Claims:We Claim:
1. A kiosk system for dispensing prescription drugs, comprising:
a. one or more inputs for receiving one or more pieces of health information from diagnostic devices and user input devices;
b. a real-time communication system configured to communicate with a health care professional remote to a user, the health care professional being able to issue prescriptions, the real-time communication system comprising a camera, a microphone, a speaker, and a video screen for real-time communication between the user and the health care professional; and
c. a drug dispenser configured to dispense a drug upon verification of a prescription from the health care professional for the drug
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the drug dispenser further comprises a supply of widely prescribed drugs.
3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a payment system configured to receive a payment from the user.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the prescription from the health care professional is stored in a personal health record associated with the user.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the real-time communication system is further configured to display the one or more pieces of health information to the health care professional and to receive prescriptions written by the health care professional.
6. The system of claim 5, wherein the one or more pieces of health information are enough to enable the health care professional to diagnose a medical condition of the user that corresponds to the prescription.
, Description:Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to community based managed health kiosks and prescription drug dispensing systems, and more particularly to facilitating automated drug dispensement by a kiosk system following authorization by a remotely located health care professional monitoring a patient via the kiosk system.
Background of the Invention
Health care screening devices in hospitals, physician's offices, businesses, and the like, in combination with the growing number of home diagnostic kits that are available have increased the efficiencies in health care delivery. Large drug store operators have increasingly encouraged individual testing by making available in-store diagnostic testing devices. For example, customers waiting to fill a prescription are often encouraged to check their blood pressure while they wait with a blood pressure measurement/screening device, and pharmacists who fill high-blood pressure prescriptions to customers often encourage their customers to regularly check their blood pressure. Such customers often use blood pressure measurement/screening devices that are provided in the drug store. To increase attention to the importance of health care screening, many medical and health product retailers offer medical tests and screening for consumers visiting their stores. Most commonly, the retailers check cholesterol levels and blood pressure, although other tests are available. In addition to supplying a valuable customer service, in-store testing effectively educates consumers about various health problems that can be better managed by a regimen that includes monitoring. Typically, consumers are unaware of the technological advances that have made health care screenings feasible in the clinical, retail, and home settings. Pharmacies and drug retailers have generally found that the availability of screening test devices in the stores increase traffic and cultivate customer loyalty. The offer of in-store testing commonly is highly popular among customers and greatly boosts the number of people visiting the store. In-store testing is valuable for positioning stores as health and wellness centres as well as retailers of health care products. In-store testing increases sales since a consumer who learns of a health problem through screening in the store has some likelihood of purchasing a home test kit to monitor the problem. For example, a customer who discovers a problem with high blood pressure through an in-store test is a likely candidate to purchase a home blood pressure testing kit. In-store health care screening expands the pharmacist's role in patient care through education. Test device manufacturers have advanced the design and functionality of products to simplify usage and improve accuracy. The challenge for further improvements in health care screening is to educate consumers about the need for medical tests and demonstrate that many tests are effectively performed by publicly available devices or at home. A present concern is that health screening is performed on an insufficient segment of the population to efficiently prevent or treat ailments. Other concerns are that health screening is too costly, limited in scope, and time-consuming both for individual patients and health care providers. Despite these deficiencies, a strong awareness exists of a need and desire for improved health screening procedures and equipment. Health care providers, insurance companies, and employers that ultimately pay for health care have encouraged development and usage of improved, accurate, yet economic health screening facilities both for treatment and prevention of health care problems.
Object of the Invention
The present object of the invention is to community based managed health system that includes a managed health kiosk system, a security system for the kiosk system, a research database system associated with the kiosk system, a prescription dispensement system for the kiosk system, a kiosk system for solicitation of patients for medical testing and health studies, and a triage based kiosk system.
