Background
This invention offers a GSM based mHea!th solution that is integrated to the heart of a GSM network and makes use of GSM capabilities, protocols, and features to offer non-internet based and cost efficient m health solution which is suitable for low/medium-income countries, besides internet based solution that will be suitable for areas covered by 2.5G, and 3G networks.
Algorithms are described by which a programmable mobile phone or smart phones, can be used to run a mobile application program in order to communicate with medical device to collect medical measurements and send it. using GSM Mobile Application Protocol (MAP) to a central mHeaith platform that stores these measurements to patients repository or connect to mHeaith telecom gateway and mHeaith Service Delivery Framework for other health care services.
The telemedicine service in the invention includes a set. of services that, helps in remote patient monitoring. It encompasses; Preventative Services, Diagnosis, Acute Care, Chronic Care, and Rehabilitations. The service will be used also for Pre/Post Surgery, Radiology, and Dermatology. It is composed of the following services; Diabetes, Heart Rate and Electrocardiography (ECG), Pressure, Ultrasonic, and Online Monitoring.
It will offer online measurements monitoring using GSM Mobile Application Protocol (MAP) that is free for mobile users, high capacity and available on all mobile hand set types, is not internet based and doesn't need 3G coverage as well, telemedicine includes statistics functionality, records bookkeeping, and alerts to doctors or patients' guardians. Nevertheless, the services will enable customers to locate doctors and pharmacies, transmit scans/medical test results to doctors, and also receive medical information and health tips.
The mobile phone can also be used to establish a video conference call with mHeaith telecom gateway to issue a call to a doctor for medical consultation (virtual doctor visit). The virtual doctor visit fees will be deducted from patient mobile phone account, online by accessing mobile operator's prepaid system through a charging interface (Diameter) for patient mobile account balance deduction. Video Consultation is real-time video consultation between the doctor and patient; in other words, a virtual doctor visit. This can be specially done for pediatricians, Ob-Gynecologists, Psychologists and nutritionists.
Mobile phone can be used to issue a reservation request by accessing a medical provider reservation system via internet. This service facilitates the reservation procedures for patients. The patient books the doctor's appointment through his mobile, The reservation can be applied for; private clinics, hospitals, and medical laboratories.
Mobile phone can be used to get medical lab results as patients receive medical test results by entering the usemame and password, patients can access their results from the mobile phone and/or PC, Furthermore, doctors can easily access patients' accounts in order to view results and track patients1 histories.
Mobile phone can be used to get a diet program from a doctor; it helps patients reach their diet, weight loss and fitness goals by tracking daily calories and exercise. Furthermore, patients wireiessiy follow up with their nutritionists by receiving the weekly/monthly diet programs and tracking ail food intakes through the mobile service. The service also includes food tips, motivation messages., and reports on the patients' progress in order to reach/maintain the ideal weight. "Diet Management" facilitates the diet process for users, saves their time and effort,
The invention offers a solution to most of the gaps and barriers for offering m Health services in !ow-/medium-irtcome countries; it offers services based on non-internet protocols (Mobile Application Protocol) which cost much less than accessing the mHeaith service via internet connection from a mobile (UMTS, EDGE or GPRS),
The same GSM protocol (Mobile Application Protocol) can be used to locate a patient or doctor using GSM locating functionality.
The invention as it is based on integrating the solution into GSM networks; it offers a lot of services that capitalize on GSM business support features, it offers subscription to mHeaith service via mobile payments functionality and payments for video consultation or other services.
Similar offered solutions are based on internet access which is expensive and considered as barrier to some rural areas. Patients are not willing to use internet based solution for the ambiguity of data volume charging.
Similar solutions are not integrated to the heart of GSM network and use only the offered communication channels like SMS, MMS, and GPRS to transfer health care information although being integrated to the core of a GSM network can offer wide range of capabilities like non-GPS based location, using MAP (Mobile Application Protocol) to collect teiemedicine measurements, offer a community charging for patients and doctors that offer distinctive call tariffs to users belong ings to certain community, use mobiie account balance to charge for the service fees, subscriptions, and more.
