SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FACILITATING DYNAMIC CONTENT PRESENTATION REPLATED TO A PERSONALIZED CARE PLAN
In certain embodiments, dynamic content presentation related to a personalized care plan may be facilitated. In some embodiments, content presentation of a content session set may be initiated for an individual in accordance with a care plan associated with the individual, where the care plan specifies a presentation order for content sessions of the content session set. A time period (during which the individual is unavailable to receive presentation of a content session) may be determined. The presentation order for after the time period may be updated based on (i) the determination of the time period and (ii) a prioritization scheme by which content sessions of the content session set is to be prioritized. The content presentation for the individual may be resumed based on the updated presentation order such that the content presentation after the time period accounts for content sessions assigned to be presented during the time period.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/681,148, filed Apr. 8, 2015, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/096,040, filed Jun. 4, 2008, which is a national stage application of PCT Application No. PCT/IB2006/054609, filed Dec. 5, 2006, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/742,293 filed Dec. 5, 2005, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUNDMedical professionals recognize that providing extended-term health care management assistance to chronically ill patients is an important aspect of treating the chronic illness and assuring the patient a high quality of life. Extended term health management is typically performed on an out-patient basis, and is typically wholly or in large part self-administered, perhaps with occasional help from weekly therapy classes or so forth. It is well known, however, that patients often fail to adequately follow the prescribed health care plan outside of a hospital or other supervised setting. This failure can result from lack of understanding of how to perform health care activities, apathy or lack of motivation, fear of failure, or so forth.
In some cases, the patient can choose to access a hospital website or other on-line (e.g., Internet-based) medical database to pull information relevant to the patient's care plan. However, the patient may not have Internet access, or may be unable to navigate a complex on-line medical database. Moreover, providing access to on-line databases does nothing to help patients who are unmotivated. Other approaches that have been used include providing the patient with instructional or motivational videos. However, these approaches do not provide interactive assistance of a type likely to encourage the patient to follow care plan regimens. Moreover, passive videos are difficult to personalize so as to directly address specific issues related to the patient.
Royal Philips Electronics, Cardiovascular Associates of the Delaware Valley, and Comcast Corporation have announced a cooperative effort called Motiva™ to provide a test group of chronic heart failure patients with a remote patient management broadband-enabled platform for connecting the test patients with their healthcare community. The Motiva™ system provides a cable television-based interactive health care management platform, in which content such as educational video, medication scheduling, personalized encouragement and reinforcement, and so forth, is pushed to the patient based on a personalized health care plan. Feedback from the patient, for example, through the use of interactive surveys, enables the Motiva™ system to adjust or personalize content to the needs of each patient. The Motiva™ system can deliver personalized health care management assistance to patients on a daily or more frequent basis.
One problem that arises in maintaining such a personalized interactive care management system is time management. Typically, the care plan is organized into content sessions that are presented to the patient on a pre-determined schedule. This approach works well only if the patient adheres to the schedule. However, the patient may go on vacation, take a work-related trip, or encounter another situation which causes the patient to miss one or more scheduled sessions.
The patient may attempt to “squeeze in” the missed session by accessing several sessions in succession on the same day or over a few days. However, this approach can lead to information overload if the sessions are long or complex, resulting in the patient failing to comprehend important content. Alternatively, the patient may skip a queued session entirely, which may also cause the patient to miss important content. Moreover, in some cases, it may not be enough to access the queued sessions. For example, if the patient goes on a long vacation, it may be appropriate for the patient to review one or more sessions that had been presented before commencement of the vacation, in order to allow the patient to catch up. These and other drawbacks exist.
BRIEF SUMMARYIn some embodiments, a server computer system (or other computer system) is disclosed. In some embodiments, the computer system may initiate content presentation of a content session set for an individual in accordance with a care plan associated with the individual, wherein the care plan specifies at least a presentation order for content sessions of the content session set. The computer system may determine a time period during which the individual is unavailable to receive presentation of a content session of the content session set. Based on the determination of the time period and a prioritization scheme, the computer system may update the presentation order of content sessions to be presented after the time period. The computer system may resume the content presentation after the time period based on the updated presentation order such that the content presentation after the time period accounts for one or more content sessions that initially were to be presented during the time period. As discussed below, the foregoing (and other embodiments described herein) improves the user experience of a patient or other individual to which the content presentation related to the care plan.
