Patent ID: 8095381

Claim:
A patient care network comprising: a patient data generating source that generates on-line medical information about a patient; a central server for coordinating patient data; at least one family member/friend access device by which at least one of a family member user and a friend user of the patient accesses the medical information about the patient via the central server; a patient device by which the patient accesses the medical information; a user authentication device that: authenticates a family member or friend user as an authorized user before granting access to the medical information to the family member or friend user, after authorizing a family member or friend user, determines one of a plurality of authorization levels, the determined level dictates to which medical information the family member or friend user is granted access, the authorization level for each authorized family member or friend user being set by the patient, the plurality of authorization levels including at least three different authorization levels, and determines a presentation profile that describes a family member or friend user selected format for displaying the medical information to which the authorized family member or friend user has access, wherein the central server communicates the medical information to which the authorized family member or friend user is granted access to one of the family member/friend access devices for display in the authorized family member or friend user selected format.