The invention uses different IT, software and telecommunication technologies depending on the offered service. It use a programmable mobiie phone (smart phone) to run a mobile application depending on its operating system (Android, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Blackberry, Symbian and .lava Mobile) or access the mHeaith portal via internet to access the service. It uses a medical device that collects health status measurements and sends it via Bluetooth to the running mobile application. It uses a health management service delivery platform that run HL7 (Health Level Seven International) engine to collect personal health recordsf Electronic Medical Records, medical/health vital signal measurements that uses patients personal ID as identifier for his/her health records. This central service delivery framework connected to telecom gateways at each GSM mobiie operator to collect all health measurements and to send/receive medical information from patients or doctors.
These telecom gateways offer service charging, location determinations, video consultation where it is integrated to different GSM network nodes that are responsible for such functionalities.
These telecom gateways are integrated to Home Location Register (MLR) via MAP protocol to locate patients or doctors and to collect medical/health vital signal measurements sent from teiemedicine service, and to Mobiie Switching Center (MSG) via ISUP and/or SIP to offer video consultation service, and to Signal Transfer Point (STP) via CAMEL or INAP protocol to get call control functionality and offer community based charging for patients and doctors, and to Charging System or Intelligent Networks (IN) via DIAMETER protocol to access patients or doctor mobile balance for service charging, and to Short Message Service Center (SMSC)via SMPP protocol to send SMSs for reminders, health information or medical results to patients or doctors, and to Multimedia Service Center (MMSC) via MM7 protocol to send MMSs to patients or doctors.
Summary of the Invention
It is therefore, an object to the present invention to support remote patient monitoring. Additionally, facilitate providing virtual doctors' visits, decrease time consumed in reserving for doctors/medicai labs appointments, facilitate implementing the diet process, locating health providers effortlessly, and create personal health records for patients on mobile phones/web page.
It is an object for the present invention to provide a national level mobile health care service as illustrated in Fig I that is internet and non-internet based using mobile handled communication devices and telecom gateways integrated to each GSM network and these telecom gateways integrated to a mHeaifh centra! service delivery' framework that offer a central server for all mHea!th services and is a repository for all health information like health vital signal measurements, Personal Health Records, Electronic Medical Records, and others.
It is an object to this invention to be accessible through different mobile platforms ( 100) (Android, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Blackberry, Symbian and .lava Mobile) or access the mHeaith portal via internet (GPRS).
It is an object, to the invention to use Mobile Application Protocol (MAP) for transmitting teiemedicine data to mHeaith central service deiivery piatform like illustrated in Fig. 8 which is free for a mobile user and non-internet based thus does not need 3G coverage for it.
It is another object to the invention to use standard health information system using HL7, use state of the art common architecture for interoperability and scale like illustrated in Fig. 7.
It is another object to provide location based GPS/GPRS and GSM servicelike illustrated in Fig, 9 as GPS alone is not effective in bad weather or indoor and using GSM location feature via Mobiie Application Protocol (MAP) will offer alternative way to GPS.
It is another object to offer a charging way to mHeaith services using patient mobile account for payments. Charging is used for service subscription or service fees like video consultation.
It is another object to offer a community based charging where ail calls within doctors and/or patients communities will be under different tariffs plans.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Figure I illustrates the use of GSM Networks for Enhanced National Level mHeaith Solution
Figure 2 illustrates the main user interface that, is accessible on the startup of the application
Figure 3 a flow chart illustrates the Teiemedicine service
Figure 4 a flow chart illustrates the Video Consultation service
Figure 5 a flow chart illustrates the Diet Management service
Figure 6 a flow chart, illustrates the Reservation service Figure 7 mHeaith Service Delivery Framework Software Components
Figure 8 Teiemedicine measurements sent, via Mobile Application Protocol Figure 9 Locating patient and/or doctor via GSM Mobile Application Protocol
Detailed Description of the Invention
This invention offers a GSM based mHeaith solution like illustrated in Fig. l that is integrated to the heart of a GSM network and make use of GSM capabilities, protocols, and features to offer non-internet based and cost efficient rn health solution which is suitable for low medium income countries, this beside internet based solution that will be suitable for areas covered by 2.5Gf and 3G networks.
