Abstract:
Electronic records are formatted according to recipient addresses. When an electronic database record is received by a server or other device, the electronic database record has any formatting, herein termed a legacy format. The electronic database record is destined for delivery to device identified by a recipient address. The recipient address is associated with a software agent that reformats the legacy format into a different format. The electronic database record is thus reformatted according to software agent associated with the recipient address. A reformatted database record is thus sent to the recipient address, and the reformatted database record has the different format.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/805,104 filed May 22, 2007 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,712,031, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/351,801 filed Jan. 27, 2003 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,248,688, with both applications incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. 
    
    
     NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION 
     A portion of the disclosure of this patent document and its figures contain material subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, but the copyright owner otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention generally relates to computer networks and to telephony. More particularly, this invention is directed to methods and systems for more efficient and effective physician practice management of electronic data in a network-based communications system. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     In  Epidemics , Hippocrates wrote “[t]he art of medicine has three factors: the disease, the patient and the physician.” Were he writing today, the Father of Medicine would also likely include “access to healthcare information” as a fourth factor. Why? Because today&#39;s healthcare marketplace is driven by increasing pressure for cost controls, by the increased strength of the consumer voice, by a shift from hospital inpatient care towards primary, ambulatory, and home care, by an emphasis on “case management,” by increased competition, and by the focus on quality that is necessary for better patient care. This relentless drive to improve efficiencies and cut costs makes many traditional procedures inefficient. This relentless drive also presents great opportunities for healthcare professionals, organizations, patients, and others to enter into new types of multi-institution partnerships (e.g., strategic alliances between physicians&#39; offices, hospitals, clinics, labs, diagnostic centers, medical record repositories, insurers, patients, pharmaceutical and surgical suppliers, other vendors, etc.) that utilize many different computing systems and other communications technologies to manage and share electronic healthcare information. One of the biggest barriers facing these multi-institution partnerships is creating and maintaining a network-based system that manages efficient, effective, and secure access to standardized or otherwise compatible electronic healthcare information and communications (e.g., able to be presented over a variety of different software and hardware platforms). 
     Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands or more, of electronic documents, emails, and proprietary information are generated each day and shared among these multi-institution partnerships and non-participants. For example, a physician might order a complex lab test from the local hospital. Instead of waiting for the results to arrive by hand delivery, the physicians&#39; office may get online and request the test results via secure, encrypted email. The hospital&#39;s lab staff either manually attaches the lab result to a return email, or, in more advanced systems, the lab system responds automatically to the request and returns the results to a legacy system accessible by the physician. Another example is when a physician needs to admit a patient to the hospital. Instead of having the staff call the admission office and spend upwards of thirty (30) minutes talking and waiting on hold, the office sends the pre-admission information electronically, including patient record information and pre-admission orders to the hospital via an email attachment or directly to the hospital&#39;s legacy system. As used herein, the term “legacy system” or “legacy systems” includes data processing, storage, management, and information systems, communications devices, and other network components, such as, for example, databases of electronic patient health history, patient insurance information, demographic information, and physical records. Typically, each legacy system is customized in terms of software, hardware, and network configuration for each participant. Typically, each legacy system includes a network of multiple computer systems (e.g., personal computers, personal digital assistants, and other communications devices); however, the legacy system may also be a stand-alone computer system. 
     In the above examples, the shared electronic data may be processed in a variety of ways. For example, the hospital may provide information to the physician by transmitting data over a Local Area Network (LAN) connection into a database on a web server. This healthcare information could then be transmitted to a computer system (e.g., personal computer or “PC”) of the physician office legacy system over a data connection, such as the Internet, Intranet or Extranet, or over a direct connection, such as dial up access, using push technology that automatically broadcasts the data to the physician&#39;s computer system and allows the physician to view the transmitted healthcare data using an appropriate software package, such as a browser, or by using an applet. Thus far, there have not been any network-based systems that facilitate standardized and/or otherwise compatible, secure communications between and among multiple legacy systems and non-legacy systems (e.g., a communications device of a non participant) as well as provide reliable server-based network applications. 
     In addition to the challenges above, most of the participants and non-participants must also comply with a variety of federal, state, local and other rules that protect the privacy and security of healthcare information associated with a patient. For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), signed into law by President Clinton on Aug. 21, 1996 (Pub. L. 104-191, 110 Stat. 1936), covers health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and healthcare providers who conduct certain financial and administrative transactions (e.g., electronic billing and funds transfers) electronically. Providers (e.g., physicians, hospitals, etc.) and health plans are required to give patients a clear written explanation of how a covered entity may use and disclose a patient&#39;s healthcare information. Further, healthcare providers are required to obtain patient consent before sharing information for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. In addition, HIPPA also requires that a provider adopt and implement privacy procedures to ensure the privacy and security of the healthcare information. 