The invention may take form in various components and arrangements of components, and in various process operations and arrangements of process operations. The drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention.
With reference to
To enable personalized distributing of content, each patient in the system 10 has an associated care plan that in the illustrated embodiment is stored in a care plans partition 18 of the storage 16. The example storage 16 is logically partitioned to define the content database 14 and the care plan storage 18; however, in other embodiments the storage may include two or more storage elements, which may be different storage media, for storing the care management-related content and the care plan or care plans. In the illustrated embodiment, the storage 16 stores a care plan 21 for Patient #1, a care plan 22 for Patient #2, and a care plan 23 for Patient #3. While only three care plans 21, 22, 23 associated with a corresponding three Patients #1, #2, #3 are illustrated, it is contemplated that the server 12 may store care plans for hundreds or thousands of different patients. As used herein, the term “patient” encompasses persons recovering from surgery, stroke, heart failure, or another condition, persons suffering a chronic illness, or so forth. As used herein, the term “patient” also encompasses other users of the health management system 10 who may be generally healthy but who are following a health management program assisted by the system 10 to maintain fitness, control weight, avoid osteoporosis, or otherwise maintain a healthy condition or make health-related lifestyle modifications.
A processor 26 determines content to be distributed to each patient based on a schedule of the patient care plan of that patient. The processor 26 is configured to control communication of content to the patient in accordance with the patient care plan of that patient. Optionally, rules are applied to determine which content is presented to which patient or patients, the ordering of such content presentation, and so forth. Such rules are optionally used to construct the schedule of each patient care plan. For example, care plan templates may be provided that specify selected content sessions and an order of presentation or linkages between the selected content sessions. Alternatively, the schedule can be constructed more directly, for example by a physician who selects which content sessions to send to his or her patient, and in what order. A communication interface 28 of the server 12 communicates the selected care management-related content to the patient at his or her respective user interface. For example: the communication interface 28 communicates content intended for Patient #1 to a user interface 31 that is accessible by Patient #1; the communication interface 28 communicates content intended for Patient #2 to a user interface 32 that is accessible by Patient #2; the communication interface 28 communicates content intended for Patient #3 to a user interface 33 that is accessible by Patient #3; and so forth.
The user interfaces 31, 32, 33 can employ substantially any hardware capable of providing content presentation and capable of providing feedback to the server 12 via the communication interface 28. For example, the user interfaces 31, 32, 33 can be embodied by hardware such as: a desktop computer; a laptop computer; a personal data assistant (PDA); a cellular telephone (i.e., cellphone); a television set having Internet connectivity integrally included and operated by a television-type remote control or other input device; a digital or analog television set having Internet connectivity provided by an add-on set-top unit and operated by a television remote control, set-top unit remote control, or other input device; or so forth. The communication interface 28 is operatively connected with each of the user interfaces 31, 32, 33 by a pathway or pathways 36 such as the Internet, a cable television network, a satellite television network, a cellular telephone network, or so forth. Moreover, the communication interface 28 optionally includes more than one communication interface. For example, it is contemplated for different user interfaces to connect with the communication interface 28 by different pathways each employing different interface hardware and software. For example, the user interface 31 might be a computer operatively connected with the communication interface 28 by the Internet, while the user interface 32 might be a cellphone connected with the communication interface 28 by a cellular telephone network. To construct such an embodiment, the communication interface 28 suitably includes an Internet port component, and a cellular telephone network port. The pathway or pathways 36 are advantageously secure links because private medical information may be conveyed across the pathway or pathways 36. However, unsecured pathways can also be used. Similarly, each user interface 31, 32, 33 may optionally include more than one user interface. For example, Patient #1 may be able to access the server 12 by his or her computer and also by his or her cellphone. Optionally, the user interface may include one or more biometric feedback monitors each of which measures at least one biometric parameter of a patient that is communicated to the server via the communication interface 28. Suitable biometric monitors may include, for example: a saturated blood oxygen level (SpO2) monitor; a heart rate monitor; a blood pressure monitor; a weight scale; an electrocardiograph (ECG); or so forth. Biometric feedback monitors may be patient-activated—for example, the patient may weigh himself or herself, and then input the weight via the user interface 31, 32, 33. In other embodiments, a patient parameter monitoring session may be included in the schedule, which patient parameter monitoring session leads the patient through the weighing or other biometric monitoring process. In yet other embodiments, a patient parameter monitoring session may be provided which is user-transparent—the session runs concurrently with an instructional session or other session to record patient biometric monitoring data during the instruction.
