond to the request for appointment confirmation based on whether the professional has decided to accept or ignore the appointment.

[0037] The appointment scheduling module 112 receives 310 the response to the request for appointment confirmation from the tier 1 professional's device. When the tier 1 professional decides to ignore the appointment, the appointment scheduling module 112 indicates to the patient that the appointment could not be confirmed. Subsequently, the appointment scheduling module 112 may provide other tier 1 professionals to the patient's client device with whom the patient can schedule an appointment. In some embodiments, the patient can select multiple professionals at step 304 in an order or preference or with no ordering, and the system can contact professionals (according to order of preference if one is stated) until a professional accepts. In some embodiments, the patient can simply request any professional or any professional of a type (or can state certain requirements, such as must have at least 10 years of experience), and the system will find the nearest professional or the nearest professional matching the type (or requirements) that will accept the appointment. When the tier 1 professional decides to accept the appointment, the appointment scheduling module 112 stores the appointment information in the appointment information store 130. Specifically, the appointment scheduling module 112 stores information associated with the patient, the tier 1 professional who will be providing healthcare services during the appointment, the reason for the appointment, the time and place of the appointment. The appointment can be scheduled to occur soon, possibly in the time it takes for the professional to travel to the patient's location, or it can be scheduled to occur later in the day or later in the week/month.

[0038] Depending on the type of appointment, the appointment scheduling module 112 may also schedule a tier 2 professional to remotely attend the appointment and provide supplemental healthcare services. In one embodiment, the appointment scheduling module 112 requests confirmation from the tier 2 professional in the same manner as the tier 1 professionals. In other embodiments, since the tier 2 professional will not be physically interacting with the patient, the appointment scheduling module 112 can independently confirm the tier 2 professional for the appointment based on the professional's previously specified availability. If a tier 2 professional is scheduled to remotely attend the appointment, the appointment scheduling module 1 12 stores in the appointment information store 130 the preferred means for contacting the tier 2 professional. Such communication means may include telephone, video conferencing, and/or real-time text messaging.

[0039] In one embodiment, the appointment scheduling module 112 provides the patient with information related to the cost of healthcare being requested. Specifically, the appointment scheduling module 112 determines, based on insurance information previously provided by the patient, the amount that the patient will be required to pay for the specific service being requested and the amount (if any) that will be covered by the insurance. Such a determination may be made in conjunction with a third-party service that enables insurance eligibility checks. In one embodiment, the appointment scheduling module 112 provides this information prior to scheduling to the appointment thus giving the patient the chance to evaluate the cost information before committing to an appointment.

[0040] In some embodiments, the module 112 automatically checks appointment preferences of the healthcare professionals when identifying options of professionals to provide to the patient, or when determining whether to send the appointment request to a selected professional for confirmation. The module can retrieve appointment preferences of the healthcare professionals, compare the references with information in the appointment request from the patient, and select professional based on the comparison where the selection is based on a match between the preferences and the appointment request. For example, is the patient is more than 20 miles away, and the professional has a preference for 10 miles or less, the professional may not be identified as an option to send to the patient for selection. As explained above, the professional may weight different preferences, so if the preference of 10 miles or less is given a low weight or a weight less than a threshold value, the module may still identify the professional as an option for the patient to consider. A similar method can be performed based on preferences from the tier 2 professional. In some embodiments, both preferences from the tier 1 and tier 2 professionals are considered in whether to provide the team of professionals to the patient as an option for selection. In other embodiments, the professionals are not asked to confirm an appointment. Instead, the system retrieves the appointment preferences, compares these to the appointment request, and if there is a match, the system automatically sends a confirmation to the patient for that matched healthcare professional. The professional can set options within the system that specify whether such an automatic confirmation based on a preferences match is to be performed, or whether the system must first ask the professional before confirming any appointment (or before confirming any appointment that does not match more than a specified percentage or threshold number of preferences).

Servicing Emergency Situations

[0041] The emergency management module 114 facilitates providing healthcare services to patients in emergency situations. In operation, the emergency management module 114 is alerted of a patient emergency through an automated mechanism or from the patient directly. The emergency module 114 then remotely connects the patient to an on-call professional (tier 1 or tier 2) to provide real-time healthcare services. The emergency management module 114 enables the on-call professional to collect information about the emergency from the patient and accordingly dispatch an available tier-1 professional to provide healthcare services to the patient at the patient's location. The emergency management module 114 also enables the on-call professional to dispatch additional emergency services, such as ambulance services, the police or the fire department, to the patient's location.