     The above discussion illustrates how the sharing and management of healthcare information (including communications, data, and/or other electronic transmissions) and technology between and among multiple communications devices (of participants and non-participants) is creating a new foundation for a virtual healthcare setting. With this emerging virtual healthcare setting, what are needed are improved network-based healthcare systems and methods that integrate communications infrastructures of each participant to build a secure, integrated, network-based system accessible by participants and non-participants to support different organizational needs and capitalize on emerging trends in the healthcare setting. In addition, the network-based system should provide efficient networked-based healthcare practice management applications that leverage the assets of each legacy system. Accordingly, integrated, network-based healthcare systems and methods are needed that enable sharing, transferring, accessing, and managing standardized or otherwise compatible data and communications with multiple legacy systems. Further, a need exists to improve notification, access, and management of the electronically shared healthcare information and communications without investing millions of dollars in computer equipment, in a networking infrastructure, in maintenance, and in training while also complying with security, authenticity, and/or privacy requirements. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The aforementioned problems and others are reduced by virtual physician office (“VPO”) systems and methods that provide more efficient and effective management of electronic healthcare communications (including audio, video, text, and/or digital data) within a network-based communications systems. The VPO leverages the assets of a telecommunications network, a data network, and/or other communications network of a legacy system associated with each participant in a multi-institutional partnership to facilitate improved access, sharing, notification, security, and/or management of electronic healthcare communications. Some advantages of VPO include increased ability to flexibly manage, bill, and track physician services, faster access to electronic healthcare communications and/or data shared among or between multiple legacy systems, and increased ability to share electronic healthcare data among or between different networks of communications devices. In addition, the VPO utilizes proprietary network-based systems (depending on how a physicians&#39; office and/or a physician&#39;s home accesses the VPO) to reduce or prevent electronic healthcare data and/or communications from entering traffic in a public data network, such as the Internet. If electronic healthcare data and/or communications are routed over a public data network, then the VPO may utilize encryption and/or other secure technologies to protect and keep private the contents of the data and/or communication. 
     An embodiment of this invention describes a method that includes receiving an electronic healthcare communication associated with a physician office legacy system to a network-based communications system, categorizing the electronic healthcare communication, and using a physician practice management application to process the electronic healthcare communication. The network-based communications system enables an exchange of the electronic healthcare communication between the physician office legacy system and one or more networks of communications devices associated with a telecommunications service provider. Typically, the physician practice management application runs on a server associated with the network-based communications system, such as a central office (“CO”) of a public switched telecommunications network (“PSTN”) and/or of a mobile switching center of a mobile switching telecommunications office (“MSTO”). 
     Other embodiments describe methods that include establishing a first data connection between a communications device of a physician office legacy system and a network-based communications system, receiving an electronic healthcare communication from the communications device over the data connection, accessing a physician practice management application, using the physician practice management application to manage the electronic healthcare communication, establishing a second data connection, and communicating the electronic healthcare data via the first data connection and the second data connection. According to an embodiment, the second data connection is established between the network-based communications system and a second legacy system. According to another embodiment, the second data connection is established between the network-based communications system and a non-affiliated (e.g., non-participant of the multi-institutional partnership) communications device. In both embodiments, the second data connection uses a rule-based application dataserver to categorize the electronic healthcare into one or more of the following categories: (1) data associated with an access agent, (2) data associated with a security agent, (3) data associated a messaging/communications agent, (4) data associated with a transactional agent, (5) data associated with a troubleshooting agent, and (6) data associated with an application agent. 
     Still further, this invention describes a system that includes a network of legacy systems, a physician practice management application for managing electronic healthcare communications associated with at least one of (i) a calendar and schedule, (ii) patient information, (iii) charges and fees, (iv) receipts, (v) laboratory testing, (vi) prescriptions, (vii) reports, (viii) office facilities and maintenance, (ix) compliance and inspections, (x) patient triage and medical protocols, (xi) on-call services, (xii) insurance billing and appeals, (xiii) patient billing, and (xiv) back-up storage settings, and a rule-based application dataserver for managing the exchange of electronic healthcare data with the legacy system, the rule-based application dataserver provided by the telecommunications service provider. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The above and other embodiments, objects, uses, advantages, and novel features of this invention are more clearly understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying figures, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic illustrating an overview of an exemplary operating environment of a virtual physician office (VPO) according to an embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing of a VPO Management Module that resides in a computer system according to an embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic showing a detailed schematic of an operating environment for a VPO system according to an embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic showing a detailed schematic of another operative environment for a VPO system according to an embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 5  is a detailed schematic of the VPO vile-based application dataserver residing in the network-based communications system shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 6  is a detailed schematic of a VPO rule-based profile residing in the physician office legacy system shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic showing an exemplary embodiment of communicating an electronic healthcare communication using wired and wireless communications devices associated with the VPO according to an embodiment of this invention; 
         FIG. 8  is a schematic showing another exemplary embodiment of communicating an electronic healthcare communication using wired and wireless communications devices associated with the VPO according to an embodiment of this invention; and 
         FIGS. 9-11  are flowcharts showing a method of providing VPO services according to an embodiment of this invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those of ordinary skill in the art. Moreover, all statements herein reciting embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future (i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure). 
