Remote monitoring of telemedicine device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9838645-B2
Application number	US-201414089478-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 2, 2014
Priority date	Oct 31, 2013
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for monitoring usage of a telemedicine system are described. A monitoring system at a hospital or other central monitoring location provides for communication between personnel at a monitoring location (e.g. a medical care provider) and patient and/or caregiver at a patient location (e.g., the patient's home) via a telemedicine system. The telemedicine system may provide for audiovisual or other communication between the monitoring location and patient location, which may be in combination with medical monitoring or treatment provided with one or more associated article of medical equipment. The medical support monitoring system tracks the amount and type of usage of telepresence system and/or associated medical equipment. Tracked information regarding system usage may be used for various purposes, including billing, quality assurance, data analytics, including population studies of usage patterns, for example. Usage information may be linked to identity of patient, caregiver, or equipment used, or anonymized, depending upon the intended use.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of monitoring usage of a patient medical support system, comprising:
providing a patient with a patient medical support system, the patient medical support system including:
at least one article of medical equipment;
electrical control circuitry configured to
determine two or more different operational modes of the at least one article of medical equipment;
determine a first usage data signal indicative of an amount of usage of the at least one article of medical equipment in a first operational mode, the first operational mode being one of the two or more different operational modes; and
determine a second usage data signal indicative of an amount of usage of the at least one article of medical equipment in a second operational mode, the second operational mode being one of the two or more different operational modes; and

communication circuitry for transmitting the first usage data signal and an identification data signal from a patient location remote from a monitoring location to the monitoring location;

receiving the first usage data signal at the monitoring location;
receiving the second usage data signal at the monitoring location;
receiving the identification data signal at the monitoring location;
determining at least one user identification associated with a user of the patient medical support system based at least in part on the identification data signal;
determining a first amount of usage of the at least one article of medical equipment based at least in part on the first usage data signal during a first time period;
determining a second amount of usage of the at least one article of medical equipment during a second time period based at least in part on the second usage data signal;
retrieving at least one base rate, a first unit rate for usage of the at least one article of medical equipment in the first operational mode, and a second unit rate for usage of the at least one article of medical equipment in the second operational mode from a database in a data storage system; and
determining a monetary value of the usage of the at least one article of medical equipment based at least in part on the first amount of usage and at least in part on the second amount of usage of the at least one article of medical equipment by multiplying the first amount of usage and the first unit rate to obtain a first value, multiplying the second amount of usage and the second unit rate to obtain a second value, and summing the at least one base rate the first value and the second value.

2. The method of claim 1 , including associating the first amount of usage of the at least one article of medical equipment with the patient based at least in part on the user identification.

3. The method of claim 1 , including
dissociating information identifying the patient from the determined first amount of usage of the at least one article of medical equipment; and
combining the determined first amount of usage of the at least one article of medical equipment with amount of usage values determined from a plurality of other patients.

4. The method of claim 1 , including
receiving a telepresence system usage data signal indicative of an amount usage of a telepresence system at the patient location.

5. The method of claim 4 , including determining the amount of usage of the telepresence system based at least in part on the telepresence system usage data signal.

6. The method of claim 5 , including
dissociating information identifying the patient from the determined amount of usage of the telepresence system; and
combining the determined amount of usage of the telepresence system with amount of usage values determined from a plurality of other patients.

7. The method of claim 4 , including determining a monetary value of the usage of the telepresence system based at least in part on the amount of usage of the telepresence system.

8. The method of claim 7 , including at least one of billing a payor for the monetary value of the usage of telepresence system and storing the monetary value of the usage of the telepresence system in a data storage location in association with information identifying the patient.

9. The method of claim 7 , including determining the monetary value of the usage of the telepresence system based at least in part on an operational mode of the telepresence system.

10. The method of claim 9 , including receiving a telepresence system operational mode data sign at monitoring location, wherein the telepresence system operational mode data signal is indicative of one of a user-initiated operational mode or a medical care provider-initiated operational mode of the telepresence system.

11. The method of claim 4 , wherein the telepresence system usage data signal is indicative of at least one of a duration of usage, a start of usage, an end of usage, and a number of usage events of the telepresence system.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identification data signal contains at least one of a user identification of a user of the patient medical support system and a device identification of at least a portion of the patient medical support system.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identification data signal contains a device identification of at least a portion of the patient medical support system, wherein the device identification is associated with a user identification of a user of the patient medical system in a database, and wherein determining the at least one user identification includes retrieving the user identification associated with the device identification.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first usage data signal is indicative of at least one of a duration of usage, a start of usage, an end of usage, and a number of usage events of the at least one article of medical equipment in the first operational mode.

15. The method of claim 1 , comprising at least one of billing a payor for the monetary value of the usage of at least one article of medical equipment during a first time period and storing the monetary value of the usage of the at least one article of medical equipment in a data storage location in association with information identifying the patient.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second time period is different than the first time period.

17. A method of monitoring usage of a patient medical support system including an article of medical equipment and a telepresence system, comprising:
receiving a medical equipment operational mode data signal at a first monitoring location from the patient medical support system located remote from the first monitoring location at a patient location, the medical equipment operational mode data signal indicative of a medical equipment operational mode of at least two operational modes of the article of medical equipment;
receiving a medical equipment usage data signal at the first monitoring location from the patient medical support system, the medical equipment usage data signal indicative of usage of the article of medical equipment in the medical equipment operational mode;
receiving a first telepresence system operational mode data signal at the first monitoring location from the patient medical support system, the first telepresence system operational mode data signal indicative of a first telepresence system operational mode of at least two operational modes of the telepresence system;
receiving a first telepresence system usage data signal at the first monitoring location from the patient medical support system, the first telepresence sys

Assignees

• Elwha Llc

Inventors

• Hyde Roderick A
• Kare Jordin T
• Sweeney Elizabeth A
• Wood Jr Lowell L

Classifications

• A61M2205/3553

  remote, e.g. between patient's home and doctor's office · CPC title

• G01D4/02

  Details · CPC title

• A61B5/7445

  Display arrangements, e.g. multiple display units · CPC title

• Y02B90/245

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• A61B5/0022

  Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet · CPC title