1. A computer-implemented method of calculating appropriate invoice payments associated with a clinical trial study, the method comprising:
(a) providing a software application program having equations and business rules that together define (i) a process, (ii) a timeline, and (iii) deliverables associated with a clinical trial study;
(b) entering into the program:
(i) entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables to the clinical trial study,
(ii) budget items and amounts related to the deliverables for the respective entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables,
(iii) for at least some of the budget items, a time frame in which the budget items are expected to be incurred or paid; and
(c) automatically calculating appropriate invoice payments for the deliverables for the respective entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables at a specific time frame using:
(i) the equations and business rules in the program, and
(ii) the items entered into the program in step (b)(i)-(iii).
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
(d) comparing invoices received from the entities at a specific time frame with the appropriate invoice payments and identifying any invoices that may not be appropriate.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein items (b)(i)-(iii) are obtained from contracts entered into by the entities contracted to provide the deliverables.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the equations relate to revenuecost relationships and the timing thereof.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the equations relate to cash inflows and outflows and the timing thereof.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the budget items and amounts include units of the deliverables.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the clinical trial study has a plurality of phases, and at least some of the business rules relate to the trial study phases.
8. A computer-implemented method of analyzing invoices for a clinical trial study to identify whether invoices are appropriate or not appropriate at a particular time frame in the study, the method comprising:
(a) providing a software application program having equations and business rules that together define (i) a process, (ii) a timeline, and (iii) deliverables associated with a clinical trial study;
(b) entering into the program:
(i) entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables to the clinical trial study,
(ii) budget items and amounts related to the deliverables for the respective entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables,
(iii) for at least some of the budget items, a time frame in which the budget items are expected to be incurred or paid, and
(iv) invoices from the entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables to the clinical trial study, the invoices including budget items, amounts and a time frame;
(c) automatically inputting patient status data and patient diagnostic data obtained from the entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables to the clinical trial study into a comparison engine; and
(d) the comparison engine automatically identifying invoices that are appropriate and not appropriate at a particular time frame in the study in view of:
(i) the equations and business rules in the program,
(ii) the items entered into the program in step (b)(i)-(iv), and
(iii) the inputted patient status data and patient diagnostic data.
9. A computer-implemented method of automatically generating an accounting for a clinical trial study, the clinical trial study having a total budget amount and a total amount of deliverables, the method comprising:
(a) providing a software application program having equations and business rules that together define (i) a process, (ii) a timeline, and (iii) deliverables associated with a clinical trial study;
(b) entering into the program:
(i) entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables to the clinical trial study,
(ii) budget items and amounts related to the deliverables for the respective entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables,
(iii) for at least some of the budget items, a time frame in which the budget items are expected to be incurred or paid, and
(c) automatically inputting patient status data and patient diagnostic data obtained from the entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables to the clinical trial study into a processor; and
(d) the processor automatically generating an accounting of the clinical trial study using:
(i) the equations and business rules in the program,
(ii) the items entered into the program in step (b)(i)-(iii), and
(iii) the inputted patient status data and patient diagnostic data in step (c).
10. The method of claim 9 wherein the accounting is based on a percentage of the deliverables completed.
11. The method of claim 9 wherein the accounting provides a percentage of the deliverables that are completed.
12. The method of claim 9 wherein the accounting provides expenses to record for accounting purposes under generally acceptable accounting principles.
13. A computer-implemented method of automatically generating a projection of cash flow needs for a clinical trial study, the clinical trial study having a total budget amount and a total amount of deliverables, the method comprising:
(a) providing a software application program having equations and business rules that together define (i) a process, (ii) a timeline, and (iii) deliverables associated with a clinical trial study;
(b) entering into the program:
(i) entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables to the clinical trial study,
(ii) budget items and amounts related to the deliverables for the respective entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables,
(iii) for at least some of the budget items, a time frame in which the budget item is expected to be incurred or paid; and
(c) automatically generating the projection of cash flow needs of the clinical trial study using:
(i) the equations and business rules in the program, and
(ii) the items entered into the program in step (b)(i)-(iii).