     Thus, for example, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the diagrams, schematics, flowcharts, and the like represent conceptual views or processes illustrating systems and methods embodying this invention. The functions of the various elements shown in the figures may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as hardware capable of executing associated software. Similarly, any switches shown in the figures are conceptual only. Their function may be carried out through the operation of program logic, through dedicated logic, through the interaction of program control and dedicated logic, or even manually, the particular technique being selectable by the entity implementing this invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art further understand that the exemplary hardware, software, processes, methods, and/or operating systems described herein are for illustrative purposes and, thus, are not intended to be limited to any particular named manufacturer. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , a virtual physician office (VPO)  100  typically includes a physician&#39;s or physicians&#39; office  110 , a home office of a physician  120 , other related client, vendor, and service-oriented participants  130  of a multi-institutional partnership (including the physicians&#39; office) and of non-participants  140  that leverage the assets of a network-based communications network. The purpose of the VPO  100  is to efficiently share information over a variety of communications devices, automate business and transactional processes, and enhance market position. In the case of a VPO, participants  110 ,  120 ,  130  and non-participants  140  may include local hospitals, insurance companies, HMOs, affiliated hospitals, clinics, affiliated physicians&#39; offices, medical schools, universities, and strategic partners. Patients, as well as vendors, could also be included, as could service providers, such as clinical laboratories, pharmacy services, temporary agencies, private ambulance services, and subspecialty services. After all, rapid communication and exchange of information between these entities (e.g., participants including the doctor&#39;s office and including non-participants) can make a critical difference in the quality of patient care. In most cases, each participant usually has its own legacy system, including software, hardware, equipment, networks, and/or other information technology assets. For example, a large physicians&#39; office commonly has a local and/or a wide area network that utilizes Ethernet, dedicated private lines, Frame Relay, ISDN, ATM, ADSL, and the like. Further, these legacy systems provide an interface to the communications network  150 , such as, for example, a data network, such as the Internet, Intranet, and/or Extranet, that may be locally or remotely accessed by a participant&#39;s user (e.g., an employee using a computer system within the physician office legacy system). 
     This invention provides an efficient networked-based physician practice management application that leverages the assets of each legacy system. The VPO  100  provides improved access, sharing, notification, routing, security, and/or management of electronic healthcare communications and/or data associated with the physician practice management application. Typically, the electronic healthcare communication and/or data contains fields, files, or other electronic indexing that cross-references multiple agents (e.g., Access Agent, Security Agent, Messaging Agent, Transaction Agent, Troubleshooting Agent, and Application Agent) of a rule-based application dataserver. This indexing as well as other information that may be gathered from the incoming communication signal (e.g., ICLID) and/or interactive information input by the sender of the communication are used to associate the communications and/or data. As discussed in more detail below, the communications network  150  uses a rule-based application dataserver preferably provided by a telecommunications service provider, and also uses an integrated delivery system (IDS) to process exchanged healthcare information into a selected legacy system and/or to present the electronic healthcare communication (including associated data) to a communications device. As used herein, the term “electronic healthcare communication” includes audio, video, text, and/or digital communications including electronic healthcare communications such as email, attached files (e.g., an attached file to the email), and compatible data formats (e.g., a file that has been processed by the rule-based application dataserver and the IDS to format and/or standardize electronic information shared between legacy systems and/or between the network-based communications system and a communications device). The term “electronic healthcare communication” also includes transaction notifications and/or transaction replies generated by the rule-based application dataserver and/or the IDS, and/or other means of communicating electronic information between or among participants and non-participants. Also, as used herein, the term “communications device” includes electronic devices that may be used to communicate audio, video, text, and/or digital communications, such as a personal (PC) computer system, plain old telephone (POTS) phone, a wireless communications device, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a wide area protocol (WAP) phone, a satellite phone, a modem, a pager, a digital music device, a digital recording device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an interactive television, a digital signal processor (DSP), a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, and combinations thereof. Typically, a telecommunications service provider (e.g., local service provider, long distance service provider, wireless service provider) provides telecommunications service to the communications device and, thus, is associated with the communications device. 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing a VPO Management Module  210  residing in a computer system  200 . The VPO Management Module  210  operates within a system memory device. The VPO Management Module  210 , for example, is shown residing in a memory subsystem  212 . The VPO Management Module  210 , however, could also reside in flash memory  214  and/or in a peripheral storage device, such as storage device  240 . The computer system  200  also has one or more central processors  220  executing an operating system. The operating system, as is well known, has a set of instructions that control the internal functions of the computer system  200 . A system bus  222  communicates signals, such as data signals, control signals, and address signals, between the central processors  220  and a system controller  224  (typically called a “Northbridge”). The system controller  224  provides a bridging function between the one or more central processors  220 , a graphics subsystem  226 , the memory subsystem  212 , and a PCI (Peripheral Controller Interface) bus  228 . The PCI bus  228  is controlled by a Peripheral Bus Controller  230 . The Peripheral Bus Controller  230  (typically called a “Southbridge”) is an integrated circuit that serves as an input/output hub for various peripheral ports. These peripheral ports could include, for example, a keyboard port  232 , a mouse port  234 , a serial port  236  and/or a parallel port  238 . Additionally, these peripheral ports would allow the computer system  200  to communicate with a variety of communications devices through ports (such as a SCSI port and/or an Ethernet port, shown as reference numeral  254 ), a Wireless Transceiver port  252  (using the IEEE Wireless standard 802.11, Infrared, the Industrial and Scientific band of the electromagnetic spectrum, or any other portion of that same spectrum), and a Wired Comm Device Port  250  (such as modem V90+ and compact flash slots). The Peripheral Bus Controller  230  could also include an audio subsystem  235 . Additionally, the computer system  200  may interface with a network server  244  operating with a network browser  246 . The network server  244  and the network browser  246  may be stand alone or integrated components. Still further, the computer system  200  may include a power source  260 , such as a rechargeable battery to provide power and allow the computer system  200  to be portable. The power source  260  may additionally or alternatively include an alternating current (AC) power source or power converter. 
