System and methods for real-time worklist service

• US 20030126148A1
• Filed: 11/21/2002
• Published: 07/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Merative US LP
• Original Assignee: Amicas Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Wang, Kang, Rosenbaum, Terry, Tabatabaie, Hamid, Doyle, Sean, Gropper, Adrian
• Granted Patent: US 7,756,724 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A system and methods for organizing, manipulating, and displaying worklists of patient studies for access by medical personnel is provided. The patient studies may include medical images and data relating to medical images. In some embodiments, the worklists are easily customizable, to permit a wide range of tasks to be handled in the worklist system. Updated worklist information may be pushed to the appropriate workstations or users in nearly real-time, as updates become available, reducing errors that may be caused by outdated information in worklists. In some embodiments, worklists contain overlapping information, which permits numerous users to see the information, even if it is not immediately relevant to their tasks. This increased scrutiny may help to reduce errors.

Claims

1. A method of providing worklist information to users of a medical data management system, the method comprising:

employing a plurality of worklist items, each worklist item including a set of data items;

assembling one or more worklists from the worklist items by employing a customizable set of scoping rules to determine which of the worklist items are assembled into each of the one or more worklists; and

in response to the one or more worklists being assembled, providing worklist information to users by pushing the one or more worklists, in substantially real-time, to one or more client computers for display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the customizable set of rules is user customizable.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the customizable set of rules is customizable by a system administrator.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of data items includes medical study data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of data items includes patient data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of data items includes patient location information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of data items includes institution data.

8. The method of claim 1 comprising automatedly generating a subset of the plurality of worklist items for inclusion in a worklist.

9. The method of claim 1 comprising automatedly updating a subset of the plurality of worklist items in response to an action being taken with respect to the set of data items.

10. The method of claim 1 comprising automatedly removing from at least one of the one or more worklists a subset of the worklist items previously assembled into the at least one of the one or more worklists in response to an action being taken with respect to the set of data items.

11. The method of claim 1 comprising automatedly adding one or more of the worklist items not initially assembled into at least one of the one or more worklists in response to an action being taken with respect to the set of data items.

12. The method of claim 1 comprising providing a graphical user interface to enable a user to enter a subset of the plurality of worklist items.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein assembling the one or more worklists comprises receiving orders for medical studies.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein assembling the one or more worklists comprises determining which of the plurality of worklist items are assembled into each of the one or more worklists based at least in part on a set of check-in criteria.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the check-in criteria includes a specification of one or more modalities associated with each particular medical study.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein:

each of the plurality of worklist items includes a scheduled time;

the check-in criteria includes a time window for each of the one or more worklists; and

each of the one or more worklists includes those of the plurality of worklist items having a scheduled time that falls within its time window.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein:

each of the plurality of worklist items has an associated data value in the set of data items;

the check-in criteria includes one or more data values for each of the one or more worklists; and

each of the one or more worklists includes those of the plurality of worklist items having a data value that matches the one or more data values in the check-in criteria for that worklist.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein:

each of the plurality of worklist items includes an associated status;

the check-in criteria includes one or more status values associated with each of the one or more worklists; and

each particular one of the one or more worklists includes ones of the plurality of worklist items that have an associated status value that matches an associated status value for the particular one of the plurality of worklists.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein pushing the one or more worklists to the one or more client computers for display comprises using a messaging system to send the one or more worklists to the one or more client computers.

20. The method of claim 19, comprising employing a standards based messaging system.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein assembling the one or more worklists comprises applying a set of checkout criteria, which at least in part determine which ones of the worklist items included in a worklist should be removed from the worklist.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more worklists is associated with one or more users, and wherein pushing the one or more worklists to one or more client computer comprises determining which client computers should receive the worklist based at least in part on the users with which the worklist is associated.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the medical data management system manages a medical imaging system, and wherein the set of data items includes a pointer to a medical image.

