초록 ▼

The invention disclosed herein enables a collection of computers and associated communications infrastructure to offer a new communications process which allows information providers to broadcast information to a population of information consumers. The information may be targeted to those consumers

The invention disclosed herein enables a collection of computers and associated communications infrastructure to offer a new communications process which allows information providers to broadcast information to a population of information consumers. The information may be targeted to those consumers who have a precisely formulated need for the information. This targeting may be based on information which is inaccessible to other communications protocols. The targeting also includes a time element. Information can be brought to the attention of the consumer precisely when it has become applicable, which may occur immediately upon receipt of the message, but may also occur long after the message arrives. The communications process may operate without intruding on consumers who do not exhibit the precisely-specified need for the information, and it may operate without compromising the security or privacy of the consumers who participate.

대표청구항 ▼

The invention claimed is: 1. In a system including an advice consumer for gathering broadcast information from a communications medium, a communications system comprising: an advice provider which broadcasts information over a communications medium to a third party to target information of interest

The invention claimed is: 1. In a system including an advice consumer for gathering broadcast information from a communications medium, a communications system comprising: an advice provider which broadcasts information over a communications medium to a third party to target information of interest to consumers; wherein said advice consumer is resident on a client system and is advised of said information by a reader if said information meets certain predetermined relevance criteria; a reader resident with said advice consumer that determines relevance of said broadcast information; and wherein said advice provider offers one or more of: a suggestion to the user to modify usage patterns; a suggestion to the user to read a document; a proposal to upgrade to a new software version; a proposal to modify system settings; a proposal to run a certain script to effect a solution; or a proposal to download and execute special applications to correct the situation without comprising individual privacy. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said information of interest to consumers comprises any of consumer product warnings, recalls, and safety advisories. 3. The system of claim 2, wherein said consumer product warning comprise information concerning drug products and their interactions. 4. The system of claim 3, wherein said third party is a pharmacy; and wherein said advice provider comprises an advice site which operates to notify pharmacies about potentially damaging drug interactions in their customer base. 5. The system of claim 4, wherein any of the FDA and other organizations which may include pharmaceutical manufacturers and consumer organizations, may submit one or more advisories which contain information about interactions and side effects of medications to said advice site. 6. The system of claim 5, wherein said one or more advisories comprise: a relevance clause which asserts the existence in a pharmacy database of customers with active prescriptions for drugs having a known, potentially damaging interaction; human readable content which tells about said interaction, tells a pharmacist that he has such an interaction in his client base, and urges said pharmacist to correct the situation. 7. The system of claim 4, wherein said advice site collects and posts said submissions. 8. The system of claim 4, wherein one or more pharmacies subscribe to said advice site. 9. The system of claim 8, further comprising: a pharmacy customer database inspector which is installed on a pharmacy computer for determining if any patients in said pharmacy database have a certain prescription. 10. The system of claim 9, wherein said pharmacy computer gathers advisories routinely; wherein relevance evaluation generates queries to said pharmacy customer database inspector; wherein said pharmacy customer database inspector queries said pharmacy database; and wherein relevant messages are provided by said pharmacy to appropriate pharmacy customers for dangerous drug combinations. 11. The system of claim 3, wherein said third party is a physician; and wherein said advice provider comprises an advice site which operates to notify physicians about potentially damaging drug interactions in their patient base, said system further comprising: a physician patient database inspector for those physicians who keep track of patient subscriptions on their office computers for determining if any patients in said physician patient database have a certain prescription. 12. The system of claim 3, wherein said third party is an individual; and wherein said advice provider comprises an advice site which operates to notify individuals about potentially damaging drug interactions, said system further comprising: an individual health record database inspector for those Individuals who enter their own subscriptions in a user profile. 13. The system of claim 8, further comprising: an information exchange program for allowing a user to query remotely said pharmacy database for information concerning said user. 14. The system of claim 1, wherein said information comprises any of any condition which could be identified by specifying properties which arise singly or in combination in one or more databases, and conditions which, although not explicitly mentioned in said one or more databases, can be inferred to exist with high probability based on statistical or other inferences based on information in said one or more databases. 15. A method for remotely and anonymously inspecting one or more communicating devices for information of interest to information consumers, said method comprising the steps of: providing a third party consumer database inspector which is installed on a third party computer for determining if said information is relevant to any individuals in a consumer database; said third party computer gathering advisories routinely from an advice provider which broadcasts information over a communications medium to one or more third parties to target information of interest to consumers; wherein said advisories contain a relevance clause component that is written in a formal relevance language precisely specifying the conditions under which an advisory could be relevant; using relevance evaluation to generate queries to said third party consumer database inspector; said third party consumer database inspector querying said consumer database; and providing relevant messages from said third party to appropriate consumers to advise said consumers of relevant information. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein said information of interest to consumers comprises any of consumer product warnings, recalls, and safety advisories. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein said third party comprises one or more pharmacies. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein said information comprises information concerning drug interactions. 19. The method of claim 15, wherein said information comprises any of any condition which could be identified by specifying properties which arise singly or in combination in one or more databases, and conditions which, although not explicitly mentioned in said one or more databases, can be inferred to exist with high probability based on statistical or other inferences based on information in said one or more databases. 20. In a system including an advice consumer for gathering broadcast information from a communications medium, a communications method comprising the steps of: providing one or more advice providers which broadcast information over a communications medium to a third party to target information of interest to advice consumers; advising said advice consumer of said information by a reader if said information meets certain predetermined relevance criteria; wherein said advice consumer is resident on a client system; providing a reader resident with said advice consumer that determines relevance of said broadcast information; and said advice provider offering one or more of: a suggestion to the user to modify usage patterns; a suggestion to the user to read a document; a proposal to upgrade to a new software version; a proposal to modify system settings; a proposal to run a certain script to effect a solution; or a proposal to download and execute special applications to correct the situation without compromising individual privacy. 21. The method of claim 20, wherein said information of interest to consumers comprises any of consumer product warnings, recalls, and safety advisories. 22. The method of claim 21, wherein said consumer product warning comprise information concerning drug products and their interactions. 23. The method of claim 22, wherein said third party is a pharmacy; and wherein said advice provider comprises an advice site which operates to notify pharmacies about potentially damaging drug interactions in their customer base. 24. The method of claim 23, wherein any of the FDA and other organizations which may include pharmaceutical manufacturers and consumer organizations, may submit one or more advisories which contain information about interactions and side effects of medications to said advice site. 25. The method of claim 24, wherein said one or more advisories comprise: a relevance clause which asserts the existence in a pharmacy database of customers with active prescriptions for drugs having a known, potentially damaging interaction; human readable content which tells about said interaction, tells a pharmacist that he has such an interaction in his client base, and urges said pharmacist to correct the situation. 26. The method of claim 23, wherein said advice site collects and posts said submissions. 27. The method of claim 23, wherein one or more pharmacies subscribe to said advice site. 28. The method of claim 27, further comprising the step of: providing a pharmacy customer database inspector which is installed on a pharmacy computer for determining if any patients in said pharmacy database have a certain prescription. 29. The method of claim 28, further comprising the steps of: said pharmacy computer gathering advisories routinely; using relevance evaluation to generate queries to said pharmacy customer database inspector; using said pharmacy customer database inspector to query said pharmacy database; and providing relevant messages from said pharmacy to advise appropriate pharmacy customers of dangerous drug combinations. 30. The method of claim 22, wherein said third party is a physician; and wherein said advice provider comprises an advice site which operates to notify physicians about potentially damaging drug interactions in their patient base, said method further comprising the step of: providing a physician patient database inspector for those physicians who keep track of patient subscriptions on their office computers for determining if any patients in said physician patient database have a certain prescription. 31. The method of claim 22, wherein said third party is an individual; and wherein said advice provider comprises an advice site which operates to notify individuals about potentially damaging drug interactions, said method further comprising the step of: providing an individual health record database inspector for those Individuals who enter their own subscriptions in a user profile. 32. The method of claim 27, further comprising the step of: allowing a user to query remotely said pharmacy database for information concerning said user. 33. The method of claim 20, wherein said information comprises any of any condition which could be identified by specifying properties which arise singly or in combination in one or more databases, and conditions which, although not explicitly mentioned in said one or more databases, can be inferred to exist with high probability based on statistical or other inferences based on information in said one or more databases. 34. A system for remotely and anonymously inspecting one or more communicating devices for information of interest to information consumers, said system comprising: a third party consumer database inspector which is installed on a third party computer for determining if said information is relevant to any individuals in a consumer database; said third party computer including a module for gathering advisories routinely from an advice provider which broadcasts information over a communications medium to one or more third parties to target information of interest to consumers; wherein said advisories contain a relevance clause component that is written in a formal relevance language precisely specifying the conditions under which an advisory could be relevant; a relevance evaluation module for generating queries to said third party consumer database inspector; said third party consumer database inspector including a module for querying said consumer database; and means for providing relevant messages from said third party to appropriate consumers to advise said customers of relevant information. 35. The system of claim 34, wherein said information of interest to consumers comprises any of consumer product warnings, recalls, and safety advisories. 36. The system of claim 35, wherein said third party comprises one or more pharmacies. 37. The system of claim 36, wherein said information comprises information concerning drug interactions. 38. The system of claim 34, wherein said information comprises any of any condition which could be identified by specifying properties which arise singly or in combination in one or more databases, and conditions which, although not explicitly mentioned in said one or more databases, can be inferred to exist with high probability based on statistical or other inferences based on information in said one or more databases.