     The processor  220  is typically a microprocessor. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., for example, manufactures a full line of microprocessors, such as the ATHLON™ (ATHLON™ is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., One AMD Place, P.O. Box 3453, Sunnyvale, Calif. 94088-3453, 408.732.2400, 800.538.8450, www.amd.com). Sun Microsystems also designs and manufactures microprocessors (Sun Microsystems, Inc., 901 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto Calif. 94303, www.sun.com). The Intel Corporation manufactures microprocessors (Intel Corporation, 2200 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, Calif. 95052-8119, 408.765.8080, www.intel.com). Other manufacturers also offer microprocessors. Such other manufacturers include Motorola, Inc. (1303 East Algonquin Road, P.O. Box A3309 Schaumburg, Ill. 60196, www.Motorola.com), International Business Machines Corp. (New Orchard Road, Armonk, N.Y. 10504, (914) 499-1900, www.ibm.com), and Transmeta Corp. (3940 Freedom Circle, Santa Clara, Calif. 95054, www.transmeta.com). 
     The preferred operating system is the UNIX® operating system (UNIX® is a registered trademark of the Open Source Group, www.opensource.org). Other UNIX-based operating systems, however, are also suitable, such as LINUX® or a RED HAT® LINUX-based system (LINUX® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds, and RED HAT® is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc., Research Triangle Park, N.C., 1-888-733-4281, www.redhat.com). Other operating systems, however, are also suitable. Such other operating systems would include a WINDOWS-based operating system (WINDOWS® is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond Wash. 98052-6399, 425.882.8080, www.Microsoft.com). and Mac® OS (Mac® is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, Calif. 95014, 408.996.1010, www.apple.com). 
     The system memory device (shown as memory subsystem  212 , flash memory  214 , or peripheral storage device  240 ) may also contain one or more application programs. For example, an application program may cooperate with the operating system and with a video display unit (via the serial port  236  and/or the parallel port  238 ) to provide a Graphical User Interface (GUI) display for the VPO Management Module  210 . The GUT typically includes a combination of signals communicated along the keyboard port  232  and the mouse port  234 . The GUI provides a convenient visual and/or audible interface with the user of the computer system  200 . As is apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, the selection and arrangement of the VPO Management Module  210  may be programmed over a variety of alternate mediums, such as, for example, a voice-activated menu prompt. 
     The VPO Management Module  210  allows the physicians&#39; office  110  (and/or physician home  120 ) to manage VPO services, such as: (1) allowing a user (e.g., an authorized staff member associated with the physician office legacy system) to customize rules and user groups associated with each practice management application including the physician practice management application; (2) allowing the user to customize rules and user groups associated with a rule-based engine of the rule-based dataserver; (3) allowing the user to customize presentation, features, and/or management of an incoming electronic healthcare communication (e.g., an email, an attached file, a compatible second data format, a transaction reply, a transaction notification, and/or other electronic communications); and (4) allowing the user to control routing and integration of the electronic healthcare communication within and between the physician office legacy system, other legacy systems, and non-participant communications device. For example, the user may select an Access Agent having a user group list to add, delete, or modify physician office staff information, such as, associated service node addresses, IP addresses, email addresses, and/or other electronic address information of communications devices associated with the physicians&#39; office legacy system (e.g., the phone number of the communications device, such as a doctor&#39;s cell phone number, is input into a communications profile to identify the communications device with the physicians&#39; office legacy system). For example, an address of the user group list may be associated with the electronic healthcare communication and act as a trigger (similar to decoding an ICLID signal for telecommunication special service features offered by telecommunication service providers) to automatically send the electronic healthcare communication to the VPO rule-based application dataserver and to automatically open one or more of the network-based practice management applications with the communication. The VPO Management Module  210  also allows the user to customize features, such as electronic healthcare communication handling options. For example, the VPO Management Module  210  may split a user&#39;s screen into two viewing areas and present the incoming electronic healthcare communication in one portion and present the physician practice management application in the second portion. Further, the VPO Management Module  210  may allow the user to control whether to accept, decline, or postpone integration of a compatible data format into the physician office legacy system (or a legacy system of another participant or a communications device of a non-participant) or might be set to automatically accept, decline, or postpone integration depending on a participant&#39;s address or on an address of the non-participant&#39;s communications device. Still further, the VPO Management Module  210  of the computer system  200  may provide the IP address or the like so that the communications network  150  can communicate the electronic healthcare communication, and, thus integrate telephony events and data network events with the legacy system and/or the non-participant&#39;s communications device. Further, the VPO Management Module  210  may interact and/or otherwise interface with a telecommunications network-based information systems (NBIS) management module that controls access, sharing, notification, security, and/or management of electronic healthcare data exchanged between or among different legacy systems of participants. The NBIS Management Module and related methods and systems are disclosed in applicants&#39; co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/253,500 entitled “Network-Based Healthcare Information Systems,” filed Sep. 24, 2002, and of which the “Brief Summary of the Invention” and “Detailed Description of the Invention” sections are incorporated herein by this reference. Still further, the VPO Management Module  210  may interact and/or otherwise interface with a healthcare Virtual Private Network (VPN) Management Module that controls access, sharing, notification, security, and/or management of electronic healthcare data exchanged between or among different legacy systems and communications devices of non-participants. The VPN Management Module and related methods and systems are disclosed in applicants&#39; co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/353,126 entitled “Healthcare Virtual Private Network Methods and Systems,” filed simultaneously herewith, and of which the “Brief Summary of the Invention” and “Detailed Description of the Invention” sections are incorporated herein by this reference. 
     The VPO Management Module  210  further allows the physicians&#39; office  110  to control access, sharing, notification, routing, security, management, and/or additional processing of electronic healthcare communications within an application (such as practice management application  430  of  FIG. 4 ). Typically, the application is hosted by the communications network  150  via e-center  315 . Thus, the VPO  100  allows the application to be customized to share electronic healthcare communications with a variety of communications devices of the physicians&#39; office legacy system, other legacy systems, and non-participants. In addition, the VPO Management Module  210  may allow the physicians&#39; office (via an authorized user/staff member)  110  to control how the data (i.e., the electronic healthcare communication and/or associated data) is further processed by the application including (1) sending the data to a local storage device (such as database  240  of  FIG. 2 ), or alternatively, to a remote storage device (such as affiliated data center  130  or e-center  315  of  FIG. 3 ), (2) instructions for archiving the data (e.g., data compression, duration of storage, etc.), (3) encrypting the data, (4) copying the data, and (5) associating the data with a VPO rule-based profile (such as VPO rule-based profile  500  of  FIG. 5 ). The VPO Management Module  210  may be downloaded from a telecommunications network, a data network, or provided on a storage media (e.g., diskette, CD-ROM, or installed by the computer system manufacturer) to install on the computer system  200  to enable, disable, and further control a variety of VPO services. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 3-8 , the VPO  300  includes a legacy system associated with the physicians&#39; office  110  and/or physicians&#39; home  120 , at least one legacy system of other participants (e.g., affiliated hospital, affiliated lab, and/or affiliated data center)  130 , at least one communications device (and/or information system) of a non-participant (e.g., insurer and/or payer)  140 , a first central office  310  connected with the physicians&#39; office  110  and/or home  120 , fast packet portal  312 , switched packet portal  314 , an electronic center (“e-center)  315 , a data network  320 , and a second central office  330  connected with other participants  130 . Communications devices of the legacy systems (e.g., legacy systems of participants  110 ,  120 ,  130 ) and of the non-participants are not shown in  FIG. 3 ; however, specific exemplary communications devices are shown in  FIGS. 7-8  and include computer  200 , personal digital assistant (PDA)  702 , wireless phone  704 , modem  706 , interactive pager  708 , global positioning system (GPS)  710 , MP3  712 , digital signal processor  714 , and interactive television  716 . Each physicians&#39; office legacy system typically includes at least one computer system  200  and may have the VPO Management Module  210  (including the IP address or other communications address associated with the physicians&#39; office connection to a telecommunications network, data network connection, and/or communications network) residing within the computer system  200 . Turning now to  FIG. 4 , the first central office  310  connected with the physicians&#39; office legacy system and the second central office  330  of the other participants may include a service switching point (SSP) (not shown), a service control point (SCP) (not shown), an Intranet (not shown), and a VPO Rule-Based Application Dataserver  420 . Switch  415  allows the connected physicians&#39; office legacy system  110 , home  120 , other participants&#39; legacy systems  130 , and communications devices of non-participants to communicate electronic healthcare communications  410  via the communications network  150 . Similarly, each switch  415  allows a connected communications device to communicate electronic healthcare communications  410  via the communications network facility  150 . In a preferred embodiment, the communications network facility is a telecommunications network facility. The telecommunications network facility may include the central office (CO) ( 310 ,  330  of  FIG. 3 ) a mobile telephone switching office (MTSO) (not shown), and/or a combination CO/MTSO. Further, the communications network facility  150  may use any means of coupling switches  415  to the facility  440 , but the coupling means is preferably high-capacity, high-bandwidth optical transport services, Gigabit Ethernet services, and/or the like for digital electronic healthcare communications, such as fast packet portal  312 . Other coupling means includes switch network portal  314  typically used for voice and data transmissions. As those of ordinary skill in the art of communications understand, the telecommunications network facility could also link switches  415  of the legacy system (or the communications device of the non-participant) via other appropriate means, such as, for example a Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) structure with redundant, multiple rings. In addition, the telecommunications network facility, legacy systems, communications network, and communications devices may be connected by similar slower lines, such as copper conductors, digital subscriber lines, and the like. 
     Typically, a user (e.g., staff member of physicians&#39; office) uses computer system  200  to gain access to the communications network  150 . For example, if the user wishes to use one or more of the applications  430  and/or send, receive, or access voice, video, and/or data (e.g., read and respond to e-mail, order test results, view video-clips including static images, listen to recorded information, engage in an interactive-diagnosis session, etc.), then the computer system  200  connects with the communications network  150  via switch  415 . Alternatively, the computer system  200  may have a dedicated line and directly connect with the communications network. Communications signals associated with the electronic healthcare communication  410  arrive at the communications network  150  and are associated (either by input from the user or by the dataserver) with the physicians&#39; office legacy system  110 . The VPO  400  may include wired, optical, and/or wireless elements and may further include private network elements, such as private branch exchanges (PBXs), and/or other elements (not shown). The communications network  150  includes Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) componentry controlling many features of the network. The communications network  150  and/or switches  415  could also include a packet-based “soft switch” that uses software control to provide voice, video, and/or data services by dynamically changing its connection data rates and protocols types. If the communications network  150  or switches  415  should include a softswitch, the AIN componentry is replaced by an application server that interfaces with the softswitch via a packet protocol, such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The signaling between the computer system  200 , the legacy systems  110 ,  120 ,  130 , the communications device of non-participants  140 , the switches  415 , the communications network  150  including AIN componentry, data network  320 , central offices  310 ,  320  and the e-center  315 , however, are well understood in by those of ordinary skill the art and will not be further described. Further, those of ordinary skill in the art will be able to apply the principles of this invention to their own information and computing systems including their network configurations which may differ substantially from the system shown in the figures. 
     The VPO Rule-Based Application DataServer  420  allows the physicians&#39; office to activate, de-activate, administer, and/or otherwise manage e-center  315  services including data storage and backup, network-based applications  430 , integrated delivery systems  440 , and hosting services. In an embodiment, the VPO Rule-Based Application DataServer  420  has the ability to communicate with various networks, including internal and external telecommunications and/or data networks using appropriate protocols, such as standard transmission control protocol and Internet protocol (TCP/IP). The VPO Management Module  210  may be downloaded from an internet service provider (e.g., America On Line (AOL)), the VPO Rule-Based Application DataServer  420 , the central offices  310  and  330 , and the data network  320 . The VPO Management Module may also be provided on a storage media (e.g., diskette, CD-ROM, and/or DVD) or installed by the computer system manufacturer. However the VPO Management Module  210  is obtained, the VPO Management Module  210  is delivered to the physicians&#39; office  110  and installed on the computer system  200  to enable, disable, and further control a variety of the VPO Management Services. Additionally, the non-participant  140  is typically provided an applet and/or a web browser interface for communicating the electronic healthcare communication over the VPO. The applet and/or web-browser operates over the non-participant&#39;s communication device to allow the non-participant to control a limited set of commands for VPO Management Services including verification and authentication requirements. 
     As illustrated by  FIG. 4 , the flow of the electronic healthcare communication  410  may involve the physicians&#39; office  110  using computer system  200  to create the electronic healthcare communication  410  with or without an attached file and/or associated data. The physicians&#39; office  110  may create the electronic healthcare communication  410  using a variety of software applications including electronic messaging, word processing, and others (e.g., MICROSOFT OUTLOOK® and MICROSOFT WORD®, both registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond Wash. 98052-6399, 425.882.8080, www.Microsoft.com). In an embodiment, the electronic healthcare communication  410  is created by connecting to and accessing the communications network  150  and using the network-based practice management software application  430  (typically provided by a participant application service provider (ASP)). In a preferred embodiment, the network-based application  430  is a physician practice management application providing management of at least one of the following for the physicians&#39; office: (1) a calendar and schedule of physicians and staff including work schedules, appointments, meetings, facilities used for appointments and meetings, and other related information, (2) patient information including medical records and releases, contact information, insurer information, and scheduled appointments, (3) charges and fees for billing insurers and other payers (e.g., patient, employer, guardian, etc.), (4) receipts for services provided by the physician office and products purchased by the physician office, (5) laboratory testing including laboratory contact information, work schedule, requirements for lab specimens, fees and charges, and other information, (6) prescriptions including a drug information, pharmacy contact information, new research for drugs on the market and drugs not yet on the market, and other related information, (7) reports, (8) office facilities and maintenance including facility administration such as loans for equipment, rental information, cleaning services, and other information, (9) compliance and inspections for federal, state, and local regulations governing the physician practice, (10) patient triage and medical protocols, (11) on-call services including schedules of physicians and staff responsible for handling call, contact numbers, and contact information for hospitals that will admit patients (including hospitalists to admit the patient, if necessary), (12) insurance appeals for processing insurance claims that are returned, (13) billing and financial management services including patient billing, payroll, building rent, equipment rental, and other accounting, and (14) back-up storage settings for redundant storage of the information in items (1)-(13). A stand alone, exemplary physician practice management application that provides a portion of some of these management features is HEALTHBILLRX offered by HealthCentrics, One Northside 75, Suite 120, Atlanta, Ga. 30318, 404.609.5070, www.healthcentrics.com). The electronic healthcare communication  410  may be created using an applet, a web browser, and/or the VPO Management Module  210  residing on computer system  200  to interact and input information (including the electronic healthcare communication and/or related data) with the application  430 . Further, the application  430  may include and/or interface with the IDS  440 . After the electronic healthcare communication is received by the communications network  150 , the VPO Rule-Based DataServer  420  determines whether external data sources (e.g., affiliated data center  130 , a database of affiliated hospital  130 , etc.) need to be queried for related electronic healthcare data or for retrieving a file that is linked rather than attached to the electronic healthcare communication  410 , and, if so, retrieves the related data. Next, the communications network  150  interprets the electronic healthcare communication  410  including any attached files, related healthcare data, and/or the linked files using network elements including the VPO Rule-Based Application DataServer  420 . Thereafter, the VPO Rule-Based Application DataServer  420  routes the electronic healthcare communication (e.g., the attached file, related healthcare data, and/or the linked object)  410  to the IDS  440  so that the electronic healthcare communication  410  may be interpreted for compatible exchange with a participant&#39;s legacy system  110 ,  120 ,  130  and/or a communications device of a non-participant  140 . The IDS  440  may be a stand alone system (not shown in the figures), the IDS  440  may be integrated into the communications network  150  (as shown in  FIG. 4 ), the IDS  440  may be integrated with one of the participant&#39;s legacy systems (not shown in the figures) that is accessed by the communications network  150  or data network  320 , or the IDS  440  may be a combination of these systems (not shown). No matter how the IDS  440  is deployed, the electronic healthcare communication  410  and/or data is received, processed so that the electronic healthcare communication  410  and/or data are compatible for the receiving legacy system  110 ,  120 ,  130  and/or communications device of the non-participant, and associated with a transaction reply (e.g., a communication to the communications device of a party receiving the electronic healthcare communication  410  including information about the attached file or the compatible data format) or with a transaction notification (e.g., a communication to the communications device of a sending party (e.g., party originating, creating, forwarding, or otherwise sending the communication) about the electronic healthcare communication  410  including information about the attached file or the compatible data format). Thereafter, the transaction reply and/or the transaction notification are routed through the communications network  150  and forwarded to the receiving legacy system or to the non-participant&#39;s communications device (not shown). The VPO Management Module  210  (or, alternatively, the practice management application  430  via an interface with the VPO Management Module  210 ) presents the electronic healthcare communication  410  so that the receiving physicians&#39; office  110  of the computer system  200  has immediate access, notification, and management of the electronic healthcare communication  410  including the compatible data format and updated data in a receiving legacy system  110 ,  120 ,  130  and/or communications device of a non-participant  140 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 5 , the physicians&#39; office  110  interacts with the VPO Management Module  210  to access and login to the VPO Rule-Based Application DataServer  420  and to establish a VPO Rule-Based Profile  500 . The VPO Rule-Based Application DataServer  420  stores one or more VPO Rule-Based Profiles  500  that include data and applications associated with an Access Agent  511 , a Security Agent  512 , a Messaging/Communications Agent  513 , a Transaction Agent  514 , a Troubleshooting Agent  515 , and an Application Agent  516 . For example, the Access Agent  511 , Security Agent  512 , Messaging/Communications Agent  313 , Transaction Agent  514 , Troubleshooting Agent  515 , and Application Agent  516  may contain a variety of fields and/or files associated with at least one of the following: login information associated with a user (including participants  110 ,  120 ,  130 , non-participants  130 , and/or authorized users), password of the user, telephone number or Service Node of the user (this may include a plurality of addresses that are associated with a Service Node or other switch, such as, for example, switch  415  serving the legacy systems  110 ,  120 ,  130 ), TCP/IP address of the user, profile of the computer system  200  or other communications device associated with the incoming electronic healthcare communication (e.g., presentation formats for various communications devices), a time or date identifier (e.g., day of week or calendar date), other information associated with the electronic healthcare communications signal, size and content of electronic healthcare communication (including types of files that are transmitted as an attached file), transaction reply(s), transaction notification(s), display of a GUI (e.g., color, font, placement of VPO Management Module  210  on screen, etc.), associations with network-based applications, VPO Management Service defaults (e.g., whether the IDS automatically re-formats the attached file to a compatible data format and updates the legacy system with the compatible data format), and other selections related to VPO Management Services, such as electronic healthcare communication features, electronic healthcare communication routing, and troubleshooting problems or error messages. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates an embodiment of establishing a physicians&#39; office legacy VPO Rule-Based Profile  600  to interact with the VPO Rule-Based Profile  500  of the communications network  210 . The VPO Management Module  210  of computer system  200  is used to establish, store, and manage the legacy VPO Rule-Based Profile  600  for legacy system  110  (i.e., the hospital&#39;s legacy system). The legacy system  110  stores one or more of the VPO Rule-Based Profiles  600  that include data and applications similar to VPO Rule-Based Profile  500 . The legacy VPO Rule-Based Profiles  600 , however, provide increased security by allowing the physicians&#39; office  110  to internally control electronic healthcare data and/or communications, utilize existing databases to add, delete, or otherwise change electronic healthcare data and/or communications, control how the physicians&#39; office legacy system  110  (or home legacy system  120 ) interacts with the practice management application  430  and/or IDS  440 , and control routing instructions within its legacy system  110 . 
       FIGS. 7-8  are schematics showing a variety of wired and wireless communications devices communicating the electronic healthcare communication  410  through the communications network  150  according to alternate embodiments of this invention. The means of coupling the computer system  200  or other communications devices (shown as reference numerals  702 - 718 ) to switch  415  includes optical transmission of electronic healthcare data, wireless transmission of electronic healthcare data, and/or fixed-wire transmission of electronic healthcare data (e.g., via a local loop of a telecommunications network to communicate electronic healthcare data). Fiber optic technologies, spectrum multiplexing (such as Dense Wave Division Multiplexing), Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet services, and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), and copper conductors are just some examples of the coupling means. 
