Pre-Fetching Patient Data for Virtual Worklists

• US 20080140723A1
• Filed: 11/23/2007
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Compressus, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Compressus, Inc.
• Inventors: Rosenfield, Joel, Liao, Simon, Gasztonyi, Laszlo R., Anaya, Raymundo, Gesell, Ronald G., Hernandez, Albert
• Granted Patent: US 10,540,731 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

Methods and systems for automating the search, selection, and retrieval of historical patient data associated with a current patient study. The invention includes methods to overcome issues with multi-site networking and administrative rules and managing efficient workflow for the viewing and analysis of diagnostic images within an healthcare enterprise network. The methods and systems can provide enterprise-wide workflow routing, load balancing, customized diagnostic workflow implementation, information flow, flexible worklist viewing, system administration, and maximized diagnostic production.

Claims

1. A method for automating and managing workflow for healthcare data retrieval, display, and analysis on a healthcare enterprise network, comprising:

receiving a study order for a patient, wherein the study order originates from a network;

storing the study order in a Worklist as an uncompleted study order;

applying a workflow routing rule to data contained in the study order to determine a destination group;

automatically making accessible to a second workstation the healthcare data of a primary study of the patient associated with the study order;

locating a network source of historical information about the patient; and

automatically making accessible to the second workstation the historical information about the patient.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first workstation and the second workstation are the same.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the healthcare enterprise network includes at least one workstation which employs similar or dissimilar data formats for patient data wherein access is acquired by a proxy through the use of a network.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising translating a patient image automatically from a first data format to a second data format.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing communication within the healthcare enterprise network among any combination of an imaging system, an image archive server, a workstation, and a personal computer.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising making accessible to the second workstation all images of the primary study of the patient and all available historical images and reports about the patient.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination group is a group of one or more physicians.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising logging a physician into the second workstation.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting a new study order received somewhere on the network;

and adding the new study order to the Worklist.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising customizing the workflow routing rule in order to reduce a number of study orders sent to a destination group whose elapsed time between when study orders were received from imaging workstations and when reports were completed exceeds a predetermined limit.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising logging in a journal an execution time of an action performed by the healthcare enterprise network.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing and pre-fetching diagnostic images from DICOM archives.

13. The method of claim 3, further comprising acquiring studies from a combination of HIS, RIS, PACS and network systems.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying the workflow routing rule to the data contained in the study order to determine the destination group depends on one or more of:

an image modality, a body part in the image, a name of a referring physician of a diagnostic image, a name of a diagnostic physician, a time range, a date range, and specific days of the week.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the healthcare data includes medical images.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising searching multiple storage locations by MRN, or other demographic data for historical patient healthcare data and selecting prior healthcare data based on relevancy.

17. A healthcare enterprise network system of workstations and servers, comprising:

an imaging device capable of generating patient images in communication with the healthcare enterprise network system;

a diagnostic workstation in communication with the healthcare enterprise network system; and

a computer readable storage memory coupled to the healthcare enterprise network system having stored thereon Workflow Manager software which causes a processor on the healthcare enterprise network system to perform the steps of;

receiving a study order for a patient sent from the imaging device;

storing the study order in a Worklist as an uncompleted study order;

applying a workflow routing rule to data contained in the study order to determine a destination group;

automatically making accessible to the diagnostic workstation patient images associated with the study order;

locating a network source of historical information about the patient; and

automatically making accessible to the diagnostic workstation the historical information about the patient.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the Workflow Manager software is stored on computer readable memory of the device and the diagnostic workstation.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein at least part of the Workflow Manager software executes on a network server.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the Workflow Manager software comprises server software and client software.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the imaging device and the diagnostic workstation utilize dissimilar patient image formats.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the patient images are automatically translated from one data format to another data format.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the Workflow Manager software additionally causes a processor on the healthcare enterprise network system to make accessible to the diagnostic workstation all patent images of a primary study and all available historical images and reports about the patient.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the destination group is a group of one or more physicians.

25. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one diagnostic workstation is accessed by a physician logged into the network at the diagnostic workstation.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the logged-in physician is a radiologist.

27. The system of claim 17, wherein the study order is in a DICOM modality worklist on the imaging device.

28. The system of claim 17, wherein the software additionally causes a processor on the healthcare enterprise network system to respond to a new patient image appearing anywhere on the healthcare enterprise network and update the Worklist with a new study order to which the new patient image is related.

29. The system of claim 17, wherein the software additionally causes a processor on the healthcare enterprise network system to detect origination of a new study order on the network and update the Worklist with the new study order.

30. The system of claim 17, wherein the software additionally causes a processor on the healthcare enterprise network system to support creation and modification of the workflow routing rule.

31. The system of claim 17, wherein the software additionally causes a processor on the healthcare enterprise network system to collect historical information about timing of actions of logged-in diagnosticians for use in improving efficiency and effectiveness of the enterprise network system.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the collected historical information enables a system administrator to customize the workflow routing rule to improve overall diagnostic throughput.

33. The system of claim 17, wherein the software additionally causes a processor on the healthcare enterprise network system to load the diagnostic workstation with a diagnostic image stored in a DICOM archive.

34. The system of claim 17, wherein the software additionally causes a processor on the healthcare enterprise network system to generate the Worklist on an interoperable network of HIS, RIS, and PACS systems.

35. The system of claim 17, wherein the worklist routing rule is based on one or more of:

an image source modality, a body part of the image, a name of a referring physician, a name of a diagnostic physician, a time range, a date range, and a day of the week.

36. The system of claim 17, wherein the worklist routing rule can be modified by an administrator of the healthcare enterprise network.

37. The system of claim 17, wherein the software additionally causes a processor on the healthcare enterprise network system to log in a journal an action performed by a processor on the enterprise network system executing the software.

38. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for automating and managing workflow for medical image retrieval, display, and analysis on a healthcare enterprise network, the computer executable instructions configured to cause one or more processors on the healthcare enterprise network to perform steps comprising:

receiving a study order for a patient, where the study order originates from a first workstation on the network;

storing the study order in a Master Worklist as an uncompleted study order;

applying a workflow routing rule to data contained in the study order to determine a destination group;

automatically making accessible to a second workstation an image of a primary study of the patient associated with the study order;

locating a network source of historical information about the patient; and

automatically making accessible to the second workstation the historical information about the patient.

39. The computer readable medium of claim 38, wherein the computer executable instructions further comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to automatically translate from one dissimilar data format to another dissimilar data format.

40. The computer readable medium of claim 38, wherein the computer executable instructions further comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to make accessible to the second workstation all images of a primary study of the patient and all available historical images and reports about the patient.

41. The computer readable medium of claim 38, wherein the computer executable instructions further comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to detect a new study order received somewhere on the healthcare enterprise network and to add the new study order to the Master Worklist.

42. The computer readable medium of claim 41, wherein the computer executable instructions further comprise instructions to cause the one or more processors to customize the workflow routing rule in order to reduce a number of study orders sent to a destination group whose elapsed time between when study orders were received from imaging workstations and when reports were completed exceed a predetermined limit.