System and method for managing an endoscopic lab

• US 20050075544A1
• Filed: 05/14/2004
• Published: 04/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Olympus America Incorporated (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Olympus America Incorporated (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Cohen, Michael, Seidman, Ken, Rogers, Mary, Pollachi, Sai Kumar, Lee, Joan, Whatiley, Christopher, Agarwal, Deepak, Cotton, Peter B., Divinsky, Aaron, Shapiro, Marc, Pearson, Philip, Odlivak, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US10/846,245
• Publication Number:
  US 20050075544A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/40 for data related to laboratory analysis, e.g. patient specimen analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• 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: H04N 23/555 for picking-up images in sites, inaccessible due to their dimensions or hazardous conditions, e.g. endoscopes or borescopes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/633 for displaying additional information relating to control or operation of the camera

Abstract

A system designed to support and manage the workflow for all user roles pertaining to an endoscopic laboratory, from registration and scheduling of patient information through pre-procedure, procedure and post-procedure phases of an endoscopic examination, including support for the entry, by various users associated with an endoscopic laboratory, of information and data including the processing and storage of endoscopic images captured during an endoscopic exam of a patient, for association with a patient record stored in a database, and including the entry of procedure notes and generation of reports that include the stored images, all via an integrated user interface.

Claims

1. A method for managing information flow in an endoscopy laboratory including a computer device, said endoscopy laboratory adapted to enable users to perform endoscopic procedures upon patients, said method including:

a) inputting patient information and setting up schedules for endoscopic examinations via said computer device during a registration phase of care;

b) inputting preparatory examination information relating to said patient via said computer device prior to performing said procedure;

c) inputting information during performance of said procedure including the real time endoscopic image capture via said computer device;

d) inputting information regarding said patient via said computer device after performance of said procedure;

e) storing said input registration and scheduling information, preparatory information, captured images obtained during said procedure, and post-procedure information regarding said patient in database records;

f) organizing presentation of information included in said database records and managing access to said information and images stored in said database records via an integrated user interface associated with said computer device, said presentation and access controlled according to a user'"'"'s role,

wherein support for the full flow of patient and related information is provided through various phases associated with all users involved in an endoscope practice.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including the step of tracking a patient'"'"'s state to ensure all information is captured in a particular order prior to implementing a next phase of care stage based on the current user state.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said patient information includes historical data, medical alerts, and medications currently prescribed for the patient, said system further enabling the presentation of said historical data, medical alerts, and medications currently prescribed for the patient.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said patient information includes scheduling information for setting up an endoscopic examination to be performed, said method further including the step of:

assigning resources for an examination including procedure rooms and equipment to be used for a procedure.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of inputting preparatory examination information includes providing check of preparation, medication, and consent relating to the start of a patient'"'"'s visit.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of inputting information during performance of said procedure includes enabling interaction with a knowledge base including selectable keywords via said integrated user interface that enable the build of a hierarchical list of keywords that will be used to automatically generate documentation related to the examination at each phase of care stage.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of inputting information during performance of said procedure includes enabling a user to record each of a patient'"'"'s vital signs, medication details, equipment use details and pathology specimen information relative to the procedure.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of inputting information regarding said patient after performance of said procedure includes information relating to monitoring a patient in a recovery room, including medications administered.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of inputting information regarding said patient after performance of said procedure includes adding annotations to images captured during said exam.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including the step of enabling comparison of captured images related to a current exam with saved images relating to a patient'"'"'s prior exam.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including the step of providing predefined template-based management reporting capability, including the generation of templates for generating procedure notes, reports, and other documentation at each phase of care stage.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including the step of customizing a hardware configuration of said endoscopic laboratory via said integrated user interface.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including the step of creating and modifying user roles, and the access to system functionality based on said roles.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including the step of automatically associating billing codes with specific medical terminology to enable generation of billing information related to specific exams.

15. The method as claimed in claim 6, further including the step of maintaining the knowledge base by enabling the addition of new keywords, sentence models and menu structures associated with each phase of care stage.

16. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including the step of maintaining resource information including equipment resources and clinical staff records.

17. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including the step of tracking contextual information including user, patient, examination, department and facility where an examination is to be performed as a user navigates though each phase of care stage via said integrated interface.

18. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for managing information flow in an endoscopy laboratory including a computer device, said endoscopy laboratory adapted to enable users to perform endoscopic procedures upon patients, said method steps comprising:

g) inputting patient information and setting up schedules for endoscopic examinations via said computer device during a registration phase of care;

h) inputting preparatory examination information relating to said patient via said computer device prior to performing said procedure;

i) inputting information during performance of said procedure including the real time endoscopic image capture via said computer device;

j) inputting information regarding said patient via said computer device after performance of said procedure;

k) storing said input registration and scheduling information, preparatory information, captured images obtained during said procedure, and post-procedure information regarding said patient in database records;

l) organizing presentation of information included in said database records and managing access to said information and images stored in said database records via an integrated user interface associated with said computer device, said presentation and access controlled according to a user'"'"'s role,

wherein support for the full flow of patient and related information is provided through various phases associated with all users involved in an endoscope practice.

19. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein said method steps further include the step of tracking a patient'"'"'s state to ensure all information is captured in a particular order prior to implementing a next phase of care stage based on the current user state.

20. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein said patient information includes historical data, medical alerts, and medications currently prescribed for the patient, said system further enabling the presentation of said historical data, medical alerts, and medications.

21. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein

said patient information includes scheduling information for setting up an endoscopic examination to be performed, said method further including the step of:

assigning resources for an examination including procedure rooms and equipment to be used for a procedure.

22. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein the step of inputting preparatory examination information includes providing check of preparation, medication, and consent relating to the start of a patient'"'"'s visit.

23. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein the step of inputting information during performance of said procedure includes enabling interaction with a knowledge base including selectable keywords via said integrated user interface that enable the build of a hierarchical list of keywords that will be used to automatically generate documentation related to the examination at each phase of care stage.

24. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein the step of inputting information during performance of said procedure includes:

enabling a user to record each of a patient'"'"'s vital signs, medication details, equipment use details and pathology specimen information relative to the procedure.

25. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein the step of inputting information regarding said patient after performance of said procedure includes information relating to monitoring a patient in a recovery room, including medications administered.

26. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein the step of inputting information regarding said patient after performance of said procedure includes adding annotations to images captured during said exam.

27. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, further including the step of enabling comparison of captured images related to a current exam with saved images relating to a patient'"'"'s prior exam.

28. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, further including the step of providing predefined template-based management reporting capability, including the generation of templates for generating procedure notes, reports, and other documentation at each phase of care stage.

29. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, further including the step of customizing a hardware configuration of said endoscopic laboratory via said integrated user interface.

30. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, further including the step of:

creating and modifying user roles, and the access to system functionality based on said roles.

31. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, further including the step of automatically associating billing codes with specific medical terminology to enable generation of billing information related to specific exams.

32. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 23, further including the step of:

maintaining the knowledge base by enabling the addition of new keywords, sentence models and menu structures associated with each phase of care stage.

33. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, further including the step of maintaining resource information including equipment resources and clinical staff records.

34. The program storage device readable by a machine as claimed in claim 18, further including the step of tracking contextual information including user, patient, examination, department and facility where an examination is to be performed as a user navigates though each phase of care stage via said integrated interface.