Description Title of Invention: Improved devices and method for safe remote healthcare delivery through telemedicine Technical Field Technical Field

[1] The invention relates to the remote healthcare through a combination of technology in the form of specific capabilities on devices and corresponding methods that ensures safe remote healthcare delivery. Background Art Background Art

[2] Remote healthcare delivery using new advances in telecommunications, semiconductors, and sensor electronics has improved healthcare service availability in remote and difficult to operate environments. It turns out to be the cheapest, as well as the fastest way to bridge the rural-urban health divide by reducing patient's trips to hospitals, minimizing both safety risks and costs in time, money, and patient comfort. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem

[3] However, remote healthcare delivery still remains a complex problem, especially in the rural context because of the unavailability of connectivity, infrastructure and skill- set. The problem of limited skill-set manifests in many ways such as not being able to offer various services that require these skills, and leaving the consumers of the healthcare service vulnerable to potential misuse of the system by the unskilled or semi-skilled personnel, without having a reliable mechanism to ensure safety. Hence, there is a huge need to have safe remote healthcare delivery through technology.

[4] There are many devices and softwares available in order to provide solutions for remote healthcare delivery but still there is a great potential of misuse. For example if a glucometer is placed in the rural area with a semi-skilled nurse, there is a possibility of this nurse turning into a quack, thereby endangering the credibility of whole system. For delivery of medicines, there is also a legal issue as dispensing medicine is considered as an important step in ensuring drug accessibility, affordability, safety and rational use at the point of care. Hence in the existing pharmacies, it is a requirement to have a qualified pharmacist at the location or some other safe guard to ensure safe dispense of the medicine. Similarly there is a huge potential of misuse (reuse) of needles for drawing blood for tests, if the diagnostic equipment are placed at the rural center leading to infection of life threatening diseases such as AIDS. Today the awareness creation and trust are the only tools to ensure that above issues are handled

appropriately. Technical Solution

[5] The present invention targets safe healthcare delivery and relates to a combination of technology in the form of specific intelligence on devices and corresponding usage methods that can effectively address the need for safe healthcare delivery at the point of care.

[6] Object of the invention is to ensure safe remote healthcare delivery by means of intelligent devices and the corresponding methods.

[7] The present invention comprises of various components that collectively improve safety of health care delivery at remote locations to a great extent. Such components are in the form of specific enhancements (in software or hardware form) to existing devices, where the results of the tests (either audio/visually or in any print form) are available to the operator or the patient only upon authentication (real-time basis or store-and-forward basis, or even stand-alone basis) from one or more entities on the healthcare network. The main components of the present invention are:

1. Intelligent Devices: These are the devices such as Medicine Dispensing Device or Sample Disposal Device specifically enhanced in their interfaces, such that they are linked to the healthcare network in the functionality they perform. This linkage could be in terms of informing the network of its usage in progress, obtaining authentication from the network for the said usage and/ or said user, and in some cases even making the usage results available only through the network upon valid access. D

2. Usage Aware Healthcare Network: This is a network of multiple entities and their interconnecting devices and methods; that interact with the intelligent devices for obtaining information on the usage, take decision on whether the usage is valid or invalid, and allow or disallow such usage, optionally raising the necessary alerts and alarms, also optionally disabling the intelligent devices from present and future use. This decision taken by the healthcare network could be with the help of entities like Doctors, or methods coded into the system. The network may make a decision about the valid/invalid usage based upon various present and past inputs that it has. D

Summary

[8] Remote healthcare delivery has improved healthcare service availability in remote or difficult to operate environments but it has several disadvantages such as unavailability of connectivity, infrastructure and skill-set etc. There is great need and demand to have a system that can ensure safe remote healthcare delivery through technology and improve overall functioning of the remote healthcare delivery system.

