Abstract:
The present invention provides for a system and method for supplying medical products over the Internet. The system facilitates the selection and ordering of medical products by the medical staff while providing a mechanism whereby an administrator or purchasing agent can control the final purchase decision. Medical staff can create custom orders that may be shared in within an organization or reused. Such sharing of orders allows medical staff to create complex customized orders that can be grouped by medical procedure or the like.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of earlier-filed provisional application, serial No. 60/211,809, filed on Jun. 14, 2000, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
     
    
     
       TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0002]    The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for on-line purchasing and more particularly to a system for permitting medical personnel and purchasing agents to cooperatively purchase medical supplies.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    Given the ubiquity of the Internet and the World Wide Web (the Web), businesses have been seeking to leverage the Web for more efficient delivery of goods and services. Thus far, particularly in the business-to-consumer space, the Web has been brought to bear to provide on-line purchases of consumer merchandise, delivery of audio and video content, and so on. In the business-to-business space, many businesses are using the Web for applications from an on-line purchasing system to a just-in-time inventory system.  
           [0004]    Typically, the on-line purchasing systems employed on the Web implement a virtual shopping cart wherein a user purchasing goods adds selected items to the shopping cart. At a point of purchase, the user proceeds to check-out and purchases the selected items previously placed in the virtual shopping cart. Such virtual shopping cart systems typically emulate a brick-and-mortar shopping experience by providing a virtual shopping cart into which a user impulsively places goods displayed on the merchant&#39;s web site.  
           [0005]    Simply emulating a brick-and-mortar shopping experience does not take full advantage of the flexibility offered by the Web. The Web makes it possible to tailor the experience to a particular user based on account information, demographic information, and other information available to the on-line shopping system.  
           [0006]    The medical community has some unique supply acquisition procedures that accommodate particular doctor supply preferences, cost controls, insurance billing, and so on. For example, one doctor may prefer one type of instrument to perform a particular procedure while another doctor may prefer a different type of instrument to perform the same or a similar procedure. However, one the one hand, hospitals desiring to ensure proper billing, and to control inventory and costs may find it undesirable to have doctors making purchases directly. On the other hand, it would be desirable to allow doctors to specify particular purchases.  
           [0007]    The invention addresses the need for an on-line shopping system directed to the purchasers of medical supplies that allows medical personnel and administrators, purchasing agents, and so on to participate in the purchase of medical supplies on-line.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    The present invention provides for a system and method for supplying medical products over the Internet. The system facilitates the selection and ordering of medical products by the medical staff while providing a mechanism whereby an administrator or purchasing agent can control the final purchase decision. Medical staff can create custom orders that may be shared in within an organization or reused. Such sharing of orders allows medical staff to create complex customized orders that can be grouped by medical procedure or the like. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]    The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings exemplary constructions of the invention; however, the invention should not be limited to the specific methods and instrumentalities disclosed. In the drawings:  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 is schematic diagram representing a network computer model in which aspects of the present invention may be incorporated;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates the operation of the invention in an environment such as that depicted in FIG. 1;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 3 is an example of a web page generated after login in accordance with aspects of the invention;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 4 is an example of a web page generated after entering the product catalogue in accordance with aspects of the invention;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 5 is an example of a web page generated after entering the product catalogue and illustrates the tailoring of the shopping experience of the invention;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 6 is an example of a web page generated to show related or substitute products in accordance with aspects of the invention;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 7 is an example of a web page generated in accordance with aspects of the invention that illustrates the current order functionality;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 8 is an example of a web page generated for order management in accordance with aspects of the invention;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 9 is an example of a first portion of web page generated to check order status in accordance with aspects of the invention;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 10 is an example of a first portion of web page generated to check order status in accordance with aspects of the invention; and  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 11 is an example of a web page generated to present order details from the order status page in accordance with aspects of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
     OVERVIEW  
       [0021]    The invention provides an environment to supply medical supplies by way of the Internet. In general, medical organizations have a need to provide medical staff with the ability to order product and supplies in accordance with their own professional judgement and expertise. However, in order to facilitate billing, inventory control, and so on, medical organizations typically need to have an administrator or purchasing agent control the actual approval of purchases. The invention provides a mechanism whereby medical staff can create custom orders that can be reused and shared with other medical staff in the purchase of medical supplies while facilitating purchase approval by an administrator.  
       Exemplary Operating Enveronment  
       [0022]    The following discussion is intended to provide a brief general description of a suitable environment in which the invention may be implemented. The system generally operates over a communications network, which may comprise a LAN, a WAN, an intranet, the Internet, or any combination of such networks. Although it is not a requirement that the invention operate in a particular environment, the invention will be described in the general context of Web standards, such as HTML, hyperlinking, etc.  
         [0023]    In general terms, the Internet is a collection of interconnected public and private networks. The interconnected networks communicate with each other by way of predefined communications protocols, primarily TCP/IP and HTTP. Intranets are private networks that follow Internet communication protocol standards and may even connect to and communicate with the intranet. The interconnected networks all coupled together form a network of global scale.  
         [0024]    A number of server computers are connected to the Internet communications network. The server computers serve information, primarily in the form of HTML or HTML-like pages to client computers. Client computers are capable of selectively connecting to various ones of the server computers to exchange information. Typically, the client computers communicate with a browser that receives the HTML files from a selected server. The server and client computers may also have program modules that include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures and the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.  
       Network Environment  
       [0025]    [0025]FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment in which the present invention may be employed. Of course, actual environments can be arranged in a variety of configurations; however, the environment is shown here provides an illustrative framework for further understanding the type of environment in which the present invention operates. The system may include client computers  20   a  and a server (or servers) computer  20   b . Data storage  70  is coupled to and controlled by server computer  20   b . The client and server computers  20   a ,  20   b  communicate with each other by way of communications network  80 , which, as described above, may be a LAN, a WAN, an intranet, the Internet, etc.  
         [0026]    Client computers  20   a  and server computer  20   b  are connected to the communications network by way of communications interfaces  82 . Communications interfaces  82  can be any one of the well-known communications interfaces such as Ethernet connections, modem connections, DSL connections and so on. Communications interfaces  82  may also be by way of an intermediate communications network such as a LAN, wireless, etc.  
         [0027]    Data storage  70  comprises data base systems that contain information vital to the operation of the system of the present invention. Data storage  70  is shown here as a single data storage but may in fact be a number of separate data bases each maintaining information of interest to the system. As users make requests to server computer  20   b , server computer  20   b  fulfills the request in part by selecting data from data storage  70 .  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 2 illustrates the operation of the system of the present invention in the environment described in connection with FIG. 1. Merchant site  40  maintains access to HTML documents  71 , a customer database  72 , and a product database  73 . The merchant site can be accessed by clients (e.g., client set  30 ) desiring to purchase supplies. Each client set may comprise multiple clients each having a common business connection. For example, a client set may comprise a set of doctors affiliated with a particular hospital as well as a hospital administrator or purchasing agent.  
         [0029]    Some of the clients may desire to make purchases of equipment from the merchant site as indicated by the client  30   a . Accordingly, client  30   a  logs in to merchant site  40  and is identified as affiliated with client  30 . Thereafter, relevant customer information is retrieved from customer database  72  to tailor the shopping experience as described more fully below. As client  30   a  makes requests or browses merchant site  40 , merchant site  40  assembles request information by combining information from customer database  72 , product database  73 , and HTML documents store  71  to produce HTML pages (e.g., page  102 ) that are returned to client  30   a  for display. Client  30   a  may then select supplies for purchase.  
         [0030]    In accordance with an aspect of the invention, client  30   c  (e.g., a purchasing agent), approves the purchase at a later time. Sometime thereafter merchant site  40  will deliver the supplies ordered by clients  30   a ,  30   b , etc. that are confirmed for purchase by client  30   c . FIGS.  3 - 11 , described below, further illustrate the interaction of the clients, e.g.,  30  and the merchant site  40 . In the interest of clarity, the Figures are described in the context of the transactions of FIG. 2.  
       Shopping System  
       [0031]    [0031]FIG. 3 provides an example of a login HTML page display  104  that illustrates aspects of the login procedure of the invention. After logging in, client  30   a  has been identified as client Bart Simpson  305 . Notably, the login page illustrates that the merchant site tracks the customer as a member of both the individual client  30   a  and a member of client set  30 . For example, as indicated by bullet  301 , because clients in client set  30  have ordered more than a given number of a particular item, the cost to all client in client set  30  have been reduced. Moreover, by tracking the ordering patterns of client  30   a , merchant system  40  can determine that client  30   a  may need to order additional items as indicated by bullets  302  and  304 . Moreover, merchant system  40  can confirm that an order placed by client  30   a  had been subsequently confirmed and shipped as indicated by bullet  304 .  
