Application US20190065685

DENTAL HEALTH TRACKING VIA BLOCKCHAIN
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US20190065685

1. A method of managing dental records using a blockchain, comprising the steps of: (5) (4)

receiving, from a dental device, one or more signals associated with a dental activity being performed by the dental device;

detecting dental feature indictors with associated confidence levels by analyzing the dental signals;

aggregating the dental feature indictors to compute a multi-dimensional feature vector; and

determining whether to append the multi-dimensional feature vector to the blockchain.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to append the multi-dimensional feature vector to the blockchain comprises; (0) (4)

creating a transaction for the multi-dimensional feature vector;

sending the transaction to validating peers on the blockchain network for validation;

receiving validation outputs by a consensus algorithm, wherein the validation outputs are generated by chaincodes executed by the validation peers using validity requirements with respect to the dental events associated with the transaction; and

writing a new block for the transaction to the blockchain, when the consensus algorithm validates the transaction.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the blockchain includes a record of a patient's dental related features and events through the life of the patient, or for a predetermined period of time, wherein the dental related features and events include information on one or more of cavities, gum disease, dry sockets, impacted teeth, malocclusion, toothwear, sinusitis, neuralgia, cracked teeth, fractured teeth, abrasion, missing teeth, erosion, attrition, bruxism, fracture, worn fillings, worn tooth enamel, and exposed roots; sensitivity to heat, cold, and sweets; filling materials, X-rays treatments, fluoride treatments, pulpotomies, pulpectomies, apicoectomies, veneers, bridges, implants, fiberotomies, implants, crowns, root canals; observations regarding color and discoloration; diet and pain level; interactions with dental technology; and interactions with a dental care professionals or automated dental systems. (0)

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the dental device includes a home signal-enabled toothbrush, a dental office tooth cleaner, a signal-enabled dental office tooth probe, an X-ray machine, a dental office camera, and the one or more events associated with a dental activity include X-ray treatments, teeth cleaning, teeth probing, and teeth and gum observations. (0)

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically changing a rate of generating transactions related to a dental record based on a risk assessment or forecast. (1) (0)

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising changing a type of information added written to the blockchain based on a context of a patient. (0)

7. An apparatus for managing dental records using a blockchain, comprising: (1) (4)

a distributed repository to securely store and maintain dental records;

a risk assessor that analyzes event streams and historical block identifiers to characterize a patient's dental condition and context, and determine a risk to the patient's teeth;

a content analyzer that analyzes documents, a patient's age, overall health, and number of remaining real teeth to determine what content to append to the distributed repository; and

a transaction composer that uses the event streams and analysis results and prepares content to be appended to the distributed repository and appends the content to the distributed repository.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the distributed repository is a blockchain. (0)

12. A non-transitory program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executed by the computer to perform the method steps for managing dental records using a blockchain, comprising the steps of: (5) (4)

receiving, from a dental device, one or more signals associated with a dental activity being performed by the dental device;

detecting dental feature indictors with associated confidence levels by analyzing the dental signals;

aggregating the dental feature indictors to compute a multi-dimensional feature vector; and

determining whether to append the multi-dimensional feature vector to the blockchain.

13. The computer readable program storage device of claim 12, wherein determining whether to append the multi-dimensional feature vector to the blockchain comprises: (0) (4)

creating a transaction for the multi-dimensional feature vector;

sending the transaction to validating peers on the blockchain network for validation;

writing a new block for the transaction to the blockchain, when the consensus algorithm validates the transaction.

14. The computer readable program storage device of claim 12, wherein the blockchain includes a record of a patient's dental related features and events through the life of the patient, or for a predetermined period. of time, wherein the dental related features and events include information on one or more of cavities, guru disease, dry sockets, impacted teeth, malocclusion, toothwear, sinusitis, neuralgia, cracked teeth, fractured teeth, abrasion, missing teeth, erosion, attrition, bruxism, fracture, worn fillings, worn tooth. enamel, and exposed roots; sensitivity to heat, cold, and sweets; filling materials, X.-rays treatments, fluoride treatments, pulpotomies, pulpectomies, apicoectomies, veneers, bridges, implants, fiberotomies, implants, crowns, root canals; observations regarding color and discoloration; diet and pain level; interactions with dental technology; and interactions with a dental care professionals or automated dental systems, (0)

15. The computer readable program storage device of claim 12, wherein the dental device includes a home signal-enabled toothbrush, a dental office tooth cleaner, a signal-enabled dental office tooth probe, an X-ray machine, a dental office camera, and the one or more events associated with a dental activity include X-ray treatments, teeth cleaning, teeth probing, and teeth and gum observations. (0)

16. The computer readable program. storage device of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises automatically changing a rate of generating transactions related to a dental record based on a risk assessment or forecast. (0)

17. The computer readable program storage device of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises changing a type of information added written to the blockchain based on a context of a patient. (0)

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Application US20190065685

DENTAL HEALTH TRACKING VIA BLOCKCHAIN

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