[0042] FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method for servicing a medical emergency in accordance with one embodiment. The method begins with the emergency management module 114 receiving 402 a notification of an emergency from a patient's client device. In one embodiment, the patient's client device is configured with an emergency interface element with which the patient interacts to send the emergency notification. For example, this can be a button or icon on a home screen of a user's mobile phone. In alternate

embodiments, the patient's client device is configured with software that automatically detects emergency situations and sends the emergency notification.

[0043] Based on the emergency notification, the emergency management module 1 14 collects 404 supplemental information associated with the emergency from the patient's client device and/or the patient information store 120. The supplemental information may include the patient's medical records, such as the patient's medical history, primary healthcare provider, insurance information, current location, allergies, medications, current medical problems, code status, and next of kin. In one embodiment, the patient's client device is configured with software that connects to the emergency management module 114 and transmits at least some of the supplemental information to the module 114. In one embodiment, the location of the patient is also transmitted by the client device, which can be determined based on GPS coordinates of the device.

[0044] The emergency management module 114 also concurrently identifies 406 a currently on-call professional who is available to service the emergency. The on-call professional may be any professional who is currently available. Alternatively, the on-call professional is a designated professional having special expertise in servicing emergency situations and who is currently scheduled to be on-call. The emergency management module 114 provides 408 the collected patient information to the on-call professional. The emergency management module 114 enables 410 the on-call professional to remotely connect to and provide services to the patient. Such services include collecting information related to the emergency that the patient is facing and providing preliminary healthcare advice. The emergency management module 114 also enables 412 the on-call professional to dispatch the appropriate help to the patient at the patient's location. Such help may include a tier 1 or tier 2 professional who is currently available and can travel to the patient location or public emergency services, such as the police and fire department.

[0045] As one example, the patient can select an emergency icon on a home screen of the patient's mobile phone, and this triggers multiple actions simultaneously or substantially simultaneously. This can trigger the collection of the patient information and the connection of the patient to a healthcare professional via, for example, a video call, such that upon establishment of the call, the patient information is immediately displayed on the screen of the healthcare professional. The professional does not acquire any of this background patient information, such as name, location, insurance, phone number, etc. since this is already on the screen. Nor does the professional have to conduct a search for patient records based on the patient's name, because the medical records are also already available on the screen. The professional can immediately focus on gathering any missing data about the emergency and servicing the emergency by potentially dispatching someone to the patient's site. The professional can further dispatch someone to the patient's location using the on-demand healthcare system to coordinate the dispatch in a manner similar to that described above for coordinating visits by tier 1 professionals. In this case, the dispatch might be an EMT, but could be any professional needed and available for the emergency.

Diagnosis and Communication Platform

[0046] The in-appointment module 116 provides various tools that enhance the in- appointment experience for both the patient and the professional at the patient's location. Specifically, the in-appointment module 116 enables the professional at the patient's location to collect relevant diagnostic information from the patient and transmit the collected information to the in-appointment module 116 via the professional's client device. The in- appointment module 116 also provides a communication platform that allows various individuals to remotely join the appointment at the patient's location. Specifically, a tier 2 professional who is a specialist in the type of healthcare needed by the patient may join the appointment remotely via the communication platform. Providing a platform that allows remote tier 2 professionals to join the appointment makes such tier 2 professionals accessible to patients who may otherwise not have the mobility or the resources to be seen by the tier 2 professionals. The communication platform also enables friends and/or family of the patient to remotely join the appointment. For example, if one family member having a doctor visit via the communication platform, the other family members from various different parts of the world can also participate in the communication to provide information to the doctor or to hear the doctor visit in real time. Further, the communication platform enables other professionals, such as bioethicists for consulting on ethical issues, translators from translating from/to the patient's spoken language, and lawyers for providing legal services, to remotely join the appointment.

[0047] Figure 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method for connecting remote individuals to appointments at a patient's location in accordance with one embodiment. The method begins with the in-appointment module 116 determining 502 that a tier 1 professional is at the patient's location for an appointment. In one embodiment, when an appointment at a patient's location is scheduled, the in-appointment module 116 tracks the location of a client device associated with the tier 1 professional who will travel to the patient's location. When the location of the client device matches the location specified in the appointment information stored in the appointment information store 130, the in-appointment module 116 determines that the tier 1 professional is at the patient's location. In an alternative embodiment, the in-appointment module 116 makes such a determination based on an indication provided by the tier 1 professional via the professional's client device.