14. A computer-implemented method of using a model of a clinical trial study for automatically generating business intelligence information regarding the clinical trial study, the clinical trial study having a total budget amount and a total amount of deliverables, the method comprising:
(a) providing a software application program having equations and business rules that together define (i) a process, (ii) a timeline, and (iii) deliverables associated with a clinical trial study;
(b) entering into the program:
(i) entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables to the clinical trial study,
(ii) budget items and amounts related to the deliverables for the respective entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables,
(iii) for at least some of the budget items, a time frame in which the budget item is expected to be incurred or paid,
wherein steps (a) and (b) define the model of the clinical trial study; and
(c) automatically generating the business intelligence information using:
(i) the equations and business rules in the program, and
(ii) the items entered into the program in step (b)(i)-(iii).
15. The method of claim 14 wherein the business intelligence information generated in step (c) is appropriate invoice payments for the deliverables for the respective entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables at a specific time frame.
16. The method of claim 14 wherein the business intelligence information generated in step (c) an accounting for the clinical trial study.
17. The method of claim 14 wherein the business intelligence information is a projection of cash flow needs for the clinical trial study.
18. A computer-implemented method of automatically paying contracted entities that provide deliverables for a clinical trial study, the clinical trial study having a total budget amount and a total amount of deliverables, the method comprising:
(a) providing a software application program having equations and business rules that together define (i) a process, (ii) a timeline, and (iii) deliverables associated with a clinical trial study;
(b) entering into the program:
(i) entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables to the clinical trial study,
(ii) budget items and amounts related to the deliverables for the respective entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables,
(iii) for at least some of the budget items, a time frame in which the budget items are expected to be incurred or paid, and
(c) automatically inputting patient status data and patient diagnostic data obtained from the entities that have been contracted to provide the deliverables to the clinical trial study into a processor;
(d) the processor automatically generating an accounting of the clinical trial study and calculating appropriate invoice payments for the contracted entities at particular time frames in the study using:
(i) the equations and business rules in the program,
(ii) the items entered into the program in step (b)(i)-(iii), and
(iii) the inputted patient status data and patient diagnostic data in step (c); and
(e) a payment engine automatically making payments to the contracted entities at particular time frames in the study based on the generated accounting and the calculated appropriate invoice payments.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein the accounting is based on a percentage of the deliverables completed.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A system supporting user defined filtering of media consumption in a media exchange network, the system comprising:
at least one processor for operably coupling to a display device that supports consumption of media and to a communication network;
wherein the at least one processor controls display of a user interface on the display device, the user interface having at least one view comprising a collection of media channels, each media channel in the collection comprising a sequence of media content available to a first user, the display of each media channel in the at least one view subject to at least one media channel filter comprising media channel characteristics defined by a second user; and
wherein the at least one processor limits media consumption to media content of the collection of media channels.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the media content comprises one or more of audio, a still image, video, real time video, andor data.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication network comprises one or more of a cable infrastructure, a satellite network infrastructure, a digital subscriber line (DSL) infrastructure, an Internet infrastructure, an intranet infrastructure, a wired infrastructure, andor a wireless infrastructure.
4. The system of claim 3, wherein the communication network comprises the Internet.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein consumption comprises one or more of playing digitized audio, displaying a still image, displaying video, andor displaying data.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the media channel characteristics comprise one or more of a type of media channel, a language of dialogue, an industry rating, an overall viewer rating, a mode, a video quality, a format, a bandwidth, a year of release, an artist, andor one or more words of a title.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one media channel filter supports combinations of the media channel characteristics using Boolean relations.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one period of time for which the at least one media channel filter is effective is defined by at least one of the first user and the second user.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one media channel filter may be one or more of enabled, disabled, created, deleted, andor modified via the communication network.
10. The system of claim 1, comprising:
circuitry for interfacing to a remote control supporting the selection of a media channel for consumption of media content; and
the media channel available for selection using the remote control being determined according to the at least one media channel filter.
11. The system of claim 1, wherein the first user and second user are the same user.
12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one media channel filter comprises two or more media channel filters, each for a corresponding user.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one view comprises a collection of media channels according to the most restrictive media channel filter of the two or more media channel filters.
14. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one media channel filter is selected according to an access code of the first user.
15. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the media channels comprises a user selected and time scheduled sequence of media content.
