| CPC G16H 80/00 (2018.01) [G16H 10/60 (2018.01); G16H 20/10 (2018.01); G16H 40/20 (2018.01); G16H 15/00 (2018.01)] | 8 Claims |
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1. A telemedicine system, comprising:
an integrated medical answering service and telemedicine system, comprising a coordination hub with a plurality of remote servers in electronic communication with one or more storage devices with a database, a plurality of physician and/or healthcare provider computing devices, a plurality of physician and/or healthcare provider mobile computing devices, and one or more healthcare remote monitoring devices, over a telecommunications network;
and at least one microprocessor associated with at least one of said plurality of remote servers, wherein said at least one microprocessor is programmed to:
receive, over the telecommunications network, information from a physician or healthcare provider to enroll the physician or healthcare provider in the integrated medical answering service;
automatically generate a unique direct inward dialing phone number for each enrolled physician or healthcare provider;
provide, over the telecommunications network, the unique direct inward dialing phone number to the enrolled physician or healthcare provider;
receive, over the telecommunications network from a physician or healthcare provider computing device, patient information from one or more patients of the physician or healthcare provider, said patient information comprising a patient number;
store said patient information in the database;
receive, over the telecommunications network from a caller mobile computing device or telephone, an incoming call from a caller on a caller number to a particular unique direct inward dialing phone number;
prior to the incoming call being answered, identify the physician or healthcare provider associated with the particular unique direct inward dialing phone number;
prior to the incoming call being answered, determine whether the caller number matches a patient number in the database, and if a match is found, identify the patient associated with the incoming call;
transmit over the telecommunications network the physician or healthcare provider identification and the patient identification, if available, to a telemedicine coordinator;
direct the incoming call to the telemedicine coordinator;
present the caller with the option to request a virtual telehealth consult or request a standard telephone call;
in response to a request for a virtual telehealth consult, electronically transmit over the telecommunications network a virtual telehealth consult to a computing device of the physician or healthcare provider, wherein the virtual telehealth consult request is separate from and independent of the call;
if an acceptance message for the virtual telehealth consult request is received over the telecommunications network from the computing device of the physician or healthcare provider, electronically transmit over the telecommunications network information for the virtual telehealth consult to both the patient and the physician or healthcare provider; and
initiate the virtual telehealth consult, wherein the virtual telehealth consult is separate from and independent of the call; and further wherein the virtual telehealth consult comprises a real-time electronic video communication over the telecommunications network through a first computing device of the physician or healthcare provider and a second computing device of the patient, the first computing device being remote from the second computing device, each computing device configured with a camera and microphone to record and transmit an audio-visual data stream originating with the respective computing device, and each computing device configured with a display configured to display in real time the audio-visual data stream transmitted by the other computing device;
wherein the patient is a pre-existing patient of the physician or healthcare provider.
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