Methods and Systems for Facilitating a Virtual Consultation Between a User and a Health Care Practitioner

Abstract

An exemplary method includes a virtual health care solutions provider system 1) detecting an initiation of a virtual health care session by a user by way of a user portal, 2) presenting, in response to the initiation of the virtual health care session, an interactive health care questionnaire by way of the user portal, 3) detecting a completion by the user of the health care questionnaire by way of the user portal, 4) identifying, based on the completed health care questionnaire, a pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations, and 5) placing the user in a virtual queue associated with the pool of one or more health care practitioners for a virtual consultation with any one of the identified one or more health care practitioners by way of the user portal. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/732,177, filed Nov. 30, 2012. The contents of the provisional patent application are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

People are often in need of basic or non-emergency medical attention. For example, a person may have a cold, the flu, a sinus infection, a sore throat, allergies, or a host of other sicknesses, ailments, or health issues that hinder their ability to function as they normally would. To receive treatment for such health issues, a person has typically had to make an in-person visit to a medical clinic (e.g., an office of a primary care physician). Unfortunately, such a visit may be costly, time consuming, and/or difficult to arrange. As a result, many people with non-emergency health issues forego seeing a medical practitioner and obtaining the medical attention that they need. This may hinder their ability to recover from their health issues, which may result in lost productivity, spreading of disease, and/or costly emergency room visits if their health issues worsen.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments and are a part of the specification. The illustrated embodiments are merely examples and do not limit the scope of the disclosure. Throughout the drawings, identical or similar reference numbers designate identical or similar elements.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary configuration in which a virtual health care solutions provider system is communicatively coupled to a customer computing system according to principles described herein.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary implementation of the configuration shown in FIG. 1 according to principles described herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary components of a virtual health care solutions provider system according to principles described herein.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary configuration in which a session management facility provides a user portal and a practitioner portal according to principles described herein.

FIGS. 5-21 illustrate exemplary interfaces according to principles described herein.

FIG. 22 illustrates an exemplary implementation of the virtual health care solutions provider system shown in FIG. 3 according to principles described herein.

FIG. 23 illustrates an exemplary method of facilitating a virtual consultation between a user and a health care practitioner according to principles described herein.

FIG. 24 illustrates another exemplary method of facilitating a virtual consultation between a user and a health care practitioner according to principles described herein.

FIG. 25 illustrates an exemplary computing device according to principles described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Methods and systems for facilitating a virtual consultation between a user and a health care practitioner are described herein. For example, as will be described below, a virtual health care solutions provider system may 1) detect an initiation of a virtual health care session by a user by way of a user portal, 2) present, in response to the initiation of the virtual health care session, a health care questionnaire by way of the user portal, 3) detect a completion by the user of the health care questionnaire by way of the user portal, 4) identify, based on the completed health care questionnaire, a pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations, and 5) place the user in a virtual queue associated with the pool of one or more health care practitioners for a virtual consultation with any one of the identified one or more health care practitioners by way of the user portal.

In some examples, the virtual health care solutions provider system may be further configured to determine that a health care practitioner included in the pool of one or more health care practitioners is available to participate in the virtual health care session. In response, the virtual health care solutions provider system may assign the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner, present a virtual examination interface associated with the user by way a practitioner portal that is accessible by the health care practitioner, and establish the virtual consultation between the health care practitioner and the user by way of the virtual examination interface presented within the practitioner portal and a virtual consultation interface presented within the user portal.

As used herein, a “virtual consultation” may include any form of real-time communication between a user and a health care practitioner. For example, a virtual consultation may include an online video conference, an audio conference (e.g., an online audio conference and/or a phone call), an online chat session, and or any other form of real-time communication as may serve a particular implementation.

By facilitating virtual consultations between health care practitioners and users, the methods and systems described herein may allow a user to receive medical attention without making an in-person visit to a health care clinic. This, in turn, may encourage early treatment of health issues, prevent spreading of disease, reduce costly emergency room visits, and/or reduce employee absenteeism.

For example, a user suffering from a contagious disease (e.g., a bacterial infection) may use a computing device (e.g., a smartphone) to initiate a virtual health care session from the comfort of his or her own home. Within a short amount of time (e.g., a few minutes), he or she may participate in a virtual consultation by way of the computing device with a health care practitioner who specializes in the health issue. During the virtual consultation, the health care practitioner may examine, diagnose, and treat the health issue (e.g., by prescribing one or more medications and/or a regime for the user to follow). The user may then immediately begin treatment of the contagious disease, thereby reducing the time that the user is sick and preventing others from contracting the disease.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary configuration 100 in which a virtual health care solutions provider system 102 is communicatively coupled to a customer computing system 104. As illustrated by the dashed lines in FIG. 1 and as will be described in more detail below, virtual health care solutions provider system 102 may provide a virtual health care platform 106 upon which a virtual health care solution 108 may be built for one or more customers associated with customer computing system 104.

Virtual health care solutions provider system 102 may be implemented by one or more appropriately configured computing devices (e.g., one or more server devices) and associated with (e.g., owned by, operated by, and/or managed by) a virtual health care solutions provider. For example, virtual health care solutions provider system 102 may be associated with one or more entities involved in providing a virtual health care solution to a customer. To illustrate, virtual health care solutions provider system 102 may be associated with a first entity that provides virtual health care platform 106 and a second entity that provides virtual health care solution 108, a single entity that provides both virtual health care platform 106 and virtual health care solution 108, and/or any other entity or combination of entities involved in providing virtual health care platform 106 and virtual health care solution 108 as may serve a particular implementation.

Customer computing system 104 may be associated with (e.g., owned by, operated by, and/or managed by) customers of the virtual health care solutions provider and/or users of the virtual health care solutions provided by the virtual health care solutions provider. For example, customer computing system 104 may be associated with one or more users in need of medical attention, one or more health care practitioners, one or more virtual health care solution administrators, one or more health insurance companies, one or more health care practitioner staffing agencies, and/or any other user and/or entity as may serve a particular implementation.

In some examples, virtual health care solution 108 may comprise an abstraction of one or more high-level, customer-visible virtual health care services (“customer services”) provided by the virtual health care solutions provider as part of the virtual health care solution 108. Such virtual health care services may include, but are not limited to, portal services, e-prescribing services, payment services, virtual consultation services, etc.

Virtual health care platform 106 may comprise an abstraction of one or more lower-level services (“platform services”) that support and/or perform the customer services of virtual health care solution 108. Platform services may include platform-level services provided by virtual health care solutions provider system 102 as part of virtual health care platform 106 and that may support, underlie, and/or perform one or more customer services of virtual health care solution 108 provided on top of virtual health care platform. For example, platform services may include, without limitation, access services, messaging services, health care practitioner selection and scheduling services, communication services, support services, data transport services, etc.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary implementation 200 of the configuration 100 shown in FIG. 1. As shown, implementation 200 may include a user computing device 202 and a practitioner computing device 204 each communicatively coupled to virtual health care solutions provider system 102 by way of a network (e.g., network 206 and network 208). In some examples, user computing device 202 and practitioner computing device 204 may implement customer computing system 104.

As shown, user computing device 202 may be associated with (i.e., used by) a user 210. User 210 may include any user who uses user computing device 202 to participate in a virtual consultation with a health care practitioner. Likewise, practitioner computing device 204 may be associated with (i.e., used by) a health care practitioner 212. As used herein, a health care practitioner may include a physician, a physician assistant, a nurse, a dietitian, a therapist, and/or any other person trained to provide some type of health care service.

User computing device 202 may be implemented by a mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, etc.), a personal computer, and/or any other suitable computing device that may be configured to access a user portal provided by virtual health care solutions provider system 102. For example, user computing device 202 may be implemented by a computing device configured to execute and/or otherwise access an application (e.g., a web application or a mobile application) configured to facilitate access by the user to the virtual health care services described herein.

Likewise, practitioner computing device 204 may be implemented by a mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, etc.), a personal computer, and/or any other suitable computing device that may be configured to access a practitioner portal provided by virtual health care solutions provider system 102. For example, practitioner computing device 204 may be implemented by a computing device configured to execute and/or otherwise access an application (e.g., a web application or a mobile application) configured to facilitate access by the practitioner to the virtual health care services described herein.

It will be recognized that although a single user computing device 202 and a single practitioner computing device 204 are shown in FIG. 2, any number of user computing devices and practitioner computing devices may be communicatively coupled to virtual health care solutions provider system 102 as may serve a particular implementation. Additional computing devices used by other types of users (e.g., virtual health care solution administrators, etc.) may also be communicatively coupled to virtual health care solutions provider system 102.

As shown, user computing device 202 may communicate with virtual health care solutions provider system 102 by way of a network 206. Likewise, practitioner computing device 204 may communicate with virtual health care solutions provider system 102 by way of a network 208. Networks 206 and 208 may each include one or more wireless networks, cellular networks (e.g., 3G, 4G, or long term evolution (“LTE”) networks), carrier-specific networks, broadband networks, closed media networks, cable networks, satellite networks, the Internet, intranets, wide area networks, local area networks, public networks, private networks, optical fiber networks, and/or any other networks or combination of networks capable of carrying data and communications signals between user computing device 202 and virtual health care solutions provider system 102 and/or between practitioner computing device 204 and virtual health care solutions provider system 102. While networks 206 and 208 are shown to be separate networks in FIG. 2 (e.g., network 206 may include one or more telecommunication carrier networks and network 208 may include the Internet), it will be recognized that, in some examples, networks 206 and 208 may alternatively be a single network.

User computing device 202, practitioner computing device 204, and virtual health care solutions provider system 102 may communicate using any communication technologies suitable for transporting data, including known communication devices, media, and protocols supportive of remote or local data communications. Examples of such communication technologies include, but are not limited to, data transmission media, communications devices (e.g., network devices such as routers, switches, etc.), Transmission Control Protocol (“TCP”), Internet Protocol (“IP”), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”), Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (“HTTPS”), Session Initiation Protocol (“SIP”), Ethernet, and any other suitable communications technologies, devices, media, and protocols, including any of those disclosed herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary components of virtual health care solutions provider system 102. As mentioned, virtual health care solutions provider system 102 may provide a virtual health care platform and one or more virtual health care solutions by way of the virtual health care platform. To this end, virtual health care solutions provider system 102 may include a virtual health care session management facility 302 (“session management facility 302”), a detection facility 304, and a storage facility 306 selectively and communicatively coupled to one another. It will be recognized that although facilities 302-306 are shown to be separate facilities in FIG. 3, any of facilities 302-306 may be combined into fewer facilities, such as into a single facility, or divided into more facilities as may serve a particular implementation.

Session management facility 302 may be configured to perform one or more virtual health care session management operations. For example, session management facility 302 may provide various types of portals that may be accessed by various types of users participating in or otherwise associated with a virtual health care solution provided by virtual health care solutions provider system 102.

To illustrate, FIG. 4 shows an exemplary configuration in which session management facility 302 provides a user portal 402 configured to be accessed by user 210 by way of user computing device 202 and a practitioner portal 404 configured to be accessed by health care practitioner 212 by way of practitioner computing device 206. User portal 402 and practitioner portal 404 may be provided and accessed in any suitable manner. As will be described in more detail below, various types of interfaces may be presented to user 210 and/or health care practitioner 212 by way of user portal 402 and practitioner portal 404, respectively. It will be recognized that session management facility 302 may provide additional or alternative types of portals as may serve a particular implementation. For example, session management facility 302 may provide an administrator portal configured to be accessed by a virtual health care solution administrator.

Returning to FIG. 3, detection facility 304 may detect an initiation of a virtual health care session by a user by way of a user portal (e.g., user portal 402). This may be performed in any suitable manner. For example, detection facility 304 may detect an initiation of a virtual health care session by detecting a user-initiated launch of an application (e.g., a mobile application) provided by or otherwise associated with virtual health care solutions provider system 102. Alternatively, detection facility 304 may detect an initiation of a virtual health care session by detecting a logging on by the user to a website configured to facilitate the virtual health care session. Examples of this will be provided in more detail below.

In response to the initiation of the virtual health care session, session management facility 302 may present an interactive health care questionnaire (or simply “health care questionnaire”) by way of the user portal. The interactive health care questionnaire may include one or more questions or requests for health-related information that the user may respond to in order to provide health-related information (e.g., one or more symptoms that the user is experiencing).

The user may complete the interactive health care questionnaire in any suitable manner. For example, the user may provide the requested health-related information by providing input by way of the user portal. As will be described in more detail below, a completed health care questionnaire (i.e., the information provided by the user in response to the requests included in the health care questionnaire) may be used by a health care practitioner to diagnose the user and/or by session management facility 302 to perform one or more session management operations.