[9] The invention mainly comprises of the components that collectively improve safety of health care delivery at remote locations. The main components of the present invention are:

1. Intelligent Devices: Devices linked to the healthcare network, capable of interacting and being controlled by the network in their usage based on authentication of the user or the use. D

2. Usage Aware Healthcare Network: A network of multiple entities and methods, which is aware of the devices and their valid usage. This is also capable of controlling the usage of the device, rendering it safe. Such a network may take inputs from one or more devices and one or more entities for making necessary decisions. D

[10] Following are a few examples of such devices:

1. A Glucometer device which is network controlled: This device allows the reading to be performed only when the healthcare network allows it to, and registers its usage. Also, the readout is stored directly in the patient record, and displayed locally only when there is a doctor available at the other end. D

2. Medicine Dispenser device which is network controlled: This device enables dispensing medicines to the patient in the prescribed quantities only upon authentication by an entity in the telemedicine network. D

3. Sample Disposal Device: In order to get the diagnostic test report, the system requires the tools used to extract sample (s) and containers used to store the samples for diagnostic tests so that such tools and container (s) are not reused. D

Advantageous Effects [11] The above mentioned devices when used in combination effectively address the problem of safe healthcare delivery which has tremendous requirement and utility for remote and rural areas.

Description of Drawings

[12] Figure 1: A typical setup for remote healthcare delivery

[13] Figure 2: Flow chart to depict the system of authentication of patient identification & valid usage, and disposal of consumable/sample

[14] Figure 3: Flow chart to depict operation of safe medicine dispenser device

[15] Figure 4: Flow chart to depict a combination of devices required at the patient end for telemedicine consultation.

Best Mode [16] The invention mainly comprises of the components that collectively act to improve safety of health care delivery at remote locations to a great extent. Such components

are in the form of specific enhancements (in software or hardware form) to existing devices, where the results of the tests (either audio/visually or in any print form) are available to the operator or the patient only with authentication (real-time basis or store-and-forward basis, or even stand-alone basis) from the one or more entities on the healthcare network. The main components of the present invention are:

1. Intelligent Devices: These are the devices specifically enhanced in their interfaces, such that they are linked to the healthcare network in the functionality they perform. This linkage could be in terms of informing the network of its usage in progress, obtaining authentication from the network for the said usage and/or said user, and in some cases even making the usage results available only through the network upon valid access. D

2. Usage Aware Healthcare Network: This is a network of multiple entities and their interconnecting devices and methods; that interact with the intelligent devices for obtaining information on the usage, take decision on whether the usage is valid or invalid, and allow or disallow such usage, optionally raising the necessary alerts and alarms, also optionally disabling the intelligent devices from present and future use. This decision taken by the healthcare network could be with the help of entities like Doctors, or methods coded into the system. The network may make a decision about the valid/invalid usage based upon various present and past inputs that it has. D

[17] Shown below are the examples of such intelligent Devices and interaction with

Usage Aware Healthcare Network:

1. Glucometer device which is network controlled: This device allows the reading to be performed only when the healthcare network allows it to, and registers its usage. Also, the readout is stored directly in the patient record, and displayed locally only when there is a doctor available at the other end. D

2. Medicine Dispenser device which is network controlled: This device enables dispensing medicines to the patient in the prescribed quantities only upon authentication by an entity in the telemedicine network. The prescription is picked up from the network, and is authorized by an entity qualified to do so, or a method based on various inputs. Similarly, mobile or portable tokens based on mobile platforms maybe used for obtaining medicines. The device is intelligent to allow authenticated access, maintain necessary inventory usage information, and raise necessary alarms, requests to the pharmacy entity in the network to handle various conditions. D

3. Sample Disposal Device: In order to get the diagnostic test report, the system requires the tools used to extract sample (s) and containers used to store the samples for diagnostic tests so that such tools and containers not reused.

Reuse of the syringe needle is very common in developing countries and have been found on one of the main causes of spread of the diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis. The system ensures that the same needle is not reused. The message that 'the reading is not completed' is constantly displayed through the sample duration till the needle is surrendered. The system is further enhanced by putting a timeout alarm. The invention is not limited to the needle but can be applicable to any other part of the system wherein re-use of items is potentially dangerous. D [18] Figure 1 illustrates Patient End (101), Doctor End (103) and Pharmacy (104) connected to each other over the Network (102). The Pharmacy (104) is present in the same premises as the Patient End (101). This arrangement enables the connection between doctor and patient via Network.