         [0032]    From the login main page, by way of buttons  110 ,  112 ,  114 , and  116  client  30   a  has an option of browsing the product catalog, reviewing current orders, placing orders, and checking the status of orders.  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 4 illustrates the interaction of client and merchant site  40  when client  30  has selected the product button  110 . Here, client  30   a  has entered the product catalogue and selected Endoscopic Surgical Products. Accordingly, merchant site  40  provides a list of products falling into the selected category that are displayed by way of web page  106 . Notably, merchant site  40  has provided the list prices  402  for the product as well as the contract price  404  that are determined based on client  30   a  being a member of client set  30 . Additionally, client  30   a  is provided with a column of add to order buttons  406  whereby client  30   a  can select items to be placed into the current order shopping cart  120 . Notably, current-order shopping cart  120  remains persistent on the product catalogue page. Accordingly, client  30   a  can determine the contents of the shopping cart while shopping without the need to change to a separate page to review the shopping cart contents.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 5 illustrates how the contract price  404  changes for a customer that are members of different client sets. Here, web page  106  is displayed for client Betty Boop  505 . Notice that although the list price  402  numbers are the same as the numbers for Bart Simpson in FIG. 4, the your price  404  has changed. This may be caused by a number of pricing factors such as order volume.  
         [0035]    [0035]FIG. 6 illustrates how merchant site  40  can enhance the shopping experience for purchasers of medical supplies by suggesting alternative and related products. When a particular product is selected such as the Articulating Endoscopic Linear Cutter shown in web page  108 , merchant site  40  can display related products  601  to the ordered product. For example, related products  601  may comprise refills  602 . Additionally, if a particular product is out of stock, related products  601  may display an alternative product that can be substituted in a particular medical procedure.  
         [0036]    After client  30   a  has completed a shopping event, the order is saved for later use by client  30   a  and other clients in the client set, such as purchasing client  30   c . FIG. 7 illustrates the operation of saving the order. Initially, client  30   a  enters the current order page by selecting current order button  112 , which is available from other pages on merchant site  40 . Page  109  is generated by merchant site  40  and displayed by client  30   a . Current order page  109  displays the products in the shopping cart in detail. Client  30   a  can then increase the quantity of particular products  702 , add additional products directly by entering a product code number in box  703 , delete the order, save the order, etc. By depressing the “Initiate Order Processing” button  704  the order is started. By depressing the Save button  705 , the order can be saved in a saved orders folder for later reuse by the same or other clients  30   a.    
         [0037]    [0037]FIG. 8 illustrates the operation of the system after depressing the Save button  705 . The Saved Order Manager is invoked bringing up the saved order manager page  113 . Here, client  30   a  can select the name of the folder in which to save the order. The folder is selected from previously created folders  802 . Alternatively, a new folder can be created by entering the name of the folder in field  803 . Additionally, the order is given a name by entering the order name in field  804 . Notably, the order can be kept private or shared by selecting from drop down box  806 . If shared, then other clients in client set  30  can access the order. The save order and sharing function may be useful for building orders for particular medical procedures. For example, a particular doctor may have a set of supplies that he or she uses to perform an open-heart surgery. By saving the order, the doctor can quickly retrieve the order each time the operation is performed without the need to re-enter or even remember the supplies that are necessary for the operation. Moreover, as the procedure is refined, the saved order can be easily updated. Additionally, sharing the order may be useful for doctors to share their customized procedures with colleagues. For example, FIG. 7 shows in the saved order box  701  a folder for Doctor Brown  701   a . In that folder, Doctor Brown has placed an order Open Heart  701   b . If the order is set to shared by the save order manager, illustrated in FIG. 8, then other doctors and medical professionals can use the same order when order supplies for the same operation.  
         [0038]    FIGS.  9 - 11  illustrate the operation of the order/invoice history. The order invoice history is invoked by depressing button  116 . Thereafter, the Order and Invoice History page  115  is displayed on client  30   a . FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate the top and bottom portions, respectively, of an exemplary page display. Notably, the display includes all relevant orders for client  30   a  regardless of origin. For example, orders that are made by way of telephone, or by way of a facsimile, or by way of the Internet are all listed on the order and invoice history page  115 . Additionally, the order status can be searched by way of search box  901 . By checking order status and dropping down and selecting from drop down box  902 , orders can be selectively searched. For example, selecting “BACKORDERED” from drop down box  902  will cause only backordered orders to be display and so on. Selecting a particular order, e.g., order  903  will bring up the details of the order as described below.  
         [0039]    [0039]FIG. 11 illustrates a typical web order detail page. The page provides the customer account number  1101 , the ship to and bill to address information  1102 , and a list  1103  of products in the order. The list  1103  displays the quantity of a particular product that was ordered  1104  and the portion of that quantity that was shipped  1105 .