Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that generally relates to cooperative health management, and in particular, to user interfaces facilitating cooperative health management.

Efficient communication between a patient and one or more health managers, such as doctors, nurses, counselors, physical therapists, etc., can greatly improve the health of the patient. For example, communication regarding current values of various biometrics of a patient may prompt an action by a health manager. As another example, communication regarding the level of the patient's adherence to a treatment plan may prompt a health manager to urge the patient to increase that level.

Whereas efficient communication between a patient and one or more health managers can improve the health and/or wellness of the patient, cooperative health management systems can be established in a network environment to facilitate this communication.

In various implementations, user devices associated with patients and health managers can execute applications that allow health data and other messages to be securely transmitted between patients and health managers. Further, such applications can provide graphical user interfaces that efficiently present the health data for consumption.

The invention provides methods and system for displaying user interfaces that efficiently convey health data. In various implementations, a user interface is provided at a health manager device that includes patient data regions for a plurality of patients.

Each of the patient data regions displays the value of various, custom-chosen-per-patient health metrics. In various implementations, a user interface is provided at a health manager device that displays a relational representation of patient adherence data (e.g., what a patient has done as part of a treatment plan) to patient adherence expectation data (e.g., what a patient is expected to do as part of the treatment plan).

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below illustrates a network environment for facilitating collaborative health management.

More specifically, Apple's patent FIG. 1 illustrates a network environment #100 for facilitating collaborative health management that includes a first patient device #110 associated with a first patient account, logged into by a first patient #10, and further includes a second patient device #111 associated with a second patient account, logged into by a second patient #11.

The network environment 100 includes a health manager device #120 associated with a health manager account, logged into by a health manager #12. The first and second patient devices and health manager device are coupled via a network #101 which includes any public or private LAN (local area network) and/or WAN (wide area network), such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network, a cable or satellite network, and/or portions of or the entirety of the internet.

Associated with the first patient and communicatively coupled to the first patient device is an Apple Watch which is referred to in the patent filings as "biometric device" #140. In various implementations, the biometric device could be a wearable, such as a smartwatch or fitness watch, a heart rate monitor, a respiratory monitor, a glucose monitor, or a pulse oximeter. The biometric device takes biometric measurements of the first patient and provides data indicative of the values of the biometric measurements to the first patient device.

Also coupled to the network is a secure cloud storage system #130 which is HIPAA-compliant (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). The secure cloud storage system can receive and transmit data from the first and second patient devices and health manager device upon presentation of sufficient credentials.

Random Health Management iPad and iPhone Interfaces







Apple's patent application was originally filed back in Q2 2018. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.

Apple Inventors

Divya Nag: Special Projects. Divya Nag is a healthcare technology enthusiast, and the founder of StartX Med and Stem Cell Theranostics. Divya's expertise has won her several accolades (Stanford University Thought Leader, Global Achievement Awards) and she has been invited as a speaker to several entrepreneurial and medical related events, such as WIRED Magazine's Healthcare Conference and discussions with President Obama on Women in Entrepreneurship. Patently Apple posted a report in May 2016 titled: Apple's Divya Nag: Voted as One of the Most Creative People in Business Today.

Umer Khan: Special Projects. Worked on ResearchKit, CareKit, and other health and fitness related projects.

In August 2018 Apple opted to Support the Open Health Data-Sharing Standard called 'Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources'