Method and system to offer and to acquire clinical knowledge using a centralized knowledge server

• US 20070179804A1
• Filed: 12/14/2005
• Published: 08/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Haider, Sultan, Wetekam, Volker
• Granted Patent: US 7,685,001 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/20 relating to practices or guidelines

Abstract

In a method and system for providing clinical knowledge from a provider to a medical user based on one or more diagnostic questions submitted by the user to the provider, a clinical knowledge communication server is provided with an associated knowledge database. The at least one or more diagnostic questions are sent by the user to the server. With the server, an initial examination of the at least one or more diagnostic questions is conducted. Examination steps are associated with the at least one or more diagnostic questions and placed in a sequence. The sequence of examination steps are then sent to the medical user. The provider may also request clinical knowledge from the medical user such as, for example, relating to the diagnostic questions submitted by the user.

Claims

1. A method for providing clinical knowledge from a provider to a medical user based on one or more diagnostic questions submitted by the user to the provider, comprising the steps of:

providing a clinical knowledge communication server with an associated knowledge data base;

sending said at least one or more diagnostic questions by the user to the server; and

with the server

conducting an initial examination of the at least one or more diagnostic questions,

associating examination steps with the at least one or more diagnostic questions and creating a sequence of the examination steps, and

sending said sequence of examination steps to said medical user.

2. A method of claim 1 wherein after the step of associating the examination steps, said server:

determines an economic combination of the examination steps that answer said at least one or more diagnostic questions;

optimizes a sequence of the examination steps; and

sends said optimized sequence of examination steps to said medical user.

3. A method of claim 2 wherein attributes are generated for association of examination steps with said at least one or more diagnostic questions, and said attributes are used for determining said economic combination of the examination steps that answer said at least one or more diagnostic questions.

4. A method of claim 2 including the further step of after optimizing the sequence of the examination steps, said server harmonizes the examination steps.

5. A method of claim 1 wherein a marking is performed of examination results of the individual examination steps with the at least one or more diagnostic questions that substantiate the examination step.

6. A method of claim 1 including the step of providing a business logic of said medical user to said clinical knowledge server.

7. A method of claim 6 wherein said business logic of the user is sent to the server at the time that the at least one or more diagnostic questions are sent.

8. A method of claim 1 wherein together with said at least one or more diagnostic questions, the user also sends patient symptoms.

9. A method of claim 8 wherein in addition to the patient symptoms, the user also sends patient demographic data.

10. A method of claim 1 wherein the clinical knowledge server has a business logic component associated therewith.

11. A method of claim 10 wherein said business logic component performs a step of making use of system utilization data from customers of the provider.

12. A method of claim 11 wherein the clinical knowledge server also has a decision support system associated therewith, and the server processes the system utilization data for extracting information about best protocols or best processing tools used for answering certain of said at least one or more diagnostic questions.

13. A method of claim 1 wherein the medical user has an authentication, authorization, and encryption device for sending the at least one or more diagnostic questions to the provider, and the provider has an authentication, authorization, and encryption device which receives said at least one or more diagnostic questions.

14. A method of claim 1 wherein said server also sends back to said user in response to said at least one or more diagnostic questions, at least one of examination protocol, sequences, or a post-processing software.

15. A method of claim 1 wherein said provider requests clinical knowledge from said medical user and said medical user sends clinical knowledge to said provider based on said request from said provider.

16. A method of claim 14 wherein said clinical knowledge sent by said medical user relates to said diagnostic questions from said user.

17. A method of claim 15 wherein a business logic of said provider associated with said clinical knowledge communication server contains information for exchange of clinical knowledge for particular medical users.

18. A method for providing clinical knowledge from a provider to a medical user based on one or more diagnostic questions submitted by the user to the provider, comprising the steps of:

providing a clinical knowledge communication server with an associated knowledge data base;

sending said at least one or more diagnostic questions by the user to the server; and

with the server

conducting an initial examination of the at least one or more diagnostic questions,

associating examination steps with the at least one or more diagnostic questions,

determining an economic combination of the examination steps that answer said at least one or more diagnostic questions,

optimizing a sequence of the examination steps,

harmonizing the examination steps, and

sending said optimized and harmonized sequence of examination steps to said medical user.

19. A system for providing clinical knowledge from a provider to a medical user based on one or more diagnostic questions submitted by the user to the provider, comprising:

a clinical knowledge communication server with an associated knowledge data base, said at least one or more diagnostic questions being sent by the user to the server; and

said server

conducting an initial examination of the at least one or more diagnostic questions,

associating examination steps with the at least one or more diagnostic questions and creating a sequence of the examination steps, and

sending said sequence of examination steps to said medical user.

20. A system of claim 19 wherein after the step of associating the examination steps, said server:

determines an economic combination of the examination steps that answer said at least one or more diagnostic questions;

optimizes a sequence of the examination steps; and

sends said optimized sequence of examination steps to said medical user.

21. A system of claim 20 wherein said server generates attributes for association of examination steps with said at least one or more diagnostic questions, and said attributes are used for determining said economic combination of the examination steps that answer said at least one or more diagnostic questions.

22. A system of claim 20 including the further step of after optimizing the sequence of the examination steps, said server harmonizes the examination steps.

23. A system of claim 19 including providing a business logic of said medical user to said clinical knowledge server.

24. A system of claim 23 wherein said business logic of the user is sent to the server at the time that the at least one or more diagnostic questions are sent.

25. A system of claim 19 wherein together with said at least one or more diagnostic questions, the user also sends patient symptoms.

26. A system of claim 19 wherein a business logic component associated with said server makes use of system utilization data from customers of the provider.

27. A system of claim 26 wherein the clinical knowledge server also has a decision support system associated therewith, and the server processes the system utilization data for extracting information about best protocols or best processing tools used for answering certain of said at least one or more diagnostic questions.

28. A system of claim 19 wherein said server also sends back to said user in response to said at least one or more diagnostic questions, at least one of examination protocol, sequences, or a post-processing software.

29. A system of claim 19 wherein said server also requests clinical knowledge from said clinical user and receives responsive clinical knowledge from said user.

30. A system of claim 19 wherein a business logic associated with said clinical knowledge server provides information for managing a clinical knowledge exchange between said medical user and said provider.

31. A computer program product for providing clinical knowledge from a provider to a medical user based on one or more diagnostic questions submitted by the user to the provider, said computer program product being used in a clinical knowledge communication server with an associated knowledge data base and wherein said server receives said at least one or more diagnostic questions from the user, said computer program product performing the steps of:

conducting an initial examination of the at least one or more diagnostic questions;

associating examination steps with the at least one or more diagnostic questions; and

sending said optimized sequence of examination steps to said medical user.

32. The computer program product of claim 31 wherein said computer program product sends a request for clinical knowledge from said provider to said medical user and receives clinical knowledge from said user.