Maintenance of the server 12 is suitably performed by an administrator via an administrator interface 40. In some embodiments, the administrator interface 40 is suitably a network administrator account having a high level of access to the server 12. The administrator may, for example, add new care management-related content, delete obsolete or outdated care management-related content, organize content, modify or update content flow rules, or so forth. In some embodiments, medical personnel such as doctors or nurses can directly generate and/or update the patient care plans 21, 22, 23 by directly accessing the server 12 via medical personnel interfaces 41, 42. Medical personnel are optionally assigned a lower level of access through a regular user account or other network account providing lower level access limited, for example, to patients of a doctor who is accessing the system 10. For example, the first medical personnel interface 41 accesses the patient care plans 21, 22 of Patients #1 and #2 who are patients of the doctor employing the first medical personnel interface 41, while the second medical personnel interface 42 accesses the patient care plan 23 of Patient #3 who is a patient of the doctor employing the second medical personnel interface 42. In some embodiments, medical personnel interfaces 41, 42 are omitted, and one or more system administrators perform all creation and updating of the patient care plans 21, 22, 23 via the administrator interface 40, and in accordance with instructions from the patient's physician or other medical personnel.
The personalized interactive care management system 10 depicted in
As another example layout or configuration, in some contemplated embodiments copies of the stored data and processing instructions and rules are loaded onto the patient's home computer, laptop computer, PDA, cellphone, or other personal electronic device as a local instance of the management system. The local instance can be loaded onto the patient's computer or other personal electronic device from a compact optical disk (CD) or other portable storage element, or can be loaded by data transmission via the Internet, a cellular telephone network, or so forth. Each patient receives a copy of the system with only his or her own patient care plan included. The patient's home computer embodies the server 12 by executing the local instance of the system, and also embodies the user interface 31, 32, 33. Optionally, the instance disposed on the patient's computer or other personal electronic device communicates survey results, biometric measurements, or other feedback to the hospital, doctor's office, or so forth via the Internet or another network.
With continuing reference to
With reference to
The schedule 46 of
During the course of presenting content sessions in accordance with the initial schedule 46 of
This automatic adjustment of the schedule can be done in various ways. The result of one suitable automatic adjustment is a revised schedule 46′ shown in
With reference to
The schedules 46, 46′, 56, 56′ employ absolute dates that are applied with reference to the system clock 50. However, in some embodiments the schedule does not employ absolute dates, but rather employs relative dates in conjunction with a schedule pointer.
With reference to
With reference to
The revised schedule produced by the automatic adjustment depends upon the choice of rescheduling rules 44 followed by the processor 26 in performing the schedule adjustment. Some further illustrative examples of suitable automatic adjustments of the absolute-date or relative-date initial schedules 56, 66 of
With reference to
When using relative-time scheduling, a speeded-up schedule can be constructed in the same way as the absolute-time schedule 80 was constructed, that is, by shifting the assigned times of sessions (albeit in relative time) appropriately.
With reference to
With reference to
In the same way that the schedule can be speeded up, the schedule can also be slowed down, either by translating sessions or by changing the speed of the schedule pointer. A schedule slow-down may be desirable, for example, just before a vacation to taper off the patient's scheduled activities.
With reference to
With reference to
The rescheduling performed by the suitably configured processor 26, 44 can be performed multiple times. For example, the initial schedules of
It should be appreciated that all of the content need not be presented to the patient, such as in cases were the patient has extended suspended period. This can occur if the patient is on extended vacation or if the patient has a different health emergency that requires direct care for a prolonged period. In such cases, it is important for the patient to receive information on a prioritized basis such that the most important portions of the care plan are provided in a more expeditious manner. The following describes some implementations for prioritization of material which would allow the patient to obtain the most essential information first, thereby preventing the patient from being overwhelmed by a large amount of missed material.
