SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTEXTUALIZING PATIENT HEALTH INFORMATION IN ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS

• US 20090024411A1
• Filed: 04/14/2008
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Jonathan B. Solomon, Thomas W. Albro
• Original Assignee: Jonathan B. Solomon, Thomas W. Albro
• Inventors: Albro, Thomas W., Solomon, Jonathan B.
• Application Number:
  US12/102,863
• Publication Number:
  US 20090024411A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof

Abstract

System and method for contextualizing input and presentation of patient information in Electronic Health Record systems. The system and method enhance the ease of use and usefulness of Electronic Health Record systems, and are configurable to capture and automatically integrate dictated and transcribed free-form text into an Electronic Health Record (“EHR”) and present discrete health data maintained in an EHR to system users in an interactive, contextualized, and annotated graphical form.

Claims

1. A system for correlating spoken information with a specified data field within a database application accessible through a user interface comprising:

a means for initiating speech recording and the creation of a digital audio file with a unique identifier;

a means for automatically inserting the unique identifier into any appropriate field in a user interface;

a means for transmitting the recorded audio file;

a means for converting the recorded audio file to a text file with the same unique identifier;

a means of receiving back the converted text file;

a means of replacing the unique identifier associated with the digital audio file in the appropriate field in the user interface with the contents of the corresponding text file.

a means of monitoring one or more of the unique identifiers, the digital audio files, and the converted text files.

2. The system for correlating spoken information of claim 1, wherein the means of automatically inserting the unique identifier into any appropriate user interface data field is by integrating a transcription marker into the user interface of the database application.

3. The system for correlating spoken information of claim 1, wherein the means of automatically inserting the unique identifier into any appropriate user interface data field is by monitoring a computer operating system focus at the time of transcription marker and inserting a transcription marker into an interface element containing the cursor.

4. The system for correlating spoken information of claim 1, wherein the means for converting the recorded audio file to a text file with the same unique identifier is by utilization of voice recognition software.

5. The system for correlating spoken information of claim 1, wherein the means for converting the recorded audio file to a text file with the same unique identifier is by transcription performed by a transcriptionist.

6. A machine-readable medium encoded with instructions, that when executed by one or more processors, cause the processor to carry out a process for providing the text of spoken medical information about a patient in an Electronic Health Record, the process comprising:

providing a display and controls (user interface) for initiating a speech recording and the creation of a digital audio file with a unique identifier;

providing automatic insertion of the unique identifier into any appropriate data field in a user interface;

transmitting the recorded audio file;

converting the recorded audio file to a text file with the same unique identifier;

receiving back the converted text file;

replacing the unique identifier associated with the digital audio file in the appropriate database field in the user interface with the contents of the corresponding text file.

7. The machine-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the automatic insertion of the unique identifier into any appropriate user interface data field is by integrating a transcription marker into the user interface of the database application.

8. The machine-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the automatic insertion of the unique identifier into any appropriate user interface data field is by monitoring a computer operating system focus at the time of transcription marker and inserting a transcription marker into an interface element containing the