| Categorizing and analyzing sales of particular products -> Monitor Keywords |
|
|
  Categorizing and analyzing sales of particular productsUSPTO Application #: 20060167742Title: Categorizing and analyzing sales of particular products Abstract: A system and method for identification and notification of elevated over-the-counter medication sales is disclosed. Localized alerts of elevated sales of specified over-the-counter medications and graphical views of historical sales intensity by medication category are provided. Intervention instructions to manage responses to factors causing the elevation of sales are provided. The system analyzes sales volume from stores that sell the identified medications to determine if sales volume exceeds expected thresholds. Data from individual products are combined into meaningful categories for tracking, and alerts are sent to users of data anomalies and of intervention messages or tasks requiring attention. Users view a geographic area and define their own notification events and mode. User interaction includes: a graphical representation of their geographic area with indicators of all current alerts; historical sales trend charts per category; graphical time-lapse representations of sales intensity per category; and task management to coordinate action and response. (end of abstract)
Agent: Woodard, Emhardt, Moriarty, Mcnett & Henry LLP - Indianapolis, IN, US Inventors: Todd C. Bracken, Kimberly Chowning USPTO Applicaton #: 20060167742 - Class: 705010000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Data Processing: Financial, Business Practice, Management, Or Cost/price Determination, Automated Electrical Financial Or Business Practice Or Management Arrangement, Operations Research, Market Analysis, Demand Forecasting Or Surveying The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060167742. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/335,467, filed Dec. 31, 2002, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFICATION AND NOTIFICATION OF ELEVATED OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDICATION SALES WITH RESPONSE COORDINATION," which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. FIELD [0002] The invention generally relates to computer software and more specifically to a system and method for identification and notification of elevated over-the-counter medication sales with response coordination. BACKGROUND [0003] In today's world, bio-terrorist attacks are of increasing concern, but cannot be readily detected until a late stage when it may be too late for effective intervention. Government officials, health care facilities, and the public may not detect a problem until a number of people have been affected beyond effective intervention. There is thus an increasingly important need for monitoring public illness and detecting bio-events at the earliest possible stages of exposure and initial outbreak. The present invention is directed toward meeting this need. SUMMARY [0004] It is an object of the present invention to provide a computerized system and method for identification of elevated over-the-counter medication sales. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method for notification and response coordination of elevated over-the-counter medication sales. [0005] These objects and others are achieved by various forms of the present invention. According to one aspect of the invention, a system and method for providing identification and notification of elevated over-the-counter medication sales with response coordination is provided. The system and method aids in early detection of bio-events including public health outbreaks and the deliberate release of a pathogenic agent as in a bio-terrorist attack. Since bio-terrorist pathogens initially create flu-like symptoms, tracking select categories of medications designed to address those symptoms aids in early detection of public illness, including bio-events that result from a bio-terrorist attack. [0006] Retail sales volume data of numerous over-the-counter medications are gathered from a variety of retail sales outlets. This raw data is categorized according to the chemical composition of each individual medication to allow reporting according to a variety of categorization schemes, including single-chemical (e.g. aspirin), multi-chemical (e.g. aspirin plus caffeine), simple symptom (e.g. nausea) and complex symptom (e.g. flu). The data is received from the retail sales outlets daily, with fields for the sales date, chemical composition, number of units sold and the store identification information. Supporting data is also received from the retail sales outlets daily with location information for each store, including store number, address, city, state, ZIP code, opening date and closing date. From this information, the geo-code location such as latitude and longitude for each store is derived for use in defining the store's service area. Examples of retail sales outlets include, but are not limited to, pharmacies, grocery stores, and discounters. [0007] Simply described, the daily sales data for each store is categorized according to one or all of the categorization schemes. For each scheme, the data is transformed using a several step process so that the alert threshold for the current day can be defined. This threshold value is calculated by analyzing past sales data, accounting for fluctuations caused by changes in general store traffic, seasonal and weekly sales trends and discrete effects such as coupon drops or promotional sales. The threshold value also allows for a margin of error in the prediction process. If the current day's sales for the individual category exceed the threshold, a localized breach is noted. Not every localized breach in the data will result in the system sending an alert message to subscribers. Additional factors analyzed are the population density surrounding the retail store as well as the proximity of other retail stores and breaches that may have occurred at those nearby stores. [0008] When an alert is generated, a message will be sent to all subscribers whose account includes the location of the store in their geographical entitlement area. In order to protect the individual retail store's privacy, alerts and messages will only refer to the store service area where the