[0048] In one embodiment, while a tier 1 professional is en route to an appointment, the in-appointment module 116 allows the tier 1 professional or another professional, such as a medical assistant, to collect background medical information from the patient via an audio, video or text channel. The background medical information may include demographics, insurance info, medications, allergies, and medical history. In such a manner, the necessary information is available to the tier 1 professional when the tier 1 professional arrives at the patient's location for the appointment.

[0049] The in-appointment module 116 optionally transmits 504 diagnostic tools and/or information associated with the patient to the professional's client device. The diagnostic tools may be software that, when executed by the professional's client device, prompts the professional to collect and input certain diagnostic information from the patient. The diagnostic tools may also be user interfaces transmitted to the professional's client device that are specifically configured based on the information associated with the patient. For example, the user interface may include past medical history associated with the patient, information specific to the type of healthcare service that patient is seeking, questions that the professional should ask the patient, and input fields for diagnostic information collected from the patient. Typically, the tier 1 professional brings with him/her physical devices (other than the client device) that may be needed to collect diagnostic information. Such devices may include blood pressure devices, thermometers, hand-held ultrasound devices, video otoscope, video dermatoscope, audio stethoscope, video camera, etc. The in-appointment module 116 receives 506 diagnostic information associated with the patient and collected by the tier 1 professional from the professional's client device.

[0050] The in-appointment module 116 connects 508, when necessary, a remote tier 2 professional to the appointment via the tier 1 professional's and the tier 2 professional's client devices. In operation, to remotely connect the tier 2 professional, the communication platform included in the in-appointment module 116 creates a two-way communication channel between the professionals' client devices. In one embodiment, the personnel information store 118 stores connection information for the tier 2 professional based on which the in-appointment module 116 creates the two-way communication channel. The two-way communication channel may be a video call, an audio call, a text messaging feed, etc. In one embodiment, based on the collected diagnostic information, the in-appointment module 116 may determine that a tier 2 professional should be included in the appointment. In an alternative embodiment, the tier 1 professional may transmit via the tier 1 professional's client device a request to the in-appointment module 116 to include a tier 2 professional in the appointment.

[0051] The in-appointment module 116 also transmits 510 the diagnostic information collected by the tier 1 professional and the medical history of the patient to the tier 2 professional's client device. The tier 2 professional is therefore able to view the information and provide medical advice as needed and/or instruct the tier 1 professional to perform certain healthcare related tasks to collect additional information from the patient. In one embodiment, the tier 2 professional's client device is configured to concurrently display the communication channel, e.g., a video call, and the patient's information. In such a manner, the patient can receive at-location healthcare services combined with specialist care from professionals who would otherwise not be able to travel to the patient's location.

[0052] In one embodiment, the in-appointment module 116 also connects other remote individuals, such as family and friends of the patient, to the appointment via either the tier 1 professional's device or the patient's device. Connection information for the remote individuals may be provided by the patient during the appointment or may be collected from the patient during the appointment scheduling phase.

[0053] In one embodiment, the in-appointment module 116 receives as input a video recording of the appointment from a recording device carried by the tier 1 professional. The text from the video recording may be transcribed by a different professional, such as medical assistant, for input into electronic medical records stored in a store 130 or another storage location.

Exemplary Computing Device

[0054] The client devices and the healthcare coordinate service 108 discussed above may be implemented using one or more computers. FIG. 6 is a high-level block diagram illustrating an example computer 600 according to one embodiment.

[0055] The computer 600 includes at least one processor 602 (e.g., a central processing unit, a graphics processing unit) coupled to a chipset 604. The chipset 604 includes a memory controller hub 620 and an input/output (I/O) controller hub 622. A memory 606 and a graphics adapter 612 are coupled to the memory controller hub 620, and a display 618 is coupled to the graphics adapter 612. A storage device 608, keyboard 610, pointing device 614, and network adapter 616 are coupled to the I/O controller hub 622. Other embodiments of the computer 600 have different architectures.

[0056] The storage device 608 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium such as a hard drive, compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), DVD, or a solid-state memory device. The memory 606 holds instructions and data used by the processor 602. The processor 602 may include one or more processors 602 having one or more cores that execute instructions. The pointing device 614 is a mouse, track ball, or other type of pointing device, and is used in combination with the keyboard 610 to input data into the computer 600. The graphics adapter 612 displays digital content and other images and information on the display 618. The network adapter 616 couples the computer 600 to one or more computer networks.

