A comprehensive system for locating medical services

Abstract

The changing nature of healthcare has created a demand for new tools to support both seekers and providers of medical services in order to ensure that the optimal delivery of care is provided. Recent advances in health related technologies as well as new modes of patient/provider interaction have created a unique set of novel challenges. Patients often face the daunting task of sifting through large amounts of options when it comes to choosing a medical service provider to receive care from. Several factors including the availability, cost, quality, and physical location of specific services must all be considered by the patient when choosing a provider. In this paper we describe a novel mobile application that allows users to query a database of medical providers to find the set of best possible options tailored to the user's specific needs and situation. The user makes a query by specifying a geographic search range centered on a polyline, and can further filter results by defining constraints such as insurance coverage and treatment cost.