Abstract:
Three solutions for an automatic critical health care service system are proposed. First two solutions include a mobile phone device, a service provider system, a home hospital system and a nearest hospital system. The third solution also includes a RF ID technology based storage means. The mobile phone device comprises location measurement means, storage means, tagging means, wireless ground communication means and wireless satellite communication means; solution 3 includes RF ID reader means. The service provider system comprises storage means, wireless ground communication means, wireless satellite communication means, wired communication means, tagging means and Geographic and Health Data Retrieval Means (in solution 2 and 3 this is Geographic Data Retrieval Means). The home hospital system comprises mobile receiver means and storage means (storage only in solution 1). The nearest hospital system comprises mobile receiver means, email receiver means and fax receiver means (fax only in solution 1).

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     Not Applicable  
       COPYRIGHT STATEMENT  
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       FEDERAL RESEARCH STATEMENT  
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       APPENDIX DATA  
       [0000]     Other References  
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          [1] U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,484 “Method for emergency service access using a mobile phone” 
          [2] U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,666 “Method of and apparatus for individuals to maintain a trail of their well being and whereabouts” 
          [3] http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,48663,00.html (GPS)  
          [4] http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,55738,00.html (RF ID)  
          [5] Performance and reliability of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Master&#39;s Thesis in Information and Communication Technology, Hussain Al-Mousawi, Agder University College, Norway, 2004.  
       
     
       BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
       [0009]     A patient may have critical health condition that does not require hospitalization but may, at short notice, require quick medical attention. Today such a patient can call his/her own hospital/doctor when needed from a wired or wireless phone. The patient would still need to talk to the hospital representative to indicate current location and may need to provide reference to his/her own hospital for medical history and records. One solution is voluntary tracking of patient&#39;s location and/or well being [2]. An alternate solution is to use an emergency service number from a mobile number [1].  
         [0010]     Nokia has provided capability to integrate GPS [4] and RF ID [5] technologies into its mobile phones.  
         [0011]     RF ID technology has been used for transportation, personnel access, animals, industrial and business applications; this technology has also been used for toll collection, access control and a wide variety of applications in commerce [5]. Recently, RF ID technology has been used in e-Plates project [2]: active (battery powered) RF ID tags are embedded in the license plates to identify vehicles in real time. This has enabled reliable identification of any vehicle, anywhere, whether stationary or mobile, and in all weather conditions.  
       SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
       [0012]     Patients may critical conditions like diabetes or low blood sugar that may require, at short notice, quick medical attention. This invention provides three solutions to this problem. In all solutions, the patient dials an emergency number such as 911 [send] from a locked or unlocked mobile phone. The mobile phone compares the entered value (911) with a list of known emergency numbers stored in the memory (e.g., SIM card) of the mobile phone. If the entered number is on the known emergency number list, the mobile phone sends message (e.g., Short Message Service message) to the service provider with the current location of patient. On being intimated, the nearest hospital to patient&#39;s current location would send an ambulance and medical team to the patient.  
         [0013]     In the first solution, the service provider determines the hospital nearest to the patient&#39;s current location. The service provider also automatically retrieves the patient&#39;s critical health records and informs the nearest hospital through a message, fax and/or email. The patient&#39;s home doctor is also informed of the emergency condition.  
         [0014]     In the second solution, the service provider determines the hospital nearest to the patient&#39;s current location and the information is sent back to the patient&#39;s mobile telephone as a message. The mobile phone, automatically, retrieves the patient&#39;s critical health records from its memory and informs the nearest hospital to patient&#39;s current location and the patient&#39;s home doctor through messaging.  
         [0015]     In the third solution, the service provider determines the hospital nearest to the patient&#39;s current location and the information is sent back to the patient&#39;s mobile receiver as a message. The mobile phone, automatically, retrieves the patient&#39;s critical health records from it&#39;s the RF ID tag using the RF ID reader and informs the nearest hospital to patient&#39;s current location and the patient&#39;s home doctor through messaging.  
         [0016]     There are a number of position determination techniques (e.g., Global Positioning System—GPS, Ericsson&#39;s network based Mobile Positioning System) that can be used.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0017]      FIG. 1  illustrates a schematic view of a preferred implementation solution  1  of the system.  