Summary of the Invention
The systems, and related methods, facilitate measurement, recordation, analysis, and communication of various health-related data belonging to a patient, many individual patients, or a specific group of patients. The system and/or apparatuses are able to measure, record, analyze, and communicate data from non-invasive and invasive testing from a variety of input devices. The herein disclosed invention can be a system, a method, or an apparatus, and involves a combination of computer and medical device hardware, computer and input device software, and physical kiosk hardware. The embodiments, however, will mostly be referred to as managed health systems or kiosk systems throughout this application for ease of reading. The disclosed systems combine two or more input devices with one or more personal computers plus Internet connectivity to create a kiosk that a patient can use to further the patient's understanding and knowledge of his or her own health and to obtain professional health services. The system is able to utilize up to 24 external devices interacting with one or more personal computers and necessary software to measure, record, and/or analyze a patient's blood pressure, weight, heart rate, pulse oximetry, spirometry, resting metabolic rate, glucose, cholesterol, urinalysis, and other conditions. In other embodiments it may even be possible to utilize more than 24 external input devices. Each of these input devices receive pieces of health information from a user and facilitate recordation of the pieces of health information. Each will be explained below.
The herein disclosed managed health system or community-based health information and screening kiosk systems can be equipped with a health risk appraisal platform. Such a platform can be utilized in many related ways. For example, a health risk appraisal platform can be used in a hospital emergency room for triage analysis. In such an application, a triage nurse will interact with the community based managed health system kiosk system and with the patient to determine the relative urgency of the patient's situation and what exactly may be afflicting the patient. In another example application, a community-based health information and screening kiosk system can be located at an employer's offices or plant. In such a situation, employees can easily keep abreast of many of their own health risks and needs without having to take time off work to see an off-site doctor directly. Employers too may take advantage of the on-site kiosk to monitor and analyze aggregate health status data. In yet another example application, a community-based health information and screening kiosk system can be in remote or under-serviced geographic locations to allow patients to receive medical testing, information, and advice without having to travel long distances to see competent health care providers. Finally, aggregate data from one or more networks of community-based health information and screening kiosk systems can be analysed and then utilized to establish or monitor populations or geographic areas with greater disease risks.
The community-based health information and screening kiosk system may be set up in different ways depending on the desired application. For example, at a minimum, different prompts will be displayed to an emergency room triage patient, compared to an employee using a company on-site kiosk to obtain a monthly health evaluation. It may also be that entirely different combinations of medical testing and input devices are appropriate for each of the different community-based health information and screening kiosk system applications. All such input devices and software variations will be explained below. As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, all such permutations are possible and are intended to be covered by this disclosure. If certain embodiments describe certain permutations, it is because such permutations appear to be either a minimum for the desired application, or it is because such permutations appear to be ideal for the desired application. But in every instance, all such permutations are intended to be within the scope of this disclosure. One embodiment of the herein disclosed community-based health information and screening kiosk system includes a health risk appraisal platform. This platform can display to a user a series of computer screens which present a set of health data, including health information and health assessment questions designed to obtain health and lifestyle information from the user to enable the platform to assess health risks.
The health risk appraisal system can be either a platform or a specific software program. It is possible to design the overall community-based health information and screening kiosk system so that an individual user can pick and choose how the appraisal system elicits health, biographical, and lifestyle information from a user. In such a situation, the owner of the overall system (the kiosk) would be able to select questions from a predetermined list or may be able to write his or her own questions. Such an owner may also be able to choose the order in which such questions are presented. Such a platform is fully adjustable, editable, and customizable by a sophisticated owner, allowing unlimited options for the owner to elicit patient/user information. It is also possible to design the disclosed health risk appraisal system as a pre-packaged software program, or as several fully thought-out, pre-packaged software programs.
The appraisal system can utilize either a touch screen or a keyboard and mouse/trackball setup, or even a combination of a touch screen and a keyboard. These devices can be referred to as control devices. With a touch screen built into the system, a user is able to select answers to multiple-choice type questions directly onscreen. With a keyboard and mouse as user-input devices for the system, a user is able to more easily personalize a response. Detailed answers could be typed out as phrases, full sentences, full paragraphs, or even multiple paragraphs. As information will be stored digitally and/or electronically, there is no inherit need to limit space for a user or patient's explanation of health-related information. To reduce the need to sterilize the user touched components of a kiosk system, voice recording, or recognition software could be utilized so a user is able to speak answers to questions. As discussed above, the system can be built pre-programmed with packaged health risk assessment question sets. There are many such health risk assessment tests available in the medical and health community. Many other such pre-packaged health assessment tests are available and can easily be formatted for use in the disclosed health risk assessment system. Aside from highly interactive embodiments of the disclosed health information and assessment system, the disclosed invention may also be utilized by a user or optimized by the owner for specific or known users, as a type of health information encyclopaedia. In this sense, the system may be utilized like a personal computer accessing a specific website. A user is able to navigate a complex combination of health information screens and menus that allow the user to find information on any health-related topic that may be of interest.