[0057] The computer 600 is adapted to execute computer program modules for providing functionality described herein including scheduling appointments, facilitating medical emergency services and connecting multiple parties to appointments at a patient's location, and/or metadata generation. As used herein, the term "module" refers to computer program logic used to provide the specified functionality. Thus, a module can be

implemented in hardware, firmware, and/or software. In one embodiment of a computer 600 that implements the healthcare coordination service 108, program modules such as the appointment preference module 110, the appointment scheduling module 112, the emergency management module 114, and the in-appointment module 116 are stored on the storage device 608, loaded into the memory 606, and executed by the processor 602.

[0058] The present invention has been described in particular detail with respect to several possible embodiments. Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced in other embodiments. Further, the particular naming of the components, capitalization of terms, the attributes, data structures, or any other programming or structural aspect is not mandatory or significant, and the mechanisms that implement the invention or its features may have different names, formats, or protocols. Further, the system may be implemented via a combination of hardware and software, as described, or entirely in hardware elements. Also, the particular division of functionality between the various system components described herein is merely exemplary, and not mandatory; functions performed by a single system component may instead be performed by multiple components, and functions performed by multiple components may instead performed by a single component.

[0059] Some portions of above description present the features of the present invention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. These operations, while described functionally or logically, are understood to be implemented by computer programs. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient at times, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules or by functional names, without loss of generality.

[0060] Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as "determining" or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.

[0061] Certain aspects of the present invention include process steps and instructions described herein in the form of an algorithm. It should be noted that the process steps and instructions of the present invention could be embodied in software, firmware or hardware, and when embodied in software, could be downloaded to reside on and be operated from different platforms used by real time network operating systems.

[0062] The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored on a computer readable medium that can be accessed by the computer and run by a computer processor. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore, the computers referred to in the specification may include a single processor or may be architectures employing multiple processor designs for increased computing capability.

[0063] In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It is appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the present invention as described herein, and any references to specific languages are provided for enablement and best mode of the present invention.

[0064] The present invention is well suited to a wide variety of computer network systems over numerous topologies. Within this field, the configuration and management of large networks comprise storage devices and computers that are communicatively coupled to dissimilar computers and storage devices over a network, such as the Internet.

[0065] Finally, it should be noted that the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing on-demand healthcare services to patients, the method comprising:

receiving an appointment request for at-location healthcare from a client device

associated with a patient, the appointment request including a type of healthcare requested and a location of the patient;

identifying one or more mobile healthcare professionals who are available to travel to the location to provide a first set of services related to the type of healthcare; identifying one or more remote healthcare professionals who are available to remotely provide a second set of services related to the type of healthcare; transmitting information associated with at least the identified mobile healthcare professionals to the client device associated with the patient; and scheduling based on a selection received from the client device associated with the patient an at-location appointment for the patient with an identified mobile healthcare professional who will travel to the location for the appointment and an identified remote healthcare professional who will join the appointment remotely via a communication channel.

2. The method of claims 1, wherein identifying one or more mobile healthcare professionals comprises:

retrieving appointment preferences specified by the mobile healthcare professionals from a storage;

comparing the retrieved appointment preferences with information included in the appointment request from the patient; and

selecting one or more mobile healthcare professionals based on the comparison, a selected mobile healthcare professional having the appointment preferences matching the information included in the appointment request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the appointment preferences specified by a mobile healthcare professional comprise at least one of following:

a preference for appointment times;

a preference for type of healthcare services;

a preference for patient age and gender;

a preference for type of patient; and

a preference for distance indicating the maximum distance the mobile healthcare professional is willing to travel to the location of the patient.

4. The method of claims 2 or 3, wherein each of the appointment preferences specified by a mobile healthcare professional has a weight assigned by the mobile healthcare professional.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a weight above a threshold assigned to an appointment preference indicates a requirement that the associated appointment preference is satisfied prior to serving the appointment request.

6. The method of any one of claims 1-5, wherein identifying one or more remote healthcare professionals comprises:

retrieving appointment preferences specified by the remote healthcare professionals from a storage, each appointment preference specified by a remote healthcare professional having a weight assigned by the remote healthcare professional; comparing the retrieved appointment preferences with information included in the appointment request; and

selecting one or more remote healthcare professionals, a selected remote healthcare professional having the appointment preferences matching the information included in the appointment request.

7. The method of any one of claims 1-6, wherein scheduling an at-location appointment for the patient comprises:

receiving a selection of a mobile healthcare professional based on the information associated with the identified mobile healthcare professionals from the client device associated with the patient; and

confirming the at-location appointment with the selected mobile healthcare

professional.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein confirming the at-location appointment with the selected mobile healthcare professional comprises:

retrieving information associated with the patient requesting the at-location

appointment;

transmitting the retrieved information associated with the patient to the client device associated with the selected remote healthcare professional; and receiving a response to the at-location appointment request from the selected remote healthcare professional, the response indicating whether the selected remote healthcare professional has accepted the at-location appointment request.