         [0018]      FIG. 2  illustrates a schematic view of a preferred implementation solution  2  of the system.  
         [0019]      FIG. 3  illustrates a schematic view of a preferred implementation solution  1  of the system.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEQUENCES  
       [0020]     Not Applicable  
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0021]     This invention is applicable to various types of mobile phones including but not restricted to ground based (e.g., GSM, 3G) mobile phones, satellite based mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) based mobile phones.  
         [0022]     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there is illustrated solution 1 of a system for providing critical health care service. The system includes a mobile phone device which is represented by the numeral  100 .  
         [0023]     Device  100  comprises a location measurement means  102  that determines the location of device  100  and thereby the Patient  1000 . The location measurement means  102  determines the GPS location of device  100  and thereby the patient  1000  using Wireless Satellite Communication means  106 ; alternatively, the location measurement means  102  can determine the location of device  100  and patient  1000  using Wireless Ground Communication means  104  (e.g., Ericsson&#39;s Mobile Positioning System with GSM or 3G). The signal indicative of the location measurement can be converted to alphanumeric data.  
         [0024]     Device  100  comprises Wireless Satellite Communication Means  106  and/or Wireless Ground Communication Means  104 . Wireless Satellite Communication Means  106  can communicate via satellite to get GPS location and send a message with location data and device  100  identification data using messaging (e.g., SMS). The location data can always be sent via satellite or where ground wireless communication network is not available. Wireless Ground Communication Means  104  can communicate via ground wireless network (e.g., GSM or 3G) to get location data (e.g., using Ericsson&#39;s network based Mobile Positioning System) and send location data and device  100  identification data using messaging (e.g., SMS). Wireless Ground Communication Means  104  will be used to determine location of device  100  and patient  1000  if the wireless network provides this capability.  
         [0025]     Device  100  comprises a means, such as the central processor  108  for tagging the alphanumeric device  100  identification data (e.g., mobile phone device  100  number) with the signal indicative of the location measurement of device  100  and patient  1000 . The mobile phone device identification data and location of patient  1000  could all be alphanumeric in nature. Device  100  identification data and location data is sent immediately to service provider system  200 .  
         [0026]     Device  100  comprises a storage means (this could be the SIM card or some other means) to store the allowed emergency numbers, the service provider system  200  messaging number and the device  100  identification data.  
         [0027]     Service Provider System  200  comprises of Wireless Ground Communication Means  104  and/or Wireless Satellite Communication Means  106  to automatically communicate with devices  100 ,  102  and  304  through messages. The means  104  and  106  are well known in the art. Service Provider System  200  receives location data and mobile phone device identification data from device  100 . Service provider System  200  sends patient critical health data (this includes but is not limited to patient name/location, patient&#39;s home hospital, ambulance request and patient&#39;s critical health record) to device  402  (this mobile phone device is well known in the art). Service provider also sends data (this includes but is not limited to patient name/location, file number and level of criticality) to the patient&#39;s home doctor via device  304  (this mobile phone device is well known in the art).  
         [0028]     Service Provider System  200  comprises a Wired Communication Means  202  to automatically communicate with Storage Means  302  to retrieve patient&#39;s critical health record from the patient&#39;s home hospital system  300  based on mobile phone device  100  identification data. Service Provider System  200  sends a fax and/or email with the patient&#39;s critical health record to the fax receiver means  406  and email receiver means  404  in the hospital nearest  400  to the patient  1000  current location. The Wired Communication means  202  may also be used to retrieve geographic data. The means  202  are well known in the art.  
         [0029]     Service Provider System  200  comprises a central processor  204  for tagging means to tag the message for the patient&#39;s home doctor in the home hospital system  300  with his contact details. The tagging means also tags the critical health record for the nearest hospital system  400  with the contact addresses of mobile receiving means and/or fax receiver means and/or email receiver means of the nearest hospital system in claim  400 .  