In some examples, the various requests for health-related information included in the health care questionnaire may be dynamically selected and presented based on information provided by the user as the user fills out the health care questionnaire. For example, a first request for health-related information included in a health care questionnaire presented to a user may ask the user to select a particular reason why the user has initiated the virtual health care session. The reason may be associated with one or more health issues that the user is experiencing. Such health issues may include, but are not limited to, a cold, the flu, a sinus infection, a sore throat, acne, allergies, cold/canker sores, urinary tract infections, yeast infections, tobacco additions, and/or any other sickness, ailment, or health issue as may serve a particular implementation.

Based on the user's response to the first request included in the health care questionnaire, one or more follow-up requests for health-related information may be presented to the user in order to further describe one or more symptoms of the one or more health issues that the user is experiencing. Exemplary requests for health-related information that may be included in an interactive health care questionnaire presented to the user by way of the user portal will be described in more detail below.

Detection facility 304 may detect a completion by the user of the health care questionnaire by way of the user portal. This may be performed in any suitable manner. For example, detection facility 304 may detect that the user has responded to each of the requests for health-related information included in the health care questionnaire.

Session management facility 302 may identify, based on the completed health care questionnaire, a pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations (referred to herein as a “practitioner pool”). As used herein, a health care practitioner who is “open for virtual consultations” is one who has indicated in any suitable manner that he or she is “working” during a particular time period (i.e., open to accepting virtual health care sessions initiated by users during the particular time period). For example, a health care practitioner may indicate that he or she is open for virtual consultations by logging in to the practitioner portal, selecting an option presented within the practitioner portal that indicates that the health care practitioner is open for virtual consultations, being actively logged on to the practitioner portal (e.g., by actively interacting with one or more interfaces presented by way of the practitioner portal while being logged in to the practitioner portal) and/or in any other suitable manner. Likewise, a health care practitioner may indicate that he or she is not open for virtual consultations by logging out of the practitioner portal, selecting an option presented within the practitioner portal that indicates that the health care practitioner is “busy” or “unavailable,” being inactively logged on to the practitioner portal (e.g., by not actively interacting with one or more interfaces presented by way of the practitioner portal while being logged in to the practitioner portal for a predetermined amount of time) and/or on any other suitable manner.

Session management facility 302 may identify, based on the completed health care questionnaire, the pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations in any suitable manner. For example, session management facility 302 may first identify a group of health care practitioners who are open for virtual consultations (e.g., in any of the ways described above) at a time associated with the completion of the health care questionnaire (e.g., at a time that the health care questionnaire is completed). From this group, session management facility 302 may select one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user. For example, session management facility 302 may identify, based on the completed health care questionnaire, a health issue associated with the user. Session management facility 302 may then select one or more health care practitioners specializing in the identified health issue and who are open for virtual consultations at a time associated with the completion of the health care questionnaire for inclusion in the practitioner pool. In this manner, session management facility 302 may attempt to ensure that the health care session initiated by the user is assigned to a health care practitioner who has a skill set necessary to treat the user.

It will be recognized that any other factor may be used to select a health care practitioner for inclusion in the practitioner pool. For example, session management facility 302 may select only health care practitioners licensed to practice in the state in which the user resides for inclusion in the practitioner pool. As an example, a particular state (e.g., California) may require health care practitioners to be licensed in that state in order to treat patients residing in that state. If this is the case, session management facility 302 may determine a state in which the user resides (e.g., by analyzing a user profile associated with the user) and select only health care practitioners licensed to practice in the state in which the user resides for inclusion in the practitioner pool.

As another example, session management facility 302 may select health care practitioners for inclusion in the practitioner pool based on one or more preferences selected by the user. For example, the user may prefer to interact with health care practitioners of a particular gender. This preference may be indicated by the user in any suitable manner (e.g., as part of an answer provided to one of the questions included in the health care questionnaire, as part of a user profile associated with the user, etc.). Session management facility 302 may accordingly select only those health care practitioners that are of the preferred gender for inclusion in the practitioner pool.

As another example, session management facility 302 may select health care practitioners for inclusion in the practitioner pool based on one or more attributes of the health care practitioners. For example, session management facility 302 may select a health care practitioner for inclusion in the practitioner pool based on one or more ratings associated with the health care practitioner. The one or more ratings may be provided by users, health insurance companies, other health care practitioners, and/or any other source and may be indicative of a quality of service provided by the health care practitioner, a cost effectiveness of the health care practitioner, and/or any other attribute of the health care practitioner as may serve a particular implementation. To illustrate, health care practitioners with ratings above a predetermined threshold may have a higher likelihood of being selected for inclusion in the practitioner pool.

Once the practitioner pool has been identified, session management facility 302 may place the user in a virtual queue associated with the practitioner pool for a virtual consultation by way of the user portal with any one of the identified one or more health care practitioners included in the practitioner pool. While in the virtual queue, the user may wait for one of the health care practitioners included in the practitioner pool to become available to participate in the health care session initiated by the user.

To illustrate, each health care practitioner selected for inclusion in the practitioner pool may be busy participating in virtual consultations with other users at a time that the user completes the health care questionnaire. When one of the health practitioners completes his or her virtual consultation with one of the other users (and thereby becomes available to participate in the virtual health care session initiated by the user), the user may be taken out of the virtual queue so that he or she may participate in a virtual consultation with the available health care practitioner. This will be described in more detail below. In some examples, session management facility 302 may select enough health care practitioners for inclusion in the practitioner pool in order to keep the user's wait time (i.e., the amount of time that the user has to wait before a health care practitioner becomes available to participate in a health care session initiated by the user) below a predetermined amount of time (e.g., five minutes).

In some examples, session management facility 302 may present, within the user portal, a virtual lobby interface for experiencing by the user while the user is in the virtual queue. As will be described below, the virtual lobby interface may include one or more content instances (e.g., articles, videos, e-magazines, images, advertisements, links (e.g., hyperlinks) to web content, etc.) that the user may experience (e.g., read, view, interact with, or otherwise access) while the user waits in the virtual queue for a virtual consultation with a health care practitioner. An exemplary virtual lobby interface will be described in more detail below.

In some examples, session management facility 302 may personalize the virtual lobby interface to the user in accordance with the user's completed health care questionnaire. For example, session management facility 302 may identify, based on the completed health care questionnaire, one or more health issues associated with the user and present one or more content instances related to the one or more health issues within the virtual lobby interface. To illustrate, session management facility 302 may identify, based on the completed health care questionnaire, that the user smokes cigarettes. Session management facility 302 may accordingly select one or more content instances intended to help the user quit smoking (e.g., one or more articles that provide tips for overcoming a smoking addiction) for presentation within the virtual lobby interface. Other examples will be provided in more detail below.

