INVENTORY TRACKING FOR ANATOMIC PATHOLOGY CONSULTATIONS

• US 20070288261A1
• Filed: 06/07/2006
• Published: 12/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Burke, Mary Kay, Arnold, Joshua W., Cross, Lori N., Stroud, James L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,131,561 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring

Abstract

An on-line approach to coordinating intradepartmental anatomic pathology consultations, including coordinating access to physical case materials and/or electronic case materials, is provided. In accordance with one method in a clinical computing environment, a command to initiate a share event for an anatomic pathology case is received. One or more share recipients are determined manually and/or automatically for the share event. In addition, whether any physical case materials and/or electronic case materials are associated with the anatomic pathology case is determined. If any physical case materials and/or electronic case materials are associated with the anatomic pathology case, share recipient access to the materials is coordinated. After each share recipient reviews the case, the share recipient may enter comments.

Claims

1. A method, implemented at least in part in a clinical computing environment, for coordinating a share event for an anatomic pathology case, the method comprising:

receiving a command to initiate the share event for the anatomic pathology case;

determining one or more share recipients for the share event;

identifying physical case materials associated with the anatomic pathology case;

tracking the location of the physical case materials during the share event; and

receiving at least one comment from at least one of the one or more share recipients.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a command to initiate the share event comprises:

providing one or more rules defining when a share event is to be initiated; and

determining that the share event is to be initiated based on at least one of the one or more rules.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more share recipients is determined based on user input.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more share recipients is automatically determined based on one or more pre-defined criteria.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a schedule for the one or more share recipients to review the anatomic pathology case.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying physical case materials associated with the anatomic pathology case comprises receiving a user-specified identification of the physical case materials.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying physical case materials associated with the anatomic pathology case comprises automatically determining the physical case materials based on the anatomic pathology case.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein tracking the location of the physical case materials during the share event comprises receiving a manual indication of the location of the physical case materials.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein tracking the location of the physical case materials during the share event comprises:

identifying one of the one or more share recipients as a share owner; and

identifying the location of the share owner as the location of the physical case materials.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein tracking the location of the physical case materials comprises:

placing an RFID on the physical case materials; and

tracking the location of the physical case materials using the RFID.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein tracking the location of the physical case materials comprises:

providing a repository for the physical case materials; and

tracking the physical case materials to one of the one or more share recipients when the one of the one or more share recipients removes the physical case materials from the repository.

12. One or more computer readable media having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

13. A method, implemented at least in part in a clinical computing environment, for coordinating a share event for an anatomic pathology case, the method comprising:

receiving a command to initiate the share event for the anatomic pathology case;

determining one or more share recipients for the share event;

determining whether if at least one of physical case materials and electronic case materials are associated with the anatomic pathology case;

if at least one of physical case materials and electronic case materials are associated with the anatomic pathology case, coordinating share recipient access to the at least one of physical case materials and electronic case materials during the share event; and

receiving at least one comment from at least one of the one or more share recipients.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein electronic case materials are associated with the anatomic pathology case, and wherein coordinating share recipient access to the electronic case materials comprises allowing the one or more share recipients to simultaneously access the electronic case materials.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein both physical case materials and electronic case materials are associated with the anatomic pathology case.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein coordinating share recipient access to the physical case materials comprises:

receiving a request for the physical case materials from a share recipient;

determining if the physical case materials are available; and

if the physical case materials are available, allowing the share recipient to access the physical case materials.

17. One or more computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for performing the method of claim 13.

18. A system for coordinating a share event for an anatomic pathology case, the system comprising:

a share event initiation component for receiving a command to initiate a share event for one or more share recipients;

a case material tracking component for tracking access to at least one of physical case materials and electronic case materials associated with the share event; and

a share comment component for receiving at least one comment from at least one of the one or more share recipients.