Abstract:
A method and system for sending scheduling and appointment notification text messages to users based on a device number or address. The method and system determines from the device number or address, service provider specific information which is required when sending various types of messages which dramatically reduces the complexity of administering the system. In addition, the system is very flexible in sending messages at specific intervals and to specific devices to notify the user of an upcoming appointment. This flexibility allows the system to be adapted to the users needs.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]    This application is based on Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/404,861, which was filed on Aug. 21, 2002 and priority is hereby claimed thereto. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    This invention relates to electronic messaging systems. More specifically this invention relates to electronic scheduling and appointment messaging systems.  
           [0004]    2. Description of Related Art  
           [0005]    A variety of schemes have been used to provide notification to users of appointments. These systems typically will notify the user of an appointment by e-mail or by synthesized audio messages to a phone or voice mail. The messages may be sent manually or are sometimes sent automatically. One feature of these types of systems is that the user may be unaware that he/she has received an e-mail or voice mail message prior to the scheduled appointment, and consequently may not read or listen to the message. In addition, many of these systems lack flexibility for the administrator to determine which type of message to be sent, and how often and when the message is sent. Another drawback of these prior systems is that they typically do not interoperate with various voice/text messaging services with only a telephone number or other type of user information. Generally, service provider specific information must be provided in order to work with specific voice/text messaging services requiring the administrator to have knowledge of the service provider specific information in order to send messages. Although these references may not constitute prior art, the reader is directed for general background material, to the following United States patent and patent application Numbers, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for the material contained therein: U.S. patent and patent application Nos.: 2003/0130870, 2003/0060979, 2003/0005124, 2002/0049733, 2002/0156672, 2002/0143600, 2002/0116232, 2002/0059082, 2002/0049733, 2002/0035605, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,430,624, 6,345,260, 6,332,157, 6,088,429, 5,872,505, 5,748,907, 5,668,955, 4,769,796.  
         SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
         [0006]    It is desirable to provide a method and system for dynamically sending various appointment reminders using various text messaging mediums such as e-mail, pagers and cellular devices which make use of various service providers using a single telephone number or other data.  
           [0007]    Therefore it is the general object of an embodiment of this invention to provide a method and system for scheduling and transmitting an appointment reminder by getting an item of customer data such as a phone number and determining a specific Local Service Provider or carrier and creating a message that can be sent to the Local Service Provider which in turn is displayed on a messaging device which notifies the customer of a pending appointment.  
           [0008]    It is a further object of an embodiment of this invention to provide a method and system where the messaging device is a telephone, a pager, an e-mail system, a hand held computing device, a personal digital assistant and the like.  
           [0009]    It is a further object of an embodiment of this invention to provide a method and system where the messages that are sent are an email, a text message, a pager message, and the like.  
           [0010]    It is a further object of an embodiment of this invention to provide a method and system where the messages are sent by a rules engine which determines when, how and what types of messages are sent.  
           [0011]    It is a further object of an embodiment of this invention to provide a method and system where the messages are sent during specific time periods.  
           [0012]    It is a further object of an embodiment of this invention to provide a method and system where the messages are created and sent based on user definable or default templates.  
           [0013]    It is a further object of an embodiment of this invention to provide a method and system where the information for the system is stored in a database.  
           [0014]    It is a further object of an embodiment of this invention to provide a method and system where the system works over a network such as the Internet.  
           [0015]    It is a further object of an embodiment of this invention to provide a method and system where the scheduling of an appointment is done via a Graphical User Interface (GUI) which scheduling automatically generates messages based on configured message templates and scheduling defaults.  
           [0016]    It is a further object of an embodiment of this invention to provide a method and system where customer data can be imported into the system and used to generate and schedule messages which are sent to messaging devices.  
           [0017]    These and other objects of this invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following drawings, detailed description, and claims. In the preferred embodiment of this invention, the system makes use of a novel system and method of identifying a local service provider gateway based on one or more phone and/or a device numbers and providing service provider specific information which allows access to the service provider gateway, thus removing the complexity for the administrator. In addition, the system and method provide flexibility in allowing an administrator to dynamically schedule when messages will be sent and which types of mediums will be used based on customer needs. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0018]    In order to show the manner that the above recited and other advantages and objects of the invention are obtained, a more particular description of the preferred embodiments of this invention, which is illustrated in the appended drawings, is described as follows. The reader should understand that the drawings depict only present preferred and best mode embodiments of the invention, and are not to be considered as limiting in scope. A brief description of the drawings is as follows:  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present preferred appointment messaging system.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 2 is a diagram of the present preferred elements which constitute subscriber data.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of the present preferred process for a subscriber to create an appointment for a patient/customer.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of the present preferred process for gathering customer/patient information.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of the present preferred process for gathering information for messaging devices.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of the present preferred process for gathering information to create an appointment.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of the present preferred process for importing data from the subscribers practice management system.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 8 is a continuation of FIG. 7 which is the present preferred process for importing existing data from the subscribers practice management system.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 9 is a diagram of the present preferred process for defining a message template and modifying it to create a custom text message which is sent to a messaging device. 
     
    
       [0028]    Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiment of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.  
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0029]    [0029]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present preferred appointment messaging system. The subscriber computer  100  is where the user (subscriber) gains access to the system. The subscriber computer  100  can be, but is not limited to, a personal computer, a handheld computing device and the like. The subscriber computer  100  communicates with the interface engine  101 . The interface engine  101  can be, but is not limited to, a web server, an application, an application server, and the like. The interface engine  101  coupled with the subscriber computer  100  presents the user with information which allows the subscriber to use the system. The system has a database for storing system data  102 . System data  102  can include, but is not limited to information pertaining to various wireless and cellular companies or Local Service Providers (LSP) which facilitates the delivery of messages to the Local Service Provider&#39;s customers via protocols such as SMTP, SMPP, SNPP, SMS, and the like. System data  102  also includes template information for generating messages which use templates. Subscriber data  104  in the present embodiment contains data about the subscriber, customers (patients/patrons), messaging devices and the like. Subscriber data contains, but is not limited to, information such as customer names, addresses, appointments, patient ID&#39;s, chart numbers, preferred names, cell phone numbers, pager numbers and the like. The reminder scheduler  103  takes scheduled appointments from the interface engine  101  and calculates when messages need to be sent based on scheduling information which can correspond to specific time and/or time periods when the messages are to be sent. The rules engine  105  takes the information of when a message needs to be sent and determines which device to send the message to, finds the corresponding Local Service Provider data, and creates the message to be sent. The message is passed to the system gateway  106  which sends the message to the Local Service Provider (LSP) gateway  107  which reads the message and sends the message to the messaging device  108 .  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 2 is a diagram of the present preferred elements which constitute subscriber data. Subscriber data  104  contains information about the practice (business) such as the practice&#39;s name, telephone number, fax number, subscriber staff and the like. In addition, subscriber data  104  contains customer data  201  (patient or patron data) such as the patient&#39;s name, address, birth date, patient ID, chart number, preferred name and the like. Within customer data  201  is appointment data  202  which is list of any appointments which has been made for the customer. Customer data  201  also contains the customer&#39;s device data  203  about each messaging device  108  to which messages can be sent.  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of the present preferred process for a subscriber to create an appointment for a patient/customer. The process begins when the initial message settings are configured  300  to customer preferences or the system defaults typically from a graphical user interface which is supplied by a web server (interface engine  101 ) to a browser on the subscriber computer  100 . Customer data  201  is gathered  301  which includes gathering  302  data about the customer&#39;s messaging devices  108 . Appointment data  202  is gathered  303  so new appointments can be created. A number of reminder messages are automatically generated  304  based on the message settings from step  300 , the customer data  201  from step  301 , the device data  203  from step  302 , and the appointment data  202  from step  303 . The message can be sent at specific times leading up to the appointment to notify the customer of a pending appointment on the customer&#39;s messaging device  108 .  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of the present preferred process for gathering customer/patient information. FIG. 4 is a detailed view of step  301  in FIG. 3. The process begins when the subscriber logs  400  into the system via the subscriber&#39;s browser. The process checks  401  to see if the subscriber wants to import data. If so the process goes to step  700  which is the data importing process. Otherwise, if no data is to be imported, the process flows to step  403 . When the subscriber clicks  403  the add new patient icon, the subscriber will enter  404  the customer&#39;s first name. The subscriber enters  405  the customer&#39;s last name and optionally enters  406  a unique identifier such as a chart number, patient ID, social security number, and the like. The data entered in steps  404 ,  405 , and  406  is submitted  407 . The data is checked  408  to see if the first name was filled in. If not, the process waits for the subscriber to complete steps  404 ,  405 , and  406  and resubmit  407  the data. Otherwise, the process checks  409  to see if the last name was filled in. If not, the process waits for the subscriber to complete steps  404 ,  405 , and  406  and resubmit  407  the data. Otherwise the process checks  410  to see if the patient is unique. If not, the process waits for the subscriber to complete steps  404 ,  405 , and  406  and resubmit  407  the data. Otherwise, the process creates  411  a new customer/patient.  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of the present preferred process for gathering information for messaging devices. FIG. 5 is a detailed view of step  302  in FIG. 3. The process begins when the subscriber logs  500  into the system via the subscriber&#39;s browser. The process checks  501  to see if the subscriber wants to import data. If so the process goes to step  700  which is the data importing process. Otherwise, if no data is to be imported, the process flows to step  503 . The subscriber searches  503  for a customer/patient and clicks on the link. The subscriber specifies  504  that a new device should be added. The subscriber chooses  505  the type of device. If in test  506  the device is not a cell phone, the subscriber inputs  507  the e-mail/SMTP address. The process checks  514  to see if the e-mail/SMTP address is valid. If the e-mail/SMTP address is not valid the subscriber must input  507  the e-mail/SMTP address again. Otherwise, the device and the device&#39;s information are saved  513  which complete the process. If in test  506  the device is a cell phone, the subscriber inputs  508  the cell phone number. The process checks  509  to see if the cell phone number is valid by checking for the correct number of digits (which may vary depending on the messaging device  108 ), non-numeric characters, and the like. If not, the subscriber inputs  508  the cell phone number again. Otherwise, the process looks up  510  the Local Service Provider (carrier) for the cell phone number entered in step  508 . If the process is able to find  511  a Local Service Provider, the process appends  512  a domain name of the Local Service Provider to the phone number to make it addressable via SMTP. The device and the device&#39;s information are saved  513  which complete the process. Otherwise, if a Local Service Provider is not found in test  511 , the subscriber inputs  508  the cell phone number again.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of the present preferred process for gathering information to create an appointment. FIG. 6 is a detailed view of step  303  in FIG. 3. The process begins when the subscriber logs  600  into the system via the subscriber&#39;s browser. The process checks  601  to see if the subscriber wants to import data. If so the process goes to step  700  which is the data importing process. Otherwise, if no data is to be imported, the process flows to step  603 . The subscriber searches  603  for a patient/customer and clicks on the link. The subscriber specifies  604  that a reminder should be added. The subscriber chooses  605  a message template. The subscriber selects  606  a date from the calendar. The subscriber selects  607  a time from the drop down menu. The subscriber submits  608  the data collected in steps  605 ,  606 , and  607 . If in test  609  any of the required fields were not selected, the subscriber must select the correct data in steps  605 ,  606 , and  607  before resubmitting  608  the data. Otherwise, the process checks to see if the appointment time is later than the time is now. If the appointment time is not later than now, the subscriber will have to select a correct time from step  607  and resubmit  608  the data. Otherwise, the appointment is saved  611  and the system generates  612  reminders.  