16. A method for operating a device supporting user defined filtering of media consumption in a media exchange network, the method comprising:
operably coupling to a display device that supports consumption of media and to a communication network;
controlling display of a user interface on the display device, the user interface having at least one view comprising a collection of media channels, each media channel in the collection comprising a sequence of media content available to a first user, the display of each media channel in the at least one view subject to at least one media channel filter comprising media channel characteristics defined by a second user; and
limiting media consumption to media content of the collection of media channels.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the media content comprises one or more of audio, a still image, video, real time video, andor data.
18. The method of claim 16, wherein the communication network comprises one or more of a cable infrastructure, a satellite network infrastructure, a digital subscriber line (DSL) infrastructure, an Internet infrastructure, an intranet infrastructure, a wired infrastructure, andor a wireless infrastructure.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the communication network comprises the Internet.
20. The method of claim 16, wherein consumption comprises one or more of playing digitized audio, displaying a still image, displaying video, andor displaying data.
21. The method of claim 16, wherein the media channel characteristics comprise one or more of a type of media channel, a language of dialogue, an industry rating, an overall viewer rating, a mode, a video quality, a format, a bandwidth, a year of release, an artist, andor one or more words of a title.
22. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one media channel filter supports combinations of the media channel characteristics using Boolean relations.
23. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one period of time for which the at least one media channel filter is effective is defined by at least one of the first user and the second user.
24. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one media channel filter may be one or more of enabled, disabled, created, deleted, andor modified via the communication network.
25. The method of claim 16, wherein the method comprises:
interfacing to a remote control supporting the selection of a media channel for consumption of media content; and
determining whether the media channel is available for selection using the remote control, according to the at least one media channel filter.
26. The method of claim 16, wherein the first user and second user are the same user.
27. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one media channel filter comprises two or more media channel filters, each for a corresponding user.
28. The method of claim 27, wherein the at least one view comprises a collection of media channels according to the most restrictive media channel filter of the two or more media channel filters.
29. The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one media channel filter is selected according to an access code of the first user.
30. The method of claim 16, wherein one or more of the media channels comprises a user selected and time scheduled sequence of media content.
31. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of code sections, each code section comprising a plurality of instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method for operating a device supporting user defined filtering of media consumption in a media exchange network, the method comprising:
operably coupling to a display device that supports consumption of media and to a communication network;
controlling display of a user interface on the display device, the user interface having at least one view comprising a collection of media channels, each media channel in the collection comprising a sequence of media content available to a first user, the display of each media channel in the at least one view subject to at least one media channel filter comprising media channel characteristics defined by a second user; and
limiting media consumption to media content of the collection of media channels.
32. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the media content comprises one or more of audio, a still image, video, real time video, andor data.
33. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the communication network comprises one or more of a cable infrastructure, a satellite network infrastructure, a digital subscriber line (DSL) infrastructure, an Internet infrastructure, an intranet infrastructure, a wired infrastructure, andor a wireless infrastructure.
34. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the communication network comprises the Internet.
35. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein consumption comprises one or more of playing digitized audio, displaying a still image, displaying video, andor displaying data.
36. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the media channel characteristics comprise one or more of a type of media channel, a language of dialogue, an industry rating, an overall viewer rating, a mode, a video quality, a format, a bandwidth, a year of release, an artist, andor one or more words of a title.
37. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the at least one media channel filter supports combinations of the media channel characteristics using Boolean relations.
38. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein at least one period of time for which the at least one media channel filter is effective is defined by at least one of the first user and the second user.
39. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the at least one media channel filter may be one or more of enabled, disabled, created, deleted, andor modified via the communication network.
40. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the method comprises:
interfacing to a remote control supporting the selection of a media channel for consumption of media content; and
determining whether the media channel is available for selection using the remote control, according to the at least one media channel filter.
41. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the first user and second user are the same user.
42. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the at least one media channel filter comprises two or more media channel filters, each for a corresponding user.
43. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 42, wherein the at least one view comprises a collection of media channels according to the most restrictive media channel filter of the two or more media channel filters.
44. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the at least one media channel filter is selected according to an access code of the first user.
45. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein one or more of the media channels comprises a user selected and time scheduled sequence of media content.