Brief Description of Drawings
FIG. 1 illustrates the high-level architecture of a managed health system or community-based health information and screening kiosk system in accordance with the research database embodiment of the present invention.
Detailed Description of Invention
FIG. 1 illustrates a layout of the herein disclosed community-based health information and screening kiosk and research database system. Kiosk and research database system includes a kiosk system that is connected to both the user's PHR and research database over a network, such as the Internet. When a user uploads his or her health data, it is recorded and analyzed at kiosk system, simultaneously incorporated into the user's PHR and incorporated (in a non-personally identifiable way) into research database. Remotely located health care professional would have the ability to access the user's PHR if the user allows such access (dotted line at represents user's ability to control when and how health care professionals can access the user's information). Dotted line represents that research database can be accessed by remote health care professionals, including researchers world-wide, and can be manipulated in various ways. For example, aggregate user data can be filtered by disease, by treatment, by user statistics/demographics (such as user age, gender, etc), etc.
A user's PHR, and the individual data points being stored for research in the aggregated form, are maintained with the user's confidentiality and security in mind. All record storage meets or exceeds privacy standards, including HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), a federal statute governing maintenance of electronic health records.
In addition to security means for securing transmission of data, many physical security means can be used at the kiosk site to provide security. Up to five levels of security can be implemented in the disclosed health information and assessment system. The security measures can include the following identity verification devices: a thumbprint scanner, a signature pad, use of photo identification cards, an access card with a 16-digit magnetic stripe, and a 4-digit PIN (Personal Identification Number) set by the user. These identity verification security devices will be discussed below. The five levels of security can be combined in various ways. For example, a kiosk system could require at least two forms of identification (a matching thumbprint and a PIN number, for example) from a user before the user is able to access a PHR through the kiosk. The five levels of security can of course be combined in other ways and this specification intends to include all such permutations.
As described above, the herein disclosed health information and assessment system has the ability to store aggregated user health information and data for analysis. Such analysis can be contracted out to a third party, or such analysis can be part of the entire system. For example, a company that chooses to locate a health information and assessment kiosk system on its premises can mandate, or suggest, that its employees regularly complete a health assessment questionnaire. Results from all company employees can be analyzed in aggregate form to evaluate the company's employee's overall health and fitness levels, and can be used to spot trends, both positive and negative.
Such an analysis can be done on aggregate data for many purposes. For example, such an analysis may assist a company in comparing the health of its employees from office to office or from one production facility to another production facility. Other exemplary analyses that can be done include assessing health status data according to employee classification and determining frequently occurring diseases or ailments. The disclosed health information and assessment system is able to perform more generalized employee surveys, beyond health assessments. For example, employers who place a health information and assessment kiosk system at their workplace can ask employees to answer questions regarding their job satisfaction and/or to provide suggestions for company improvement. The kiosk system can be useful in this regard for companies whose employees are not regularly interacting with computers and so cannot otherwise easily take automated surveys. As with health assessment questionnaires, employee surveys can be designed by the company itself or can be chosen from many pre-packaged employees surveys available in the field.
If a company's employees do not have regular access to a computer, the health information and assessment kiosk system can also provide Internet access to employees. Essentially, because the kiosk system incorporates at least the major components of a personal computer, the kiosk system can easily accomplish many common personal computing tasks, such as word processing, email, and Internet browsing. A company may find it useful to provide the kiosk system for these personal computing uses if their employees do not otherwise have regular access to a personal computer. It also is possible for the company to limit the available webpages that a user can navigate to while using the kiosk system for Internet-browser activity. A company could, for example, limit Internet browsing to only the company's own website. Or, the company could set up its own custom firewall, or chose a pre-packaged firewall, to limit employees to only browsing those sites pre-approved by the company.