In a most basic model, information or material can be flagged by the care plan designer or health care provider as “essential” or “non-essential”. During the course of a normal plan care, all material (i.e. essential and non-essential) is provided to the patient in accordance with the care plan. If there has been an extended period in which the patient is unavailable for whatever reason and the care plan is suspended, upon resumption, the care plan can be restructured to only provide the essential material that would have been presented during the suspended period. The presentation of the material, or the order of the sessions to be completed, can occur in any manner (such as some of the methods discussed above) to allow the patient to comfortably get back into the care plan. This could mean presenting all of the missed essential material or sessions first, or, alternatively, presenting the missed essential material in combination with new material or sessions. In such embodiments, the non-essential material would not need to be presented. However, in some alternative embodiments, the timing of the presentation of the material is dictated by the essential or non-essential flag. In such cases, the essential material is presented on a prioritized time scale, whereas the non-essential material is presented, possibly selectively, later in the care plan once the patient has caught up to the current status of the prescribed care plan.
In a more advanced model, material or sessions can be flagged with a relative prioritization scale. The prioritization scale may be, for example, from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest prioritization. In such cases, the material or sessions missed during a suspended period would be presented in order of the prioritization flags, such that the highest level of prioritization is presented first. The prioritization flags can be used also to intertwine the missed material with the new material. In some situations, it may be desirable to present only material with a certain level of prioritization. For example, a patient may only be deemed to need material that is flagged with a prioritization level of 5 or higher. The level of prioritization that is presented to the patient may depend on the particular patient, the goal module that the material or session is a part of, the type of care plan the material or session is a part of, the overall care plan type for the patient, a survey response provided by the patient, input from the patient's doctor or care provider, the length of time of the suspension, the amount of material or sessions that were missed, the criticality of the patient, or any combination of these factors. For example, a patient that has been on a care plan suspended a longer time may have a higher prioritization level (e.g. 7) than then prioritization level (e.g. 5) given to a patient who has had a care plan suspended for a shorter time period. In another example, a patient with a more severe diagnosis may have a lower prioritization (e.g. 4) than a patient with a less severe diagnosis (e.g. 7). Another factor that can determine the prioritization level may be the patient's acuity. For example, a patient with diminished capacity may have a higher prioritization level (e.g. 8) than a more normal patient (who may have a prioritization level of 5), based on the ability to review and retain material. A person with diminished capacity may become more overwhelmed if presented more material than absolutely required. The acuity level of the patient can be entered by the health care provider, tested throughout the course of the care plan, or tested upon resumption of the care plan.
Any of these prioritization schemes can also be applied within a specific session or material presentation. For example, a session may include a video clip that can be divided into five sections and then is followed by a quiz. In some situations, one or two sections of the video and the quiz may be deemed high priority or essential, while the remaining sections of video may be deemed low priority or non-essential. Upon resumption, the care plan may only include the sections of the session or material presentation that are deemed high priority or essential.
The invention has been described with reference to various embodiments. Obviously, modifications and alterations will occur to others upon reading and understanding the preceding detailed description. It is intended that the invention be construed as including all such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.
Claims
1. A server computer system for facilitating dynamic content presentation related to a personalized care plan, the server computer system comprising:
- one or more processors programmed with computer program instructions that, when executed, cause the server computer system to: initiate content presentation of a content session set for a medical patient in accordance with a medical patient care plan associated with the medical patient, wherein the content session set comprises video content sessions, and the medical patient care plan specifies at least a presentation order for content sessions of the content session set; determine a time period during which the medical patient is unavailable to receive presentation of a content session of the content session set; suspend, based on the determination of the time period, the content presentation of the content session set to the medical patient for the time period; update the presentation order of content sessions to be presented after the time period based on (i) the determination of the time period and (ii) a prioritization scheme by which content sessions of the content session set is to be prioritized; and resume, after the time period, the content presentation for the medical patient based on the updated presentation order, wherein the content presentation after the time period includes one or more content sessions that initially were to be presented during the time period but not presented during the time period due to the suspending.
2. The server computer system of claim 1, wherein the prioritization scheme comprises prioritizing content sessions of the content session set based on a mental capacity associated with the medical patient.
3. The server computer system of claim 1, wherein the prioritization scheme comprises prioritizing content sessions of the content session set with as essential or non-essential such that the one or more content sessions are included in the content presentation after the time period based on the one or more content sessions being prioritized as essential.
4. The server computer system of claim 1, wherein the prioritization scheme comprises prioritizing content sessions of the content session set with as essential or non-essential such that at least one content session that initially was to be presented during the time period is not included in the content presentation after the time period based on the at least one content session being prioritized as non-essential.
5. The server computer system of claim 1, wherein updating the presentation order of content sessions comprises updating the presentation order of content sessions to be presented after the time period based on (i) a length of time of the time period during which the medical patient is unavailable to receive presentation of a content session of the content session set and (ii) the prioritization scheme by which content sessions of the content session set is to be prioritized.
6. The server computer system of claim 1, wherein the content session set further comprises content sessions having textual, survey, or questionnaire content.
7. A method implemented by one or more processors executing computer program instructions that, when executed, perform the method, the method comprising:
- initiating content presentation of a content session set for an individual in accordance with a care plan associated with the individual, wherein the care plan specifies at least a presentation order for content sessions of the content session set;
- determining a time period during which the individual is unavailable to receive presentation of a content session of the content session set;
- updating the presentation order of content sessions to be presented after the time period based on (i) the determination of the time period and (ii) a prioritization scheme by which content sessions of the content session set is to be prioritized; and
- resuming, after the time period, the content presentation for the individual based on the updated presentation order such that the content presentation after the time period accounts for one or more content sessions that initially were to be presented during the time period.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the prioritization scheme comprises prioritizing content sessions of the content session set based on a mental capacity associated with the individual.
9. The method of claim 7, wherein the prioritization scheme comprises prioritizing content sessions of the content session set with as essential or non-essential such that the one or more content sessions are included in the content presentation after the time period based on the one or more content sessions being prioritized as essential.
10. The method of claim 7, wherein the prioritization scheme comprises prioritizing content sessions of the content session set with as essential or non-essential such that at least one content session that initially was to be presented during the time period is not included in the content presentation after the time period based on the at least one content session being prioritized as non-essential.
11. The method of claim 7, wherein updating the presentation order of content sessions comprises updating the presentation order of content sessions to be presented after the time period based on (i) a length of time of the time period during which the individual is unavailable to receive presentation of a content session of the content session set and (ii) the prioritization scheme by which content sessions of the content session set is to be prioritized.
12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:
- generating at least one content session to be added to the content presentation based on the determination of the time period, such that the at least one content session is included in the content presentation after the time period.
13. The method of claim 7, further comprising:
- generating at least one content session to replace at least one other content session in the content presentation based on the determination of the time period such that the at least one content session is included in the content presentation after the time period in lieu of the at least one other content session.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one content session is a modified version of the at least one other content session.
15. The method of claim 7, wherein the content session set comprises content sessions having video, textual, survey, or questionnaire content.
16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage media comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause operations comprising:
- initiating presentation of a content session set for an individual in accordance with a care plan associated with the individual, wherein the care plan specifies at least a presentation order for content sessions of the content session set;
- determining a time period during which the individual is unavailable to receive a content session of the content session set;
- updating the presentation order of content sessions to be presented after the time period based on (i) the determination of the time period and (ii) a prioritization scheme by which content sessions of the content session set is to be prioritized; and
- resuming, after the time period, the content presentation for the individual based on the updated presentation order.
17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the prioritization scheme comprises prioritizing content sessions of the content session set based on a mental capacity associated with the individual.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the prioritization scheme comprises prioritizing content sessions of the content session set with as essential or non-essential such that at least one content session that initially was to be presented during the time period is not included in the content presentation after the time period based on the at least one content session being prioritized as non-essential.
19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein updating the presentation order of content sessions comprises updating the presentation order of content sessions to be presented after the time period based on (i) a length of time of the time period during which the individual is unavailable to receive presentation of a content session of the content session set and (ii) the prioritization scheme by which content sessions of the content session set is to be prioritized.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, the operations further comprising:
- generating at least one content session to replace at least one other content session in the content presentation based on the determination of the time period such that the at least one content session is included in the content presentation after the time period in lieu of the at least one other content session.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 23, 2019
Publication Date: Nov 14, 2019
Inventors: Imtiyaz HAQUE (Cupertino, CA), Yaqiong Fang (Milpitas, CA), Brian ZHOU (San Jose, CA)
Application Number: 16/519,644