Patent ID: 7305348

Claim:
A method of aggregating information from individuals in a population thereof, said method comprising a) coupling a client device to a data collection element for each of a plurality of individuals in the population, said data collection element including a weight scale; b) prompting each individual for health-related information, and collecting the health-related information for each individual at the client device associated with each individual, said health-related information including weight of each individual; c) sending the collected information from said client devices to a server device over a network; d) extracting the collected information from the data collection elements; e) generating statistical information from said collected information sent from a plurality of the client devices; f) distributing the statistical information to the individuals; and g) repeating steps a-d after a period of time has elapsed; wherein said statistical information comprises a first statistical measure for a first subpopulation of individuals within the plurality of individuals and a second statistical measure for a second subpopulation of individuals within the plurality of individuals, said first statistical measure based upon weight of said first subpopulation of individuals and said second statistical measure based upon weight of said second subpopulation of individuals; h) comparing the first statistical measure with the second statistical measure, and distributing a result of the comparison to the first subpopulation of individuals and to the second subpopulation of individuals: and i) awarding a benefit to said first subpopulation or said second subpopulation based on the result of the comparison.