Physician-focused risk management method and apparatus

• US 20070043586A1
• Filed: 08/14/2006
• Published: 02/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Felix Arellano
• Original Assignee: Felix Arellano
• Inventors: Arellano, Felix
• Application Number:
  US11/504,143
• Publication Number:
  US 20070043586A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage

Abstract

A risk management method and associated tool is used to identify, assess, manage, and mitigate health risks associated with a broad range of medications, medical devices, procedures, and associated practices employed by practioners in the health field in the care and treatment of patients. The method may include identifying a parameter to study; searching a database to identify members of a population appropriate to the parameter; identifying a plurality of personnel responsible for prescribing an aspect of the parameter to the members of said population; and soliciting information from the personnel concerning risks associated with the aspect.

Claims

1. A method of risk management comprising the steps of identifying a parameter to study;

searching a database to identify members of a population appropriate to said parameter;

identifying a plurality of personnel responsible for prescribing an aspect of said parameter to said members of said population; and

soliciting information from said personnel concerning risks associated with said aspect.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein said parameter to study is selected from the group consisting of medications, medical procedures, medical devices, and treatment protocols.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein said database includes populations of patients receiving, being treated according to, and or using one of said group.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein said database includes linkages between said members of said population and said personnel.

5. The method according to claim 1 including a step of informing said personnel of a risky activity associated with said prescribing said aspect of said parameter.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein said aspect of said parameter includes a medication for which use is contraindicated for at least some members of said population.

7. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of receiving responses to said step of soliciting and generating an aggregated report from said responses.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein said step of soliciting information from said personnel includes the steps:

of contacting said personnel;

posting questions soliciting said information on a website; and

collecting responses to said questions from said website.

9. The method according to claim 1 further comprising a step of evaluating an effectiveness of said step of soliciting information from said personnel concerning risks associated with said aspect in affecting a behavior of said personnel in connection with said risk.

10. A method comprising the steps of:

identifying a medication associated with a potential risk;

identifying a population of patients receiving said medication;

identifying a plurality of practitioners having control of said patients receipt of said medication; and

soliciting information from said practitioners about their behavior with respect to said medication.

11. The method according to claim 10 further comprising a step of notifying said practitioners about said potential risk.

12. The method according to claim 11 further comprising a step of evaluating an affect of said step of notifying said practitioners in modifying a behavior of said practitioners.

13. The method according to claim 10 further comprising a steps of collecting responses from said practitioners and generating a summary report based on said responses.

14. The method according to claim 10 wherein said control of said patients receipt of said medication includes a step of prescribing said medication to said patients.

15. A risk management tool comprising a software stored in a machine readable media, said software including programming for performing the steps of identifying a parameter to study;

searching a database to identify members of a population appropriate to said parameter;

identifying a plurality of personnel-responsible for prescribing an aspect of said parameter to said members of said population; and

soliciting information from said personnel concerning risks associated with said aspect.

16. The risk management tool according to claim 15 wherein said parameter to study is selected from the group consisting of medications, medical procedures, medical devices, and treatment protocols.

17. The risk management tool according to claim 15 wherein said database includes populations of patients receiving, being treated according to, and or using one of said group.

18. The risk management tool according to claim 15 wherein said programming further performs a step of informing said personnel of a risky activity associated with said prescribing said aspect of said parameter.

19. The risk management tool according to claim 18 wherein said programming further performs a step of evaluating an effectiveness of said step of informaint said personnel in changing a behavior of said personnel in connection with said risky activity.

20. The risk management tool according to claim 15 wherein said programming further performs a step of generating a webpage presenting a series of questions and responses for soliciting and collecting said information from said personnel concerning said risks associated with said aspect.