24. A method of displaying a customizable worklist to a user of a medical data management system, the method comprising:

receiving a worklist pushed from a real-time worklist service, wherein the worklist includes one or more worklist items, and each worklist item includes one or more data items;

selecting which data items to display in the worklist, based at least in part on a customizable set of display attributes associated with the worklist; and

displaying the selected data items of the one or more worklist items.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein displaying the selected data items comprises displaying the selected data items of the one or more worklist items in a Web browser.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising sorting the one or more worklist items according to a sort order specified in the customizable set of display attributes associated with the worklist.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising determining a subset of the one or more worklist items to be hidden in the display, based at least in part on a set of hide criteria associated with the worklist.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising displaying information relating to the subset of the one or more worklist items to be hidden in the display.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein displaying information comprises displaying the number and type of worklist items in the subset of the one or more worklist items to be hidden in the display.

30. The method of claim 24, further comprising displaying a set of action icons associated with each worklist item displayed.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the set of action icons displayed is determined by a list of actions associated with the worklist.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the action icons include an action icon that, when selected, will cause a medical image associated with a worklist item to be displayed.

33. The method of claim 24, comprising associating with the user a set of display preferences for viewing the worklist, and selecting which of the worklist items are displayed based at least in part on the set of display preferences.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the set of display preferences is specified by the user.

35. A method of providing worklist information concurrently to a plurality of users of a medical data management system, the method comprising:

defining scoping rules for items to be included in each of a plurality of worklists, the scoping rules permitting the same item to appear in more than one of the plurality of worklists;

applying the scoping rules to a set of worklist items to populate the plurality of worklists with the worklist items, wherein two or more of the worklists in the plurality of worklists simultaneously include the same worklist item; and

displaying one or more of the plurality of worklists on a client computer.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein displaying one or more of the plurality of worklists on a client computer comprises sending one or more of the plurality of worklists to the client computer.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein sending one or more of the plurality of worklists to the client computer comprises pushing one or more of the plurality of worklists to the client computer.

38. A method of reducing the occurrence of errors in information displayed in a worklist for a medical data management system, the method comprising:

displaying substantially the same information in two or more different worklists that are used by two or more users.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising updating the information displayed in the two or more different worklists substantially in real-time.

40. The method of claim 38 wherein the medical data management system comprises a medical imaging system.

41. The method of claim 38, further comprising using a graphical user interface to display the two or more different worklists.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the graphical user interface is organized consistently across the two or more different worklists.

43. The method of claim 38 further comprising organizing each of the two or more different worklists based on data selected from patient data, study data, institution data, time data, and role data.

44. A medical data management system comprising:

a worklist module that employs a plurality of worklist items, each worklist item including a set of data items; and

that assembles one or more worklists from the worklist items by employing a customizable set of scoping rules to determine which of the worklist items are assembled into each of the one or more worklists; and

a real-time worklist service that, in response to the one or more worklists being assembled, provides worklist information to users by pushing the one or more worklists, in substantially real-time, to one or more client computers for display.

45. The medical data management system of claim 44, wherein the customizable set of rules is user customizable.

46. The medical data management system of claim 44, wherein the customizable set of rules is customizable by a system administrator.

47. The medical data management system of claim 44, wherein the set of data items includes medical study data.

48. The medical data management system of claim 44, wherein the set of data items includes patient data.

49. The medical data management system of claim 44, wherein the set of data items includes institution data.

50. The medical data management system of claim 44 wherein the worklist module further automatedly generates a subset of the plurality of worklist items for inclusion in a worklist.

51. The medical data management system of claim 44, wherein the worklist module assembles the one or more worklists by determining which of the plurality of worklist items are assembled into each of the one or more worklists based at least in part on a set of check-in criteria.

52. The medical data management system of claim 44, wherein the real-time worklist service uses a messaging system to push the one or more worklists to the one or more client computers.

53. The medical data management system of claim 44, wherein each of the one or more worklists is associated with one or more users, and wherein the real-time worklist service determines which client computers should receive each of the one or more worklists based at least in part on the users with which each worklist is associated.

54. The medical data management system of claim 44, further comprising an image store that stores medical image data, wherein one or more of the worklist items contain a pointer to medical image data in the image store.