alert occurred. The store service area can include one or more zip codes and/or portions of a given zip code. Users have the ability to define their own notification methods, the addresses used for each of those methods and the preferred order of notification. Users can also define other users to act as backups if they are not able to respond quickly. The definition of the preferred order of notification and backup users is called the notification chain. Due to the critical nature of the alert information, each user will only be given a certain period of time to respond to their notification before the system advances the notification chain. This period is flexible, and in a preferred embodiment is set to 60 minutes. [0009] When users reply, the timestamp will be recorded for use in determining response time to notifications. This timestamp will act as acknowledgement of the notification and will stop the notification chain process for that user. [0010] In addition to early warning and notification mechanisms, the invention provides a central workspace where subscribers can access information relevant to public health even when there are no current alerts. Users can see and interact with a map representing their geographical entitlement area. They can zoom in and out in order to see data at varying levels of detail. In addition to viewing the current state of the sales data, users can view historical data in variety of formats. These formats include historical bar and line charts, historical snapshots of the graphical map interface and a time-lapse view of the intensity of sales volume and the intensity of symptoms throughout their geographic area. [0011] According to yet a further aspect of the invention, a computerized method for identification and notification of elevated over-the-counter medication sales is disclosed that comprises: receiving retail sales data of a plurality of over-the-counter medications; organizing the retail sales data into a plurality of categories; calculating an alert threshold for at least one of the plurality of categories; detecting when the alert threshold for the at least one of the plurality of categories is exceeded; and notifying at least one subscriber that the alert threshold was exceeded. [0012] In another aspect of the invention, a computerized system for identification and notification of elevated over-the-counter medication sales is disclosed that comprises: a subscription module for maintaining subscriber information about a plurality of subscribers; a retail chain module for tracking sales data of a plurality of over-the-counter medications for a plurality of retail stores; a categorization module for maintaining categorization information about the plurality of over-the-counter medications; a geographic entitlement module for maintaining geographic information about a plurality of geographic areas being monitored; a breach module for detecting elevated sales of at least one of the plurality of over-the-counter medications; and a notification module for sending an alert to at least one of the plurality of subscribers when a predetermined alert threshold has been exceeded. [0013] According to yet another aspect of the invention, a computerized method for calculating alert threshold values for over-the-counter medication sales is disclosed and comprises: (A) receiving sales data of a plurality of over-the-counter medications for a plurality of retail stores; (B) normalizing the sales data; (C) estimating a future normalized sales value; and (D) calculating an alert threshold value based at least in part on the estimated future normalized sales values. [0014] In another aspect of the invention, a method for providing early detection of public health issues is disclosed and comprises: monitoring sales of a plurality of over-the-counter medications for a plurality of geographic regions; organizing the plurality of over-the-counter medications into a plurality of categories based on a plurality of ingredients; detecting an elevation in the number of sales in at least one of the plurality of categories; analyzing the elevated sales in the at least one of the plurality of categories to determine whether an alert should be issued; and sending an alert to at least one subscriber. [0015] In a still further aspect of the invention, a method for monitoring the intensity level of public illness is disclosed comprising: monitoring retail sales data of a plurality of over-the-counter medications; organizing the retail sales data into a plurality of categories; and presenting an intensity of the sales of at least one of the plurality of categories. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0016] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the components of the system for identification and notification for elevated over-the-counter medication sales according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0017] FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of the modules of the system for identification and notification for elevated over-the-counter medication sales according to a preferred embodiment. [0018] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment illustrating the single-chemical categorization methodology of the invention at its top level. [0019] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment illustrating the simple symptom categorization methodology of the invention at its top level. Continue reading... Full patent description for Categorizing and analyzing sales of particular products Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Categorizing and analyzing sales of particular products patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Categorizing and analyzing sales of particular products or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: System and method for managing workflow Next Patent Application: System and method for designing a supply chain Industry Class: Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or cost/price determination ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Categorizing and analyzing sales of particular products patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.45794 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Computers: Graphics , I/O , Processors , Dyn. Storage , Static Storage , Printers |
||