Algorithm are described by which a programmable mobile phone or smart phones, can be used to run a mobile application program like illustrated in Fig 2 in order communicate with medical device to collect medical measurements and send it using GSM Mobile Application Protocol (MAP) to a central mHeaith platform that store these measurements to patients repository or connect to mHeaith telecom gateway and mHeaith Service Delivery Framework for other health care services.
The teiemedicine (201) service in the invention includes a set of services that helps in remote patient monitoring. It encompasses; Preventative Services, Diagnosis, Acute Care, Chronic Care, and Rehabilitations. The service will be used also for Pre/Post Surgery, Radiology, and Dermatology, it is composed of the following services; Diabetes, Heart Rate and Electrocardiography (ECG), Pressure, Ultrasonic, Stethoscope, and Online Monitoring.
It will offer online measurements monitoring using GSM Mobile Application Protocol (MAP) that is free for mobile users, high capacity and available on all mobile hand set types and doesn't need 3G coverage neither is internet based, teiemedicine includes statistics functionality, records bookkeeping, and alerts to doctors or patients' guardians. Nevertheless, the services will enable customers to locate doctors and pharmacies, transmit scans/medical test results to doctors, and also receive medical information and health tips. mHeaith teiemedicine service will provide Remote medical data monitoring, Record patient medical data for a configurable period, Statistics and report; issuing for patients and doctors. Open standard medical data exchange protocol (ISO/IEEE 11073-20601), With and without internet based solution for sending medical data, using GPRS, SMS and USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) for medical data transmission to mHeaith platform, Multichannel access will be offered using mobile platform and web portal, Mobile application adapting with different platforms (Android, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Blackberry, Symbian and Java Mobile), Modular architecture to easily add more teiemedicine applications, Alarm management to send alarms -if needed- to doctors, or patient's guardian, Calendar/reminder management to handle medication, appointments, vaccination, Locating patient/doctor via GPS/GPRS or GSM, Service subscription and renewai through IVR/SMS/USSD/GPRS, Payments through mobile accounts (mPayment).
The mobile phone can be used also to establish a video conference (202) call with mHeaith telecom gateway to issue a call to a doctor for medical consultation (Virtual doctor visit). The virtual doctor visit fees will be deducted from patient mobile phone account online by accessing mobile operator's prepaid system through a charging interface (Diameter) for patient mobile account balance deduction. Video Consultation is real-time video consultation between the doctor and patient; in other words, a virtual doctor visit. This can be speciaiiy done for pediatricians, Ob-Gynecoiogists, Psychologists and nutritionists.
mHealtb video consulting service will provide use of GSM/IMS networks video network capabilities, ISUP/SIP/H323/H324 protocol capabilities for video call management, Accessing patient's PHR (Personal Health Records) during the consultation, Locating doctors/patients, Oniine service charging, Calendar for doctors and patients for appointment management, and update patient PHR.
Mobile phone can be used to issue a reservation request (203) by accessing a medical provider reservation system via internet. This service facilitates the reservation procedures for patients. The patient books the doctor's appointment through his mobile. The reservation can be applied for; private clinics, hospitals, and medical laboratories.
Mobile phone can be used to get medical lab results, Patients receive medical test results by entering the username and password, patient can access his results from the mobile phone and/or PC. Furthermore, doctors can easily access patients' accounts in order to view results and track patients' histories.
mHealth Medical Lab service will send medicai test results to patients (SMS/MMS), Update patient PHR, Patient medicai tests' bookkeeping, Alerts for abnormal medical values.
Mobile phone can be used to get a diet program (205) from a doctor; it helps patients reach their diet, weight loss and fitness goals by tracking daily calories and exercise. Furthermore, patients wireiessiy follow up with their nutritionists by receiving the weekly/monthly diet programs and tracking all food intakes through the mobile service. The service also includes food tips, motivation messages, and reports on the patients' progress in order to reach/maintain the ideal weight, "Diet Management" facilitates the diet process for users, saves their time and effort.
mHealth diet management service will send personal diet plan remotely via SMS, MMS or can be accessed through internet (via GPRS), Send diet program updates back to doctor, Keep patient progress history.