[19] Figure 2 provides a pictorial representation of Diagnostic Test Device (s) (203),

Token Input Device (s) (201), Authentication Device (s) (202), Test Result Display Device (s) (204) and Consumable/Sample Disposal Device (s) (205) connected to each other.

[20] In order to ensure safely in the remote telemedicine, it is extremely important to have identity of the patient authenticated so that prescribed medicine is provided to the patient depending upon his/her test reports. Authentication Device (202) takes input from the operator at the patient end to make sure that there is no unauthorized usage of the diagnostic device. This authentication is in the form of a username and password, or some biometric sensors or any other device that uniquely identifies the operator or it could be in the form of bar codes, Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, optical identifiers, smart cards, biometric identification techniques, or any such similar technologies.

[21] The Diagnostic Test Device (203) used to conduct the tests prescribed by Doctor

(103) during a telemedicine consultation takes inputs from Token Device (201) in order to:

1. Verify the patient for whom the tests are being conducted. D

2. In some cases, does not display the result directly to the patient / operator, but takes to the medical record and to the doctor D

3. The payment for the test may also be collected at the time authentication. D [22] The Diagnostic Device (203) used to diagnose the disease has a mechanism to collect the samples such as blood, urine, sputum etc required to be tested. The sample is processed and the result of the test is displayed on the Test Result Display Device (204). This could be same as the Video Display Device (405) or a separate display device meant specifically for the display of test results. Consumable/Sample Disposal Device (205) is another key component to make sure that the device is safe to use. It

destroys the test sample collected from the patient as well as the tools used to collect the sample. For example, if a needle has been used to collect the blood sample, it is destroyed and not allowed to be used for collecting sample from another patient. This system overall ensures the patient identification and safe disposal of the samples as well as tools.

[23] Figure 3 shows how the Medicine Dispenser Device (303) takes the input from the

Token device (301) and the Authentication Device (302) to make sure that the medicine is delivered to the right patient on the basis of result of the diagnostic tests. The Medicine Dispenser Device (303) then dispenses the medicine to the patient as prescribed by the Doctor (103). The stock of the medicine is updated on the Inventory Manager (304) and generates alerts for the operator/pharmacy to replenish the stock of necessary medicines. The Medicine Dispenser Device (303) along with the Token Input Device (301), Authentication Device (302) and Inventory Manager (304) are typically located at the Pharmacy (104), but may also be located at the Patient End (101).

[24] Figure 4 shows the typical setup at the Patient End (101) to enable the telemedicine consultation. All or a combination of these devices, except the Safe Device (s) (401), are required at the Doctor End (102) and the Pharmacy end (103). Video Capture Device (402) captures the motion or still images pictures at the patient location. One example of such a device is a web-camera connected to a personal computer. Audio Capture Device (403) captures the audio signals from the patient location e.g. microphone connected to the audio port of the personal computer. The video and audio data received from the other end is rendered at the receiving end using a Video Display Device (405) and Audio Play Device (406) respectively. Video Display Device (405) renders the video received from the other end. It may be a computer monitor or a similar device. Audio Play Device (406) renders the audio received from the other end. It may be a speaker, earphone or headphone connected to a personal computer. In addition, the Patient End (101) also has a combination of Safe Devices (401) that work only on authentication for authorized uses. Industrial Applicability

[25] The invention is particularly is beneficial to:

1. Remote village centers, where there is shortage of skilled manpower. D

2. Un-manned kiosks/vending machines, where medicines could be dispensed without presence of expert personnel. D

3. Un-manned kiosks, where users can conduct diagnostic tests without the assistance of a skilled operator. D

[26] Hence the invention relates to a combination of technology and corresponding methods that collectively can effectively address the need for safe healthcare delivery

which has tremendous requirement and utility for rural population.