       FIG. 7  illustrates a VPO  700  similar to the VPO  300  of  FIG. 3 . VPO  700 , however, illustrates specific communications devices that may be used by the participant  130  (or, alternatively physicians&#39; office  110  and/or home  120  although not shown) and/or the non-participant  140 . VPO  700  includes alternate communications devices that include a personal digital assistant (PDA)  702 , a mobile phone  704  (e.g., cellular, satellite, Internet Protocol), a modem  706 , an interactive pager  708 , a global positioning system (GPS) transceiver  710 , an MP3 player  712 , a digital signal processor (DSP)  714 , and an interactive television  716 . These alternate communications devices communicate via an antenna  720  communicating with an MTSO  730  that communicates the electronic healthcare communication  410  to the switch  415 . Whether the communications devices or the computer system  200  is used, switch  415  routes the electronic healthcare communication  410  to the communications network  150 . In addition,  FIG. 7  illustrates that the computer system of the physicians&#39; office legacy system  110  includes a variety of communications devices including computer system  200  and wireless communications device, such as PDA  702  (as well as other wireless communications devices, such as reference numerals  704 - 716 ). Regardless of the communications device used to send the electronic healthcare communication  410 , the electronic healthcare communication  410  may need to be formatted accordingly for the receiving communications device (including audio, text (e.g., ASCII), video, other digital formats, and combination thereof). Thus, the VPO Rule-Based Application DataServer  420  has the intelligence to associate the presentation capabilities of the alternate communications device (associated with participants and non-participants). 
       FIG. 8  illustrates a VPO  800  similar to the VPO  700  disclosed in  FIG. 7 . This VPO  800 , however, includes a communications device gateway  810  connected with a data network  820  and a communications server  830  so that the electronic healthcare communication  410  communicated to/from switch  415  may be appropriately formatted for presentation on alternate communications devices (such as those shown and described with reference numerals  702 - 716 ). For example, if the alternate communications device uses the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) technique, then the electronic healthcare communication (including transaction replies and/or notifications)  410  is communicated to the communications (“Comm”) server  830 . The electronic healthcare communications server  830  formats the electronic healthcare communication  410  into one or more Wireless Mark-up Language (WML) messages that are communicated over the data network  820  to the communications device gateway  810 . The communications device gateway  810  then interfaces with the MTSO  730 , and the MTSO  730  then wirelessly communicates the electronic healthcare communication  410  to the communications devices. The Wireless Mark-up Language (WML) and the WAP technique are known and will not be further described. This is a description of a solution for a specific wireless protocol, such as WAP. This solution may be clearly extended to other wireless protocol, such as i-mode, VoiceXML (Voice eXtensible Markup Language), and other signaling means. 
       FIGS. 9-11  are flowcharts showing a process of providing the virtual physician office (VPO) services according to an embodiment of this invention. While the process in  FIGS. 9-11  is shown in series, these processes may occur in different orders and/or at simultaneous times as one of ordinary skill in the art will understand. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 9 , a network-based communications system receives an electronic healthcare communication (“e-health comm”) associated with a physician office legacy system (block  900 ). The network-based communications system categorizes the electronic healthcare communication using a rule-based application dataserver to categorize and associate rule based agents, fields, and/or files (block  910 ). Accordingly, the dataserver may associate the electronic healthcare communication with an access agent (block  920 ), a security agent (block  930 ), a messaging agent (block  940 ), a transactional agent (block  950 ), a troubleshooting agent (block  960 ), and an application agent ( 970 ) (e.g., a practice management agent for providing physician office management services). Thereafter, the access agent authenticates the user (block  925 ). The security agent ensures security requirements associated with the physician office legacy system, home system, other legacy systems, and communications devices of non-participants (block  935 ). The messaging agent may interface with a contact center, such as for example, the dynamic contact center disclosed in applicants&#39; co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/335,113 entitled “Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) Complete Customer Contact Center,” filed Dec. 31, 2002 (block  945 ). The troubleshooting agent provides online help and support as well as contact (via electronic correspondence, voice, and/or video) with customer relations and technical support staff (not shown). The application agent accesses and uses the physician management application to manage at least one of the following: (i) a calendar and schedule, (ii) patient information, (iii) charges and fees, (iv) receipts, (v) laboratory testing, (vi) prescriptions, (vii) reports, (viii) office facilities and maintenance, (ix) compliance and inspections, (x) patient triage and medical protocols, (xi) on-call services, (xii) insurance appeals, (xiii) patient billing, and (xiv) back-up storage settings (block  975 ). 
     The flowchart continues with  FIG. 10 . The method determines whether an integrated delivery system (IDS) is a component of the network-based communications system. If “no,” then the network-based communications system routes the electronic healthcare communication to the IDS of a legacy system (block  1010 ) and the IDS processes the electronic healthcare communication (block  1020 ). If the IDS is a component of the network-based communications system, then the network based communications system processes the electronic healthcare communication (block  1030 ). Thereafter, a rule-based engine associated with the dataserver determines whether to activate a transaction reply and/or transaction notification (block  1040 ). If “no,” then the electronic healthcare communication is processed according to the rule-based engine (block  1050 ). However, if the transaction reply and/or notification is activated (block  1040 ), then the method continues with  FIG. 11 . The network-based communications system receives the transaction reply and/or notification (block  1100 ). The IDS then processes the electronic healthcare data to a compatible data format for the receiving communication (e.g., computer system  200  of physicians&#39; office legacy system  110 ) (block  1110 ). Thereafter, the network-based communications system may further process the compatible data format by sorting, encrypting, managing, and/or associating other related data (block  1120 ). Next, the transaction replay and/or notification is routed to an associated computer system and/or communications device (block  1130 ). Finally, the computer system and/or communications device presents the transaction reply and/or notification (block  1140 ). 
     While several exemplary implementations of embodiments of this invention are described herein, various modifications and alternate embodiments will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Accordingly, this invention is intended to include those other variations, modifications, and alternate embodiments that adhere to the spirit and scope of this invention.