Analyzing caregroup data to facilitate diagnosis of subpopulations of disease or disability and evaluate or discover new methods of diagnosis or intervention strategies

Abstract

Methods and systems for analysis of aggregate data from multiple caregroups participating in a closed communication service are provided. According to one embodiment, a closed communication service is provided that is configured to facilitate and encourage communications among members of caregroups and targets of the caregroups. The targets of the caregroups use communication appliances associated with respective caregroups to transmit and receive electronic communications via the closed communication service to and from members of the respective caregroups. Data relating to the electronic communications is collected and aggregated. Diagnosis of subpopulations of disease or disability and evaluation or discovery of new methods of diagnosis or intervention strategies to slow, ameliorate, prevent or remediate a condition including one or more of a chronic condition in elders, a disability, a disease and a mental or physical condition is facilitated by analyzing the collected and aggregated data.

1 . A method comprising:
 providing a closed communication service configured to facilitate and encourage communications among members of a plurality of caregroups and targets of the plurality of caregroups, the targets of the plurality of caregroups using communication appliances associated with respective caregroups of the plurality of caregroups to transmit and receive electronic communications via the closed communication service to and from members of the respective caregroups;   one or more metric tracking routines collecting and aggregating data relating to the electronic communications;   facilitating diagnosis of subpopulations of disease or disability and evaluation or discovery of new methods of diagnosis or intervention strategies to slow, ameliorate, prevent or remediate a condition including one or more of a chronic condition in elders, a disability, a disease and a mental or physical condition by analyzing the collected and aggregated data; and   wherein the one or more metric tracking routines are implemented in one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media of one or more server computer systems that are part of the closed communication service, the one or more computer-readable media having instructions tangibly embodied therein representing the one or more metric tracking routines that are executable by the one or more processors.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said collecting and aggregating data is limited to a set of caregroups of the plurality of caregroups in which the associated targets are demographically or psychographically similar. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the condition comprises Alzheimer's disease. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the condition comprises depression. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the condition comprises stress. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the condition comprises cancer. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the condition comprises heart disease. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the condition comprises a geriatric cognitive disorder. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the condition comprises a physical illness. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the communication appliances comprises a hard-copy based communication appliance. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the hard-copy based communication appliance comprises a digital mailbox appliance. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the hard-copy based communication appliance is shared by multiple individuals. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the data relating to the electronic communications includes metrics regarding historical norms of electronic communications frequencies.