The invention offers a solution to most of gaps and barriers that were obstacles for offering mHeaith services in low medium income countries where it offers services based on non-internet protocols (Mobile Application Protocol) which cost more less than accessing the mHealth service via internet connection from a mobiie (UMTS, EDGE or GPRS).
The same GSM protocol (Mobiie Application Protocol) can be used to locate a patient or doctor using GSM locating functionality like in Fig. 9.
The invention as it is based on integrating the soiution into GSM networks; it offers a lot of services that capitalize on GSM business support, features, it offers subscription to mHealth service via mobiie payments functionality for video consuitation or other service.
Similar offered solutions are based on internet access which consider as barriers to some rural areas, and expensive. Patients are not willing to use internet based soiution for the ambiguity of data volume charging.
Also similar solutions are not integrated to the heart of GSM network and use only the offered communication channels like SMS, MMS, and GPRS to transfer heaith care information although being integrated to the core of a GSM network can offer wide range of capabilities like non-GPS based location, using MAP (Mobile Application Protocol) to coiiect teiemedicine measurements, offer a community charging for patients and doctors that offer distinctive call tariffs to users belongs to certain community, use mobile account balance to charge for the service fees and subscriptions and more.
The invention uses different IT, software and telecommunication technologies depending on the offered service, it use a programmable mobile phone (smart phone), ( 100) to run a mobile application depending on its operating system (Android, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Blackberry, Symbian and Java Mobile) or access the mHealtb portal via internet to access the service. It uses a medical device (715,716) that collects health status measurements and sends it via Bluetooth to the running mobile application. It uses a health management service delivery platform (mHea!th Service Delivery Platform) like illustrated in Fig, 7 that run HL7 (Heaith Level Seven International) engine to coiiect personal heaith records, Electronic Medical Records, medical/health vital signal measurements uses patients personal ID as identifier for his/her health records. This central service delivery framework connected to telecom gateways at each GSM mobile operator to coiiect ail health measurements and to send/receive medical information from patients or doctors (701 ,702,703).
mHealtb Service Delivery Framework (SDF) built according to state-of- the -art software design, and according to principles of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Service Delivery Framework is an environment that can host and run different m Health applications based on Web 2,0 technology (704). All mHeaith applications are running under the control of Service Execution Environment (705) which bandies the communication between the different applications, the message queues of each application, priority management of each application and more. The uses of SOA principles reduce integration costs and help achieve higher interoperability by providing Service Execution Environment with capability to run multiple mHealtb applications simultaneously, Quicker and easier system integration, Plug and Play of new component/Applications, High redundancy and availability, Open API for third party applications, Using of standard protocols for interoperability reason, Prioritization of messages coming from different applications, Buffering : Ever/ application has a queue structure that can hold more than one message, Congestion control (buffer utilization monitoring).
These telecom gateways offer (104) service charging, location determinations, video consultation where it is integrated to different GSM network nodes that are responsible of such functionalities.
These telecom gateways are integrated to Home Location Register (HLR), (105) via MAP protocol to locate patients or doctors and to coiiect medical/health vital signal measurements sent from telemedicine service, and to Mobile Switching Center (MSG) , (103) via ISUP and/or SIP to offer video consultation service, and to Signal Transfer Point (STP), (106) via CAMEL or INAP protocol to get call control functionality and offer community based charging for patients and doctors, and to Charging System or intelligent Networks (IN), (107) via DIAMETER protocol to access patients or doctor mobile balance for service charging, and to Short Message Service Center (SMSC), (108) via SMPP protocol to send SMSs for reminders, heaith information or medical results to patients or doctors, and to Multimedia Service Center (MMSC), (109) via MM7 protocol to send MMSs to patients or doctors. Examples
The invention can be further illustrated by the following examples; however, these examples are included merely for the sake of "illustration" and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention .
Example 1
mHealtb Services Usage
To illustrate the nature of the processes that represent this invention, Fig. 2 illustrates its main user interface that is accessible to the user on the startup of the application. This main interface presents the user with several function boxes that comprise the services of this invention. Each of the services; Teiemedicine, Video Consultation, Reservation (Online Booking), Medical Lab Results, and Diet Management, represent a separate set of algorithms that comprises the process of this invention. Selecting any of the core functions opens a set of associated menus and wizards that facilitate implementation of the selected function (service). As an example, choosing the "Teiemedicine" component initiates a software wizard that facilitates the user in selecting among the different services (Diabetes, Heart Rate and EGG, Pressure, Ultrasonic, and Online monitoring) that s/he need to use for remote monitoring.
Example 2
Selecting a "Teiemedicine" Service in case a diabetic patient want to use the "Diabetes" service; first, s/he should use the Glucose Meter to measure his blood sugar levels. Then, by selecting "Teiemedicine" from the main user interface, numerous options (Diabetes, Heart Rate and ECG, Pressure, Ultrasonic, and Online
monitoring) will appear to the user- as shown in Fig. 3. Afterwards, by choosing "Diabetes", the service will automatically turn on the--Bluetooth" in order to receive the measurements already grabbed by the patient's glucose meter. These measurements will be automatically sent to the doctor's web page and/or mobile phone in order to monitor the patients' sugar levels. The patient will find a function box named "Food Log", by selecting the "Food Log" the patient will be able to enter the amount of calories s/he should take during the day. Consequently, whenever the patient eats s/he will enter the amount, and type of food, thus the service will demonstrate the remaining calories s/he is permitted to fake throughout the rest of the day.
Example 3
Consulting a Doctor through Video Call
When a patient needs to consult a doctor through the "Video Consultation" service, the patient will select "Video Consultation" from the main menu. Then s/he will find 2 icons "Video Consultation" and "Stethoscope" as shown in Fig. 4. If the patient just needs to make a conversation with a doctor (his/her case does not require a medical device), s/he should select'-Video Consultation", Afterwards, the patient will find a "Search" box in which the patient will enter the doctor's name. The service will automatically generate a video call with the selected doctor. And the patient will be charged accordingly through the tariff system. Example 4
Controlling Health through "Diet Management"
Another example Tor the mHealth services introduced in this invention is "Diet Management", This service facilitates the diet process for users, through tracking aii food intakes. As illustrated in Fig. 5, the user first receives the diet program by his/her nutritionist through SMS. Accordingly, the patient will record his/her weight and food intakes. These measures will be automatically transmitted to the nutritionist in order to determine the new diet program suitable for the patient. Consequently the patient can see "reports" on his/her progress in order to reach/maintain the ideal weight. Moreover, the patient will find "food tips" and "motivation messages" in the service.
Example 5
Booking a Doctor's Appointment
As illustrated by Fig. 6, booking a doctor's appointment by the
"Reservation" service can easily be done through few steps. Simply, the patient selects the service from the main user interface. Consequently, finds several medical provider categories, and selects one. Afterwards, chooses the desired medical provider, automatically gets connected to its reservation schedule. The patient freely chooses the appropriate date and time. Finally, the data gets transferred to the server.
Example 6
Accessing PHR and EMR
Patient's Electronic Medical Records and Personal Health Records (EMR & PHR) are easily accessed through the service. The potential of the service that it a Hows the user to view aii his/her medical cases, visits, data and measurements through the mobile phone and/or PC, Also, if a doctor needs to check the patient's history, through the Personal Computer and/or mobile phone s/he enters the patient's personal ID and easily finds the patient's PHR. PHR and EMR also include data generated from the mHealth services to help doctors in early diagnosing and treating illness.
Conclusion
To sum up, employing the principles and processes comprised in this invention across the national level, will successfully empower users/patients to efficiently control and monitor their health in an extremely timeless, cost effective and easy way. As this invention facilitates dealing with several matters concerning patients/users through the mobile phone; starting from booking a doctor's appointment, generating video consultation, remote diagnostic till setting medication reminders, archiving medical & personal health records and more.
The foregoing description of preferred embodiments of the invention provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the invention to the precise form disclosed. Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention.