# US 2014/0156290 A1 · Methods and Systems for Facilitating a Virtual Consultation Between a User and a Health Care Practitioner > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0156290 A1 - Document ID: US20140156290A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 13/854,057 - Filed: 2013-03-30 - Published: 2014-06-05 - Earliest claimed: 2012-11-30 - Assignees: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.; Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless - Applicants: Cellco Partnership D/B/A Verizon Wireless; Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc. - Inventors: Scott Kozicki; Arthur W. Lane, III; Donald H. Relyea; Anil K. Solleti - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140156290A1 ## CPC - G16H 10/20: for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires - G06Q 10/10: Office automation; Time management - G06Q 30/0631: {Recommending goods or services} - G16H 40/67: for remote operation - G16H: HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING OR PROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR ## Abstract An exemplary method includes a virtual health care solutions provider system 1) detecting an initiation of a virtual health care session by a user by way of a user portal, 2) presenting, in response to the initiation of the virtual health care session, an interactive health care questionnaire by way of the user portal, 3) detecting a completion by the user of the health care questionnaire by way of the user portal, 4) identifying, based on the completed health care questionnaire, a pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations, and 5) placing the user in a virtual queue associated with the pool of one or more health care practitioners for a virtual consultation with any one of the identified one or more health care practitioners by way of the user portal. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method comprising: detecting, by a virtual health care solutions provider system, an initiation of a virtual health care session by a user by way of a user portal; presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the initiation of the virtual health care session, an interactive health care questionnaire by way of the user portal; detecting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, a completion by the user of the health care questionnaire by way of the user portal; identifying, by the virtual health care solutions provider system based on the completed health care questionnaire, a pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations; and placing, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, the user in a virtual queue associated with the pool of one or more health care practitioners for a virtual consultation with any one of the identified one or more health care practitioners by way of the user portal. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, that a health care practitioner included in the pool of one or more health care practitioners is available to participate in the virtual health care session; assigning, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the determining that the health care practitioner is available to participate in the virtual health care session, the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner; and presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the assigning of the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner, a virtual examination interface associated with the user by way of a practitioner portal accessible by the health care practitioner. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, further comprising: detecting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, input provided by the health care practitioner by way of the practitioner portal and representative of a request to initiate the virtual consultation; and initiating, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the request, the virtual consultation between the user and the health care practitioner by way of the practitioner portal and the user portal. ### Claim 4 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, further comprising presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system within the virtual examination interface, at least one of the completed health care questionnaire, a diagnosis field configured to facilitate entry of a diagnosis of the user by the health care practitioner, one or more medical records associated with the user, and a virtual consultation window configured to facilitate the virtual consultation between the user and the health care practitioner. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, further comprising: receiving, by the virtual health care solutions provider system by way of the practitioner portal, data representative of a prescription provided by the health care practitioner for the user; and routing, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, the prescription to a pharmacy selected by the user. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system within the user portal, a virtual lobby interface for experiencing by the user while the user is in the virtual queue. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, further comprising: identifying, by the virtual health care solutions provider system based on the completed health care questionnaire, one or more health issues associated with the user; and presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, one or more content instances related to the one or more health issues within the virtual lobby interface. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, further comprising: selecting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system based on a user profile associated with the user, one or more content instances; and presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, the one or more content instances within the virtual lobby interface. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting of the initiation of the virtual health care session comprises at least one of detecting a user-initiated launch of an application associated with virtual health care session and a logging on by the user to a website configured to facilitate the virtual health care session. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting of the health care questionnaire comprises presenting a series of requests for health-related information from the user, wherein the requests for the health-related information are dynamically selected based on health-related information provided by the user in response to one or more of the requests. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations comprises: identifying, by the virtual health care solutions provider system based on the completed health care questionnaire, a health issue associated with the user; and selecting one or more health care practitioners specializing in the health issue for inclusion in the pool of one or more health care practitioners. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations comprises identifying, by the virtual health care solutions provider system for inclusion in the pool of one or more health care practitioners, one or more health care practitioners who are actively logged in to a practitioner portal at a time associated with the completion of the health care questionnaire, the practitioner portal provided by the virtual health care solutions provider system. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system by way of the user portal, a payment interface configured to facilitate payment by the user for the virtual consultation. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual consultation comprises at least one of an online video conference, an audio conference, and an online chat session. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium. ### Claim 16 A method comprising: detecting, by a virtual health care solutions provider system, input provided by a health care practitioner by way of a practitioner portal and that indicates the health care practitioner is available to participate in a virtual health care session initiated by a user; assigning, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the detecting of the input, the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner; presenting, by the virtual health care solutions provider system in response to the assigning of the virtual health care session to the health care practitioner, a virtual examination interface associated with the user by way the practitioner portal; and establishing, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, a virtual consultation between the health care practitioner and the user by way of the virtual examination interface. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, further comprising personalizing, by the virtual health care solutions provider system, the virtual examination interface to the user in accordance with at least one of a health care questionnaire completed by the user and a user profile associated with the user. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The method of claim 17, wherein the personalizing of the virtual examination interface to the user comprises presenting, within the virtual examination interface, at least one of the completed health care questionnaire, a diagnosis field configured to facilitate entry of a diagnosis of the user by the health care practitioner, one or more medical records associated with the user, and a virtual consultation window configured to facilitate the virtual consultation between the user and the health care practitioner. ### Claim 19 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium. ### Claim 20 A system comprising: a detection facility configured to detect an initiation of a virtual health care session by a user by way of a user portal; and a virtual health care session management facility communicatively coupled to the detection facility and configured to present, in response to the initiation of the virtual health care session, an interactive health care questionnaire by way of the user portal; wherein the detection facility is further configured to detect a completion by the user of the health care questionnaire by way of the user portal; and wherein the virtual health care management facility is further configured to identify, based on the completed health care questionnaire, a pool of one or more health care practitioners qualified to treat the user and open for virtual consultations, and place the user in a virtual queue associated with the pool of one or more health care practitioners for a virtual consultation with any one of the identified one or more health care practitioners by way of the user portal.