Additionally or alternatively, session management facility 302 may personalize the virtual lobby interface to the user in accordance with a user profile associated with the user. As used herein, a user profile may represent one or more personal traits associated with the user. For example, a user profile may include data representative of a user's age, gender, income level, profession, family status, nationality, preferred genre of media content, etc. In some examples, session management facility 302 may use the user profile associated with the user to select one or more content instances targeted for the user (i.e., one or more content instances likely to be of interest to the user) and present the selected one or more content instances targeted for the user within the virtual lobby interface. To illustrate, a user profile associated with a user may indicate that the user is a 21-year-old male. Session management facility 302 may use this information to select a particular e-publication (e.g., Sports Illustrated) or a particular advertisement (e.g., an advertisement for a video game) for presentation within the virtual lobby interface.

Additionally or alternatively, session management facility 302 may personalize the virtual lobby interface to the user in accordance with information included in one or more medical records associated with the user. For example, session management facility 302 may access medical records (e.g., electronic medical records) associated with the user and determine, based on the accessed medical records, that the user has been treated in the past for a particular medical condition. Based on this determination, session management facility 302 may select one or more content instances related to the medical condition for presentation within the virtual lobby interface. Personalization of the virtual lobby interface is described in more detail in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed the same day as the present application, and entitled “Methods and Systems for Providing a Customized Virtual Health Care Solution for a User,” the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

While the user is in the virtual queue, session management facility 302 may determine that a health care practitioner included in the practitioner pool is available to participate in the virtual health care session initiated by the user. This may be performed in any suitable manner. For example, session management facility 302 may detect input provided by the health care practitioner by way of the practitioner portal and that indicates that the health care practitioner is available to participate in the virtual health care session. Such input may include, but is not limited to, selection by the health care practitioner of an option presented by way of the practitioner portal, completion by the health care practitioner of a virtual health care session initiated by a different user, and/or any other input as may serve a particular implementation. In some examples, session management facility 302 may automatically determine that a health care practitioner included in the practitioner pool is available to participate in the virtual health care session initiated by the user (e.g., by detecting that the health care practitioner is not currently participating in a virtual health care session with someone else when the user completes the health care questionnaire).

In response to determining that a health care practitioner is available to participate in the virtual health care session, session management facility 302 may assign the virtual health care session to the available health care practitioner. This may be performed in any suitable manner. In some examples, session management facility 302 may notify the health care practitioner by way of the practitioner portal and/or the user by way of the user portal that the health care practitioner has been assigned to the virtual health care session.

In response to assigning the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner, session management facility 302 may present a virtual examination interface associated with the user by way of the practitioner portal. As will be described in more detail below, the health care practitioner may utilize the virtual examination interface to diagnose, treat, and/or otherwise communicate with the user.

In some examples, session management facility 302 may personalize the virtual examination interface to the user in accordance with the completed health care questionnaire. For example, session management facility 302 may present, within the virtual examination interface, the completed health care questionnaire, a diagnosis field configured to facilitate entry of the diagnosis of the user by the health care practitioner, and/or a virtual consultation window configured to facilitate a virtual consultation between the user and the health care practitioner. Additionally or alternatively, session management facility 302 may personalize the virtual examination interface to the user in accordance with the completed health care questionnaire by using the completed health care questionnaire to identify one or more health issues associated with the user and present information associated with the one or more health issues within the virtual examination interface. These and other examples will be described in more detail below and are also described in more detail in the above-referenced co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed the same day as the present application, and entitled “Methods and Systems for Providing a Customized Virtual Health Care Solution for a User.”

Session management facility 302 may additionally or alternatively personalize the virtual examination to the user in accordance with a user profile associated with the user. For example, session management facility 302 may use the user profile to acquire and present personal information and/or one or more medical records associated with the user within the virtual examination interface.

Once a virtual health care session initiated by a user has been assigned to a particular health care practitioner, the health care practitioner may initiate a virtual consultation between the health care practitioner and the user. For example, the health care practitioner may select an option presented within the virtual examination interface to begin the virtual consultation once the health care practitioner has had a chance to review the completed health care questionnaire and/or any other type of information presented within the virtual examination interface. Session management facility 302 may detect the selection of the option and/or any other type of input provided by the health care practitioner by way of the practitioner portal that is representative of a request to initiate the virtual consultation and, in response, initiate the virtual consultation between the user and the health care practitioner by way of the practitioner portal and the user portal.

Session management facility 302 may initiate the virtual consultation in any suitable manner. For example, session management facility 302 may initiate a virtual consultation by removing the user from the virtual queue and presenting a virtual consultation interface within the user portal in place of the virtual lobby interface. As will be illustrated in more detail below, the virtual consultation interface may be configured to facilitate virtual interaction by the user with the health care practitioner.

In some examples, the health care practitioner may treat the user by prescribing one or more medicines for the user by way of the practitioner portal. To illustrate, the health care practitioner may input data representative of a prescription for the user by way of the practitioner portal. Session management facility 302 may receive the data representative of the prescription and route the prescription to a pharmacy selected by the user. The user may then visit the pharmacy to pick up the prescribed medicine.

Session management facility 302 may present any other type of interface within the user portal and/or the practitioner portal as may serve a particular implementation. For example, as will be described in more detail below, session management facility 302 may present a payment interface by way of the user portal. The payment interface may be configured to facilitate payment by the user for the virtual consultation. As another example, session management facility 302 may additionally or alternatively present a landing page interface within the user portal. The user may use the landing page interface to initiate a virtual health care session, access one or more medical records associated with the user, access and/or modify a user profile associated with the user, access and/or modify one or more settings, access help content, and/or perform any other function as may serve a particular implementation.

Storage facility 306 may be configured to store virtual health care data 308 generated and/or utilized by session management facility 302 and detection data 310 generated and/or utilized by detection facility 304. Storage facility 306 may maintain additional or alternative data as may serve a particular implementation.

Various examples of the methods and systems described herein will now be provided. It will be recognized that the examples provided herein are merely illustrative of the many different implementations that may be realized in accordance with the methods and systems described herein. For example, additional or alternative interfaces to those described below may be presented in accordance with the methods and systems described herein.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary user portal 500 that may be provided by session management facility 302 for presentation to a user. User portal 500 may be presented in any suitable manner. For example, user portal 500 may be presented in the context of a webpage, a standalone application (e.g., a mobile application), and/or in any other manner as may serve a particular implementation. As will be described herein, various interfaces may be presented within user portal 500 to facilitate initiation of and participation in a virtual health care session by a user.

As shown, a login interface 502 may be initially presented within user portal 500. A user may utilize login interface 502 to initiate a virtual health care session. For example, as shown, the user may initiate a virtual health care session by entering a login ID and password and selecting a “sign in” option 504. It will be recognized that a user may alternatively initiate a virtual health care session in any other manner. For example, a user of a mobile device may utilize a mobile application executed by the mobile device to initiate the virtual health care session.

FIGS. 6-9 illustrate an exemplary screening interface 602 that may be presented within user portal 500 in response to the user initiating the virtual health care session. As shown in FIGS. 6-9, session management facility 302 may present an interactive health care questionnaire within screening interface 602. The interactive health care questionnaire may include a series of requests for health-related information from the user. One or more of the requests may be dynamically selected based on information provided by the user. For example, FIG. 6 shows that a first request may ask the user to select a broad category that describes the reason for the user initiating the virtual health care session. As shown, the user has selected that she would like to quit smoking or chewing tobacco. In response to the selection, session management facility 302 may present follow-up requests related to the selected category, as shown in FIGS. 7-9. As described above, the information provided by the user in response to these requests may be used by a health care practitioner to diagnose and/or treat the user. The information may also be used by session management facility 302 to personalize one or more interfaces presented to the user and/or to the health care practitioner.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary notification interface 1002 that may be presented within user portal 500 in response to the user completing the health care questionnaire. As shown, notification interface 1002 may notify the user of a cost associated with the virtual health care session. By selecting option 1004, the user may consent to the cost and continue with the virtual health care session. Alternatively, the user may select option 1006 to cancel the virtual health care session.

As described above, the user may be placed in a virtual queue once the user completes the interactive health care questionnaire. While in the virtual queue, the user may wait for a virtual consultation with a health care practitioner qualified to treat the user.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary virtual lobby interface 1102 that may be presented within user portal 500 while the user is in the virtual queue. As shown, virtual lobby interface 1002 may be personalized to the user.

For example, virtual lobby interface 1102 may include various notifications 1104 (e.g., 1104-1 through 1104-3) associated with the virtual health care session initiated by the user. To illustrate, notification 1104-1 is configured to notify the user that a screening of the user is complete (i.e., that the user has completed the interactive health care questionnaire). Notification 1104-2 is configured to notify the user that the pool of health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations has been identified. Notification 1104-3 is configured to provide the user with an estimated wait time (i.e., an amount of time that the user has to wait before beginning a virtual consultation with a particular health care practitioner included in the practitioner pool). Additional or alternative notifications may be presented within the virtual lobby interface 1102 as may serve a particular implementation.

Session management facility 302 may additionally or alternatively personalize the virtual lobby interface 1102 to the user in accordance with the user's completed health care questionnaire. For example, the user's completed health care questionnaire may indicate that she is interested in losing weight. Based on this information, session management facility 302 may select and present within the virtual lobby interface 1102 various content instances 1106 (e.g., content instances 1106-1 through 1106-8) related to losing weight.

Session management facility 302 may additionally or alternatively personalize the virtual lobby interface 1102 to the user in accordance with a user profile associated with the user. For example, the user profile associated with the user may indicate that she has young children. Based on this information, session management facility may select and present within the virtual lobby interface 1102 various content instances 1108 (e.g., content instances 1108-1 through 1108-2). To illustrate, content instance 1108-1 may include a magazine that targets mothers of young children and content instance 1108-2 may include an advertisement that targets women that are of a similar age as the user.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary practitioner portal 1200 that may be provided by session management facility 302 for presentation to a health care practitioner. Practitioner portal 1200 may be presented in any suitable manner. For example, practitioner portal 1200 may be presented in the context of a webpage, a standalone application (e.g., a mobile application), and/or in any other manner as may serve a particular implementation. As will be described herein, various interfaces may be presented within practitioner portal 1200 to facilitate participation by a health care practitioner in a virtual health care session initiated by a user.

As shown, a login interface 1202 may be initially presented within practitioner portal 1200. A health care practitioner may utilize login interface 1202 to login to practitioner portal 1200. For example, as shown, the health care practitioner may login to practitioner portal 1200 by entering a login ID and password and selecting a “sign in” option 1204. As described above, by logging in to practitioner portal 1200, a health care practitioner may indicate that he or she is open for virtual consultations.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary virtual queue interface 1302 that may be presented within practitioner portal 1200. As shown, virtual queue interface 1302 may show a list 1304 of users or patients currently included in a virtual queue associated with a practitioner pool of which the health care practitioner is a part. The health care practitioner may use virtual queue interface 1302 to assess how many people are in the virtual queue at any given time. In some examples, when the health care practitioner becomes available to participate in a virtual health care session initiated by a user, the health care practitioner may select an option 1306. In response, session management facility 302 may assign a virtual health care session initiated by a user included in the virtual queue (e.g., a user who has waited for the most time in the virtual queue) to the health care practitioner.

In some examples, a health care practitioner may utilize virtual queue interface 1302 to indicate whether he or she is open for virtual consultations. For example, the health care practitioner may select an availability status (i.e., whether the health care practitioner is open for virtual consultations or whether the health care practitioner is busy and not available for virtual consultations) utilizing drop-down menu 1308 and/or in any other manner as may serve a particular implementation. In some examples, session management facility 302 may detect an indication by a health care practitioner that the health care practitioner is not open for virtual consultations and accordingly prevent the health care practitioner from being assigned to a virtual health care session.

FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary virtual examination interface 1402 that may be presented within practitioner portal 1200 in response to a virtual health care session initiated by a user being assigned to a health care practitioner. The health care practitioner may utilize virtual examination interface 1402 to diagnose, treat, and/or otherwise communicate with the user. To this end, session management facility 302 may present various types of information and/or various types of options within virtual examination interface 1402. For example, as shown, session management facility 302 may present personal information 1404 descriptive of the user, the completed health care questionnaire 1406, a diagnosis field 1408 configured to facilitate entry of a diagnosis of the user by the health care practitioner, a treatment options field 1410 configured to present information associated with treating one or more health issues of the user (which information may be automatically selected based on an analysis of the completed health care questionnaire), a patient history field 1412 configured to present a patient history and/or one or more medical records associated with the user, and one or more virtual consultation windows (e.g., virtual consultation windows 1414-1 and 1414-2) configured to facilitate the virtual communication by the health care practitioner with the user. In the particular example of FIG. 14, virtual consultation window 1414-1 is configured to facilitate an online video conference between the health care practitioner and the user and virtual consultation window 1414-2 is configured to facilitate an online chat session between the health care practitioner and the user.

Once the health care practitioner is ready to begin a virtual consultation with a user (e.g., after the health care practitioner has reviewed the other information presented within the virtual examination interface 1402), the health care practitioner may provide input representative of a request to initiate the virtual consultation. This may be performed in any suitable manner. For example, the health care practitioner may select option 1416 to initiate the virtual consultation.

FIG. 15 shows virtual examination interface 1402 after the health care practitioner has initiated a virtual consultation with the user. As shown, an online video conference between the health care practitioner and the user is taking place within virtual consultation window 1414-1. FIG. 15 also shows that an online chat session may additionally or alternatively take place between the health care practitioner and the user by way of a virtual consultation window 1414-2.

FIG. 15 also shows that the health care practitioner has entered a diagnosis for the user within diagnosis field 1408. In some examples, session management facility 302 may also present this diagnosis within an interface accessible by the user by way of user portal 500.

FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary virtual consultation interface 1602 that may be presented within user portal 500 in response to the health care practitioner initiating a virtual consultation between the health care practitioner and the user. As shown, virtual consultation interface 1602 may include a diagnosis field 1604 and one or more virtual consultation windows 1606 (e.g., virtual consultation windows 1606-1 and 1606-2). The user may utilize virtual consultation window 1606-1 to participate in an online video conference with the health care practitioner and virtual consultation window 1606-2 to participate in an online chat session with the health care practitioner.

FIG. 17 shows virtual consultation interface 1602 after the health care practitioner has provided a diagnosis for the user. As shown, the diagnosis may be presented within diagnosis field 1604. The user may select an option 1608 to print the diagnosis. If the diagnosis includes a prescription, the user may select option 1610 to send the prescription to a pharmacy selected by the user.

For example, FIG. 18 shows an exemplary pharmacy selection interface 1802 that may be presented within user portal 500 in response to the user selecting option 1610 included in virtual consultation interface 1602 (i.e., an option to send a prescription to a pharmacy). As shown, pharmacy selection interface 1802 may allow a user to select a particular pharmacy to which the prescription is to be sent. For example, the user may choose to send the prescription to a “favorite” pharmacy (i.e., a pharmacy that the user has already used in the past or otherwise indicated as being a favorite). Alternatively, the user may look up and select any other pharmacy as may serve a particular implementation.

In some examples, a notice may be provided to the user by way of the user portal (e.g., by way of any of the interfaces described herein) that a prescription has been filled by a pharmacy. In this manner, the user may know when to go to the pharmacy to pick up the prescribed medicine.

FIG. 19 illustrates an exemplary payment interface 1902 that may be presented within user interface 500 at the conclusion of a virtual health care session. As shown, payment interface 1902 may facilitate payment by the user for the virtual health care session.

Various other interfaces may be presented within user portal 500 and/or practitioner portal 1200. For example, FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary health records interface 2002 that may be presented within user portal. Health records interface 2002 may be presented in response to a user selecting an option to access one or more health records associated with the user. For example, as shown in FIG. 20, a user may access one or more records and/or other types of notes associated with one or more virtual health care sessions in which the user has participated. Such access may allow a user to review instructions provided by a health care practitioner during a particular virtual health care session and/or otherwise access information associated with a particular virtual health care session.

As mentioned, the user portal and/or practitioner portal may be provided by way of a mobile application executed by a mobile device. To illustrate, FIG. 21 shows an exemplary user portal 2100 that may be presented by way of a mobile application executed by a mobile device. As shown, a landing page interface 2102 may be presented within user portal 2100. Landing page interface 2102 may include a plurality of selectable icons 2104 (e.g., selectable icons 2104-1 through 2104-6) each configured to facilitate access to one or more virtual health care features by way of user portal 2100. For example, icon 2104-1 may be selected by a user to initiate a virtual health care session, icon 2104-2 may be selected by a user to access health records associated with the user, icon 2104-3 may be selected by a user to access (e.g., view and/or modify) a user profile associated with the user, icon 2104-4 may be selected by a user to access (e.g., view and/or modify) one or more settings, icon 2104-5 may be selected by a user to sign out of a virtual health care session, and icon 2104-6 may be selected by a user to access help content associated with one or more of the features provided by way of user portal 1200.

FIG. 22 illustrates an exemplary implementation 2200 of virtual health care solutions provider system 102. In particular, implementation 2200 shows various services (i.e., platform services and/or customer services) that may be provided by virtual health care solutions provider system 102. For example, as shown, virtual health care solutions provider system 102 may provide communication services 2202, access services 2204, orchestration and message brokering services 2206, data and transport services 2208, and reporting services 2210. Additional or alternative platform services may be provided as may serve a particular implementation. Together, the various platform services illustrated in FIG. 22 provide a virtual health care platform (e.g., virtual health care platform 106) upon which one or more virtual health care solutions may be built.

Communication services 2202 may facilitate communication by virtual health care solutions provider system 102 with various external devices and/or systems. For example, communication services 2202 may provide a communication services layer by which virtual health care solutions provider system 102 may communicate with one or more user computing devices (e.g., user computing device 202) and one or more practitioner computing devices (e.g., practitioner computing device 204).

Communication services 2202 may additionally or alternatively facilitate communication by virtual health care solutions provider system 102 with external systems 2212. In some examples, external systems 2212 may be associated with (e.g., managed by) one or more entities not associated with virtual health care solutions provider system 102. As shown, such external systems 2212 may include an electronic medical record (“EMR”) system, one or more legacy systems, and a prescription hub (“Rx hub”) configured to facilitate routing of prescriptions prescribed by a health care practitioner to a pharmacy selected by a user.

Access services 2204 may be configured to facilitate access by users, health care practitioners, administrators, and/or other types of users to the virtual health care solutions provided by virtual health care solutions provider system 102. For example, access services 2204 may provide participation and authorization services 2214, application services 2216, portal services 2218, error handling and logging services 2220, and support services 2222.