9. The method of any one of claims 1-8, wherein scheduling an at-location appointment for the patient further comprises: responsive to a confirmation of the at-location appointment from the selected mobile healthcare profession, creating an electronic record of the at-location appointment accessible to the selected mobile healthcare professional and the identified remote healthcare professional.

10. The method of any one of claims 1-9, further comprising:

receiving diagnostic information of the patient collected by the selected mobile

healthcare professional at the location of the patient; and

setting up the communication channel for the identified remote healthcare

professional to join the at-location appointment.

11. The method of any one of claims 1-10, wherein the communication channel is a two- way communication channel comprising a least one of following:

a video call;

an audio call; and

a text messaging feed.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer program instructions, executed by a computer processor, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the computer program instructions for identifying one or more mobile healthcare professionals comprise computer program instructions for: retrieving appointment preferences specified by the mobile healthcare professionals from a storage;

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claims 12 or 13, wherein the appointment preferences associated with a mobile healthcare professional comprise at least one of following:

a preference for appointment times;

a preference for type of healthcare services;

a preference for patient age and gender;

a preference for type of patient; and

15. The computer-readable storage medium of any one of claims 12-14, wherein each of the appointment preferences specified by a mobile healthcare professional has a weight signed by the mobile healthcare professional.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein a weight above a threshold assigned to an appointment preference indicates a requirement that the associated appointment preference is satisfied prior to serve the appointment request.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of any one of claims 12-16, wherein the computer program instructions for identifying one or more remote healthcare professionals comprise computer program instructions for:

18. The computer-readable storage medium of any one of claims 12-17, wherein the computer program instructions for scheduling an at-location appointment for the patient comprise computer program instructions for:

confirming the at-location appointment with the selected mobile healthcare

professional.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the computer program instructions for confirming the at-location appointment with the selected mobile healthcare professional comprise computer program instructions for:

retrieving information associated with the patient requesting the at-location

appointment;

20. The computer-readable storage medium of any one of claims 12-19, further comprising computer program instructions for:

receiving diagnostic information of the patient collected by the selected mobile healthcare professional at the location of the patient; and

setting up the communication channel for the identified remote healthcare

professional to join the at-location appointment.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of any one of claims 12-20, wherein the communication channel is a two-way communication channel comprising a least one of following:

a video call;

an audio call; and

a text messing feed.

22. A method for providing on-demand healthcare services to patients by a healthcare professional, the method comprising: receiving an appointment request for at-location healthcare from a client device associated with a patient, the appointment request including a type of healthcare requested and a location of the patient;

identifying one or more mobile healthcare professionals who are available to travel to the location to provide a first set of services related to the type of healthcare; identifying one or more remote healthcare professionals who are available to remotely provide a second set of services related to the type of healthcare;in response to receiving a selection from the client device of a mobile healthcare professional to provide the first set of services, transmitting information associated with the patient and the appointment request to a client device associated with the selected mobile healthcare professional;

scheduling, based on receiving an appointment confirmation from the client device of the selected mobile healthcare professional, an at-location appointment for the patient with the selected mobile healthcare professional who will travel to the location for the appointment and with an identified remote healthcare professional who will join the appointment remotely via a communication channel.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein identifying one or more mobile healthcare professionals further comprises:

retrieving appointment preferences specified by one or more mobile healthcare

professionals from a storage;

responsive to a match between certain of the retrieved appointment preferences with information included in the appointment request from the patient, including the one or more mobile healthcare professionals with matching appointment preferences as identified mobile healthcare professionals from which the patient can select.

24. A method for providing emergency healthcare services to patients, the method

comprising:

receiving a notification of request for emergency healthcare from a client device

associated with a patient;

responsive to receiving the notification, performing a plurality of actions substantially simultaneously, the actions comprising: collecting from storage one or more medical records for the patient;

collecting from the patient's client device information about the patient

relating to the emergency healthcare request and a location of the patient;

displaying, on a client device of an on-call healthcare professional for

servicing emergencies, the collected information from storage and from the patient's client device;

connecting the on-call healthcare professional with the patient via a video conference call such that the on-call healthcare professional has access during the call to the collected information from storage and from the patient's client device; and

coordinating dispatch of a healthcare professional to the location of the patient based on instructions from the on-call healthcare professional.