System and method for creating a visualization indicating relationships and relevance to an entity

• US 20050076060A1
• Filed: 06/02/2004
• Published: 04/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cemer Innovation Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cemer Innovation Incorporated
• Inventors: McCallie, David P. Jr., Finn, Christopher S., Crooks, Steven S., O'Larte, David J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,639,520 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

A system and method for generating interactive visualizations of clinical relationships is provided. The method includes determining what entities have had some clinical contact with an entity of interest and collecting data regarding each entity and each entity'"'"'s contacts with the entity of interest. The collected data can be filtered to remove unwanted entities and properties. Algorithms are applied to generate clinical relevance scores, which represent the relationship between the entities and the entity of interest. In addition, each entity is assigned components that allow for some executable behavior when an entity is selected in a display. Finally, the appropriate visualization is selected and a display of the relationships is generated.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system of generating a visualization model used to display relationships between a plurality of physical entity elements and a physical entity of interest, the method comprising:

retrieving properties for each of the entity elements and the entity of interest, the properties including at least one activity type indicative of contact between the entity element and the entity of interest;

calculating a relevance score for each entity element using the retrieved properties of each entity element, the relevance score weighting certain properties above others to rank each entity element'"'"'s relevance to the entity of interest; and

generating a visualization model using the retrieved properties of each entity element and the calculated relevance scores, the model representing the relationship and relevance of each entity element relative to the entity of interest.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising combining the retrieved properties and sorting by entity element after the properties are retrieved.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the retrieved properties to eliminate any properties that are not of interest.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating the retrieving, calculating and generating steps for each of a plurality of time periods.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationships are clinical relationships, the entity of interest is an individual receiving healthcare and the entity elements are individuals providing the healthcare or resources for providing healthcare.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, on a display device, the visualization of the relationships using the generated visualization model.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising assigning icons to each of the displayed entity elements.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the size, shape and color of the assigned icons are used to convey relevance and property information.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising associating at least one executable action with at least one of the entity elements.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the executable action is an executable uniform resource locator (URL) that is executed by a mouse click on the entity icon.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact between the entity element and the entity of interest is an actual physical contact.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact between the entity element and the entity of interest is a request that will direct a physical contact between an entity element and the entity of interest.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact between the entity element and the entity of interest is a passive contact between the entity of interest and the entity of interest.

14. A computer system having a processor, a memory and an operating environment, the computer system operable to execute the method as recited in claim 1.

15. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for executing the method of claim 1.

16. A computer system for generating an entity-of-interest-focused visualization to display relationships between an entity of interest and a plurality of entity elements, along with the relevance of the entity elements to the entity of interest, the system comprising:

at least one originating system adapter component that retrieves properties of entity elements that have had contact with the entity of interest from an originating system, the properties including at least one activity type indicative of contact between the entity element and the entity of interest;

a visualization model generation component that calculates a clinical relevance score for each entity element using a clinical relevance algorithm and the retrieved properties of each entity element; and

a visualization engine that generates a visualization using the retrieved properties of each entity element and the clinical relevance score calculated for each entity element.

17. The computer system of claim 16, further comprising a filter component that operates to remove unwanted properties from the retrieved properties prior to the calculation of the relevance score.

18. The computer system of claim 16, wherein a plurality of originating systems are available, further comprising an originating system adapter for each available originating system.

19. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the visualization engine also assigns iconography to the entity elements to be displayed and associates action classes with each entity element.

20. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the contact between the entity elements and the entity of interest is indirect contact.

21. A user interface embodied on a computer readable medium and executable on a computer, comprising:

an entity of interest representation; and

a plurality of entity element representations, each representing an entity element associated with the entity of interest, wherein each entity element representation has associated therewith an executable action,

wherein the arrangement of the entity element representations relative to the entity of interest representation conveys information about the relationship between the entity of interest and each entity element based on one or more contacts between the entity of interest and each entity element.

22. The user interface of claim 21, wherein the relationship information is conveyed using the color, shape and positioning of the entity element representations.

23. The user interface of claim 22, wherein the executable action is a uniform resource locator (URL) unique to the entity element with which it is associated.

24. The user interface of claim 23, wherein the entity elements representations represent healthcare resources and wherein the entity of interest representation represents a person receiving healthcare.

25. A method in a computer system of generating a visualization model used to display relationships between a plurality of physical entity elements and a physical entity of interest, the method comprising:

retrieving properties for each of the entity elements relative to the entity of interest for a plurality of time periods, the properties associated with one or more contacts between each entity element and the entity of interest;

generating a visualization model representing the relationship and relevance of each entity element relative to the entity of interest using the retrieved properties of each entity element for each time period; and

sequentially displaying of the relationships using the generated visualization model for each time period.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the relevance of each entity element relative to the entity of interest is determined by calculating a relevance score for each entity element using the retrieved properties of each entity element, the relevance score weighting certain properties above others to rank each entity element'"'"'s relevance to the entity of interest.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising filtering the retrieved properties to eliminate any properties that are not of interest.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the relationships are clinical relationships, the entity of interest is an individual receiving healthcare and the entity elements are individuals providing the healthcare or resources for providing healthcare.

29. A computer system having a processor, a memory and an operating environment, the computer system operable to execute the method as recited in claim 25.

30. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for executing the method of claim 25.