         [0030]     Service provider System  200  comprises a Geographic and Health Data Retrieval Means  206 . The geographic data pertains to the fax, email and messaging numbers for the hospital system geographically nearest  400  to the patient  1000  current location (this could be retrieved, for example, from a Geographical Information System—GIS for hospitals in the city of patient&#39;s current location). The geographical data is automatically retrieved. The Geographical and Health Data Retrieval Means is also used by the Service Provider System  200  to retrieve patient  1000  critical health data (this includes but is not limited to patient name, home hospital, home doctor, home doctor contact number, file number, critical medical information, drug allergies, temporary conditions like pregnancy) from storage means  302  in home hospital system  300 .  
         [0031]     Service Provider System  200  also comprises a storage means  208  to store location data of hospital, and contact addresses of mobile receiver means  304 , fax receiver means  406  and email receiver means  404  of nearest hospital system  400 .  
         [0032]     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , there is illustrated solution  2  of a system for providing critical health care service. Here we will describe the differences with  FIG. 1 . The main difference is that the patient  1000  critical health record is stored in the mobile phone device itself.  
         [0033]     Mobile phone device  500  differs from mobile phone device  100  in that it comprises storage means  510  which differs from storage means  110 . Storage means  510  stores the allowed emergency numbers, the service provider  600  messaging number and the mobile phone device  500  identification data as does the storage means  110 . In addition it also stores the critical health record (this includes but is not limited to patient name, home hospital, home doctor, home doctor contact number, file number, critical medical information, drug allergies, temporary conditions like pregnancy) of patient  1000 . An example of such a storage means is a Java or Smart SIM card. The central processor  108  could be the processor on such a Java/Smart SIM card. The mobile phone device  100  comprises a tagging means  508  (this differs from tagging means  108  in  FIG. 1 ) for tagging the alphanumeric mobile phone device  500  identification data with the signal indicative of the location measurement of said mobile phone device and patient  1000 . This tagging means tags the message for the patient&#39;s home doctor in the home hospital system  700  with his contact details. The tagging means also tags the critical health record for the nearest hospital system  800  with the hotline mobile receiver means  402  and/or email receiver means  404  of the nearest hospital system  800 .  
         [0034]     Service Provider System  600  differs from Service Provider System  200  in that Geographic and Health Data Retrieval Means  206  is replaced with Geographic Data Retrieval Means  606 . The latter only retrieves geographic data that is sent to mobile phone device  500  and patient  1000 .  
         [0035]     The Service Provider System  600  comprises a storage means  608  (this differs from storage means  208  in  FIG. 1 ) that stores location data of hospital, and contact addresses of mobile receiver means and email receiver means of nearest hospital system in claim  9 ;  
         [0036]     The Service Provider Systems comprises a tagging means  604  (this differs from tagging means  204  in  FIG. 1 ) to tag identification data of the mobile phone device  500  to the contact address of hotline mobile receiver means  402  and/or email receiver means  404  of the nearest hospital system  800 .  
         [0037]     Furthermore, Mobile Phone Device  500  communicates directly with mobile phone device  402  and email receiver means  404  in the nearest hospital system  800 . There is no fax message sent. The mobile phone device  500  also communicates directly with mobile phone device  304  of the patient&#39;s home doctor in the home hospital system  700 . There is no need to retrieve the patient&#39;s critical health record from the home hospital system  700 .  
         [0038]     Referring now to  FIG. 3 , there is illustrated solution  3  of a system for providing critical health care service. Here we will describe the differences with  FIG. 2 . The main difference is that the patient  1000  critical health record is stored in a RD ID tag  1002  that is located on the patient  1000 .  
         [0039]     Mobile phone device  900  differs from mobile phone device  100  in that it comprises storage means  110  as in mobile phone device  100  in  FIG. 1 . Storage means  110  in  FIG. 3  stores the allowed emergency numbers, the service provider  600  messaging number and the mobile phone device  900  identification data. The critical health record (this includes but is not limited to patient name, home hospital, home doctor, home doctor contact number, file number, critical medical information, drug allergies, temporary conditions like pregnancy) of patient  1000  is stored in the RF ID tag  1002  on patient  1000 . The RF ID reader means  912  automatically reads the critical health record from the RF ID tag  1002  when the appropriate emergency number (e.g., 911) is dialed.  
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