Participation and authorization services 2214 may include access management services configured to facilitate secure collaboration with external systems (e.g., external systems 2212) with regulatory mandates and enable comprehensive security for applications, web services, and data. Participation and authorization services 2214 may also include authentication services configured to validate that a particular user is allowed to access one or more virtual health care services (e.g., by verifying login IDs and passwords). Participation and authorization services 2214 may also include registration services configured to provide a registration process that may be used by a user and/or health care practitioner to register for virtual health care services.

Application services 2216 may include scheduling services configured to facilitate scheduling by health care practitioners, diagnosis and assessment services configured to facilitate screening of users (e.g., by way of health care questionnaires), payment services configured to allow users to securely submit payments online, and virtual consultation services configured to facilitate virtual consultations between users and health care practitioners.

Portal services 2218 may include administration services configured to allow an administrator to manage the various portals provided by virtual health care solutions provider system 102, e-prescribing services configured to allow a health care practitioner to provide a user with online prescriptions, user portal services configured to facilitate presentation of a user portal to a user, and practitioner portal services configured to facilitate presentation of a practitioner portal to a health care practitioner.

Error handling and logging services 2220 may include one or more services configured to handle and/or log faults that may occur within any of the other services provided by virtual health care solutions provider system 102. Error handling and logging services 2220 may be further configured to provide one or more options for auditing the faults.

Support services 2222 may be configured to provide support (e.g., customer support) for the various services provided by virtual health care solutions provider system 102.

Orchestration and message brokering services 2206 may be configured to provide one or more workflow management services. Orchestration and message brokering services 2206 may be further configured to provide message routing and brokering services. For example, the recipients of user data (i.e., external systems 2212) may require data in a specific health care standard format. This service ensures appropriate message transformation, message validation and routing for each of the 2212 external systems. Orchestration and message brokering services 2206 may be further configured to provide message parser services.

Data and transport services 2208 may be configured to provide a secure database and data warehouse for runtime as well as complex analytics and reporting services. In some examples, the underlying database for storing data may include a relational data (e.g. MS SQL, Oracle, etc.) warehouse.

Reporting services 2210 may be configured to facilitate creation and generation of various reports associated with the virtual health care services provided by virtual health care solutions provider system 102. For example, reporting services 2210 process data acquired by virtual health care solutions provider system 102 and generate and present one or more reports based on the data.

FIG. 23 illustrates an exemplary method 2300 of facilitating a virtual consultation between a user and a health care practitioner. While FIG. 23 illustrates exemplary steps according to one embodiment, other embodiments may omit, add to, reorder, and/or modify any of the steps shown in FIG. 23. One or more of the steps shown in FIG. 23 may be performed by virtual health care solutions provider system 102 and/or any implementation thereof.

In step 2302, a virtual health care solutions provider system detects an initiation of a virtual health care session by a user by way of a user portal. Step 2302 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 2304, the virtual health care solutions provider system presents, in response to the initiation of the virtual health care session, an interactive health care questionnaire by way of the user portal. Step 2304 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 2306, the virtual health care solutions provider system detects a completion by the user of the health care questionnaire by way of the user portal. Step 2306 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 2308, the virtual health care solutions provider system identifies, based on the completed health care questionnaire, a pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations. Step 2308 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 2310, the virtual health care solutions provider system places the user in a virtual queue associated with the pool of one or more health care practitioners for a virtual consultation with any one of the identified one or more health care practitioners by way of the user portal. Step 2310 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

FIG. 24 illustrates another exemplary method 2400 of facilitating a virtual consultation between a user and a health care practitioner. While FIG. 24 illustrates exemplary steps according to one embodiment, other embodiments may omit, add to, reorder, and/or modify any of the steps shown in FIG. 24. One or more of the steps shown in FIG. 24 may be performed by virtual health care solutions provider system 102 and/or any implementation thereof.

In step 2402, a virtual health care solutions provider system detects input provided by a health care practitioner by way of a practitioner portal and that indicates the health care practitioner is available to participate in a virtual health care session initiated by a user. Step 2402 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 2404, the virtual health care solutions provider system assigns, in response to the detecting of the input, the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner. Step 2404 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 2406, the virtual health care solutions provider system presents, in response to the assigning of the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner, a virtual examination interface associated with the user by way the practitioner portal. Step 2406 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In step 2408, the virtual health care solutions provider system establishes a virtual consultation between the health care practitioner and the user by way of the virtual examination interface. Step 2408 may be performed in any of the ways described herein.

In certain embodiments, one or more of the processes described herein may be implemented at least in part as instructions embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by one or more computing devices. In general, a processor (e.g., a microprocessor) receives instructions, from a non-transitory computer-readable medium, (e.g., a memory, etc.), and executes those instructions, thereby performing one or more processes, including one or more of the processes described herein. Such instructions may be stored and/or transmitted using any of a variety of known computer-readable media.

A computer-readable medium (also referred to as a processor-readable medium) includes any non-transitory medium that participates in providing data (e.g., instructions) that may be read by a computer (e.g., by a processor of a computer). Such a medium may take many forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, and/or volatile media. Non-volatile media may include, for example, optical or magnetic disks and other persistent memory. Volatile media may include, for example, dynamic random access memory (“DRAM”), which typically constitutes a main memory. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any other optical medium, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other tangible medium from which a computer can read.

FIG. 25 illustrates an exemplary computing device 2500 that may be configured to perform one or more of the processes described herein. As shown in FIG. 25, computing device 2500 may include a communication interface 2502, a processor 2504, a storage device 2506, and an input/output (“I/O”) module 2508 communicatively connected via a communication infrastructure 2510. While an exemplary computing device 2500 is shown in FIG. 25, the components illustrated in FIG. 25 are not intended to be limiting. Additional or alternative components may be used in other embodiments. Components of computing device 2500 shown in FIG. 25 will now be described in additional detail.

Communication interface 2502 may be configured to communicate with one or more computing devices. Examples of communication interface 2502 include, without limitation, a wired network interface (such as a network interface card), a wireless network interface (such as a wireless network interface card), a modem, an audio/video connection, and any other suitable interface.

Processor 2504 generally represents any type or form of processing unit capable of processing data or interpreting, executing, and/or directing execution of one or more of the instructions, processes, and/or operations described herein. Processor 2504 may direct execution of operations in accordance with one or more applications 2512 or other computer-executable instructions such as may be stored in storage device 2506 or another computer-readable medium.