         [0035]    [0035]FIGS. 7 and 8 are flow diagrams of the present preferred process for importing existing data from the subscriber&#39;s practice management system. The subscriber&#39;s practice management system contains customer data  201  that needs to be read into the system. The process begins when the exported file  701  which contains patient/customer schedule data which has been exported from a practice software utility. The exported file  701  contains customer data. The data is read  700  into the system. The data is posted  702  via a secure https socket to the system application. The preferred embodiment uses https, but other protocols can be used. The process reads  703  a scheduled record from the post. The process checks  713  to see if there are any more records. If not, this signifies the end  705  of input and the process shows  706  a success message and exits. Otherwise, the process validates  704  the first name, the last name and the unique identifier. The process checks  707  to see if the patient already exists. If not, the patient is added  708 . The process checks  709  to see if a cell phone, pager, personal digital assistant, e-mail address or the like was provided. If so, the process checks  710  to see if the devices are valid and unique for the patient. If the devices are unique, each device is added  711  and the process goes to step  712  which is FIG. 8 block  800 . If the device is not unique in test  710 , the process goes to step  712  which is FIG. 8 block  800 . If a cell phone or e-mail address was not provided in test  709 , the process also goes to step  712  which is FIG. 8 block  800 . Step  800  flows to test  801  which checks to see if the customer/patient had at least one device. If not, the process goes to step  802  which gets the next record. Step  802  flows to step  703  where the next record is read from the post. Otherwise, if there is at least one device in test  801 , the process checks  803  to see if an appointment is later than the present time. If the appointment is not later than the present time, the process goes to step  802  which gets the next record. Step  802  flows to step  703  where the next record is read from the post. Otherwise, if the date is later than the present time in test  803 , the process checks  804  to see if the appointment is a new appointment. If it is a new appointment, a new appointment is added  805  along with the generation of the appointment&#39;s reminders. The process goes to step  802  which gets the next record. Step  802  flows to step  703  where the next record is read from the post. If the appointment is not a new appointment in test  804 , the process checks  806  to see if the appointment time or date has changed. If so, the appointment time or date is changed  807 , reminders are regenerated  808  and the process goes to step  802  which gets the next record. Step  802  flows to step  703  where the next record is read from the post. If test  806  is no, the process determines whether to delete  809  the appointment. If so, the process removes  810  the appointment. The process goes to step  802  which gets the next record. Step  802  flows to step  703  where the next record is read from the post.  
         [0036]    [0036]FIG. 9 is a diagram of the present preferred process for defining a message template and modifying it to create a custom text message which is sent to a messaging device. The subscriber is presented in a Graphical User Interface  900  a template  907  which contains tokens  905  and non-tokens  908 . The template has tokens  901  such as the first name  905  which is the first name of the customer. The token is stored in a database  903  which has the actual name  904  of the customer. The subscriber modifies the non-token sections  908  of the template  907  and/or the subscriber can add or delete tokens  901 . When the message is generated the tokens  901  are replaced with the data base information  903  to generate the text portion  906  of the message that is sent and displayed on the messaging device  108 .  
         [0037]    In addition, these messaging systems and methods can be implemented using a variety of process, but are not limited to computer hardware, microcode, firmware, software, and the like.  
         [0038]    The methods and system described can be used in a variety of business that schedule appointments with notifications such as dental, medical, law firms, auto repair, and the like.  
         [0039]    The described embodiments of this invention are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not as restrictive. Although specific flow diagrams and templates formats are provided, the invention is not limited thereto. The scope of this invention is, therefore, indicated by the claims rather than the foregoing description. All changes, which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims, are to be embraced within their scope.