Storage device 2506 may include one or more data storage media, devices, or configurations and may employ any type, form, and combination of data storage media and/or device. For example, storage device 2506 may include, but is not limited to, a hard drive, network drive, flash drive, magnetic disc, optical disc, random access memory (“RAM”), dynamic RAM (“DRAM”), other non-volatile and/or volatile data storage units, or a combination or sub-combination thereof. Electronic data, including data described herein, may be temporarily and/or permanently stored in storage device 2506. For example, data representative of one or more executable applications 2512 configured to direct processor 2504 to perform any of the operations described herein may be stored within storage device 2506. In some examples, data may be arranged in one or more databases residing within storage device 2506.

I/O module 2508 may be configured to receive user input and provide user output and may include any hardware, firmware, software, or combination thereof supportive of input and output capabilities. For example, I/O module 2508 may include hardware and/or software for capturing user input, including, but not limited to, a keyboard or keypad, a touch screen component (e.g., touch screen display), a receiver (e.g., an RF or infrared receiver), and/or one or more input buttons.

I/O module 2508 may include one or more devices for presenting output to a user, including, but not limited to, a graphics engine, a display (e.g., a display screen, one or more output drivers (e.g., display drivers), one or more audio speakers, and one or more audio drivers. In certain embodiments, I/O module 2508 is configured to provide graphical data to a display for presentation to a user. The graphical data may be representative of one or more graphical user interfaces and/or any other graphical content as may serve a particular implementation.

In some examples, any of the systems and/or facilities described herein may be implemented by or within one or more components of computing device 2500. For example, one or more applications 2512 residing within storage device 2506 may be configured to direct processor 2504 to perform one or more processes or functions associated with session management facility 302 and/or detection facility 304. Likewise, storage facility 306 may be implemented by or within storage device 2506.

In the preceding description, various exemplary embodiments have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto, and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow. For example, certain features of one embodiment described herein may be combined with or substituted for features of another embodiment described herein. The description and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, by a virtual health care solutions provider system, an initiation of a virtual health care session by a user by way of a user portal;

presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the initiation of the virtual health care session, an interactive health care questionnaire by way of the user portal;

detecting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, a completion by the user of the health care questionnaire by way of the user portal;

identifying, by the virtual health care solutions provider system based on the completed health care questionnaire, a pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations; and

placing, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, the user in a virtual queue associated with the pool of one or more health care practitioners for a virtual consultation with any one of the identified one or more health care practitioners by way of the user portal.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, that a health care practitioner included in the pool of one or more health care practitioners is available to participate in the virtual health care session;

assigning, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the determining that the health care practitioner is available to participate in the virtual health care session, the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner; and

presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the assigning of the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner, a virtual examination interface associated with the user by way of a practitioner portal accessible by the health care practitioner.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

detecting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, input provided by the health care practitioner by way of the practitioner portal and representative of a request to initiate the virtual consultation; and

initiating, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the request, the virtual consultation between the user and the health care practitioner by way of the practitioner portal and the user portal.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system within the virtual examination interface, at least one of the completed health care questionnaire, a diagnosis field configured to facilitate entry of a diagnosis of the user by the health care practitioner, one or more medical records associated with the user, and a virtual consultation window configured to facilitate the virtual consultation between the user and the health care practitioner.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving, by the virtual health care solutions provider system by way of the practitioner portal, data representative of a prescription provided by the health care practitioner for the user; and

routing, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, the prescription to a pharmacy selected by the user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system within the user portal, a virtual lobby interface for experiencing by the user while the user is in the virtual queue.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

identifying, by the virtual health care solutions provider system based on the completed health care questionnaire, one or more health issues associated with the user; and

presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, one or more content instances related to the one or more health issues within the virtual lobby interface.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

selecting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system based on a user profile associated with the user, one or more content instances; and

presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, the one or more content instances within the virtual lobby interface.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting of the initiation of the virtual health care session comprises at least one of detecting a user-initiated launch of an application associated with virtual health care session and a logging on by the user to a website configured to facilitate the virtual health care session.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting of the health care questionnaire comprises presenting a series of requests for health-related information from the user, wherein the requests for the health-related information are dynamically selected based on health-related information provided by the user in response to one or more of the requests.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations comprises:

identifying, by the virtual health care solutions provider system based on the completed health care questionnaire, a health issue associated with the user; and

selecting one or more health care practitioners specializing in the health issue for inclusion in the pool of one or more health care practitioners.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations comprises identifying, by the virtual health care solutions provider system for inclusion in the pool of one or more health care practitioners, one or more health care practitioners who are actively logged in to a practitioner portal at a time associated with the completion of the health care questionnaire, the practitioner portal provided by the virtual health care solutions provider system.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system by way of the user portal, a payment interface configured to facilitate payment by the user for the virtual consultation.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual consultation comprises at least one of an online video conference, an audio conference, and an online chat session.

15. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

16. A method comprising:

detecting, by a virtual health care solutions provider system, input provided by a health care practitioner by way of a practitioner portal and that indicates the health care practitioner is available to participate in a virtual health care session initiated by a user;

assigning, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the detecting of the input, the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner;

presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the assigning of the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner, a virtual examination interface associated with the user by way the practitioner portal; and

establishing, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, a virtual consultation between the health care practitioner and the user by way of the virtual examination interface.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising personalizing, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, the virtual examination interface to the user in accordance with at least one of a health care questionnaire completed by the user and a user profile associated with the user.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the personalizing of the virtual examination interface to the user comprises presenting, within the virtual examination interface, at least one of the completed health care questionnaire, a diagnosis field configured to facilitate entry of a diagnosis of the user by the health care practitioner, one or more medical records associated with the user, and a virtual consultation window configured to facilitate the virtual consultation between the user and the health care practitioner.

19. The method of claim 16, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

20. A system comprising:

a detection facility configured to detect an initiation of a virtual health care session by a user by way of a user portal; and

a virtual health care session management facility communicatively coupled to the detection facility and configured to present, in response to the initiation of the virtual health care session, an interactive health care questionnaire by way of the user portal;

wherein the detection facility is further configured to detect a completion by the user of the health care questionnaire by way of the user portal; and

wherein the virtual health care management facility is further configured to identify, based on the completed health care questionnaire, a pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations, and place the user in a virtual queue associated with the pool of one or more health care practitioners for a virtual consultation with any one of the identified one or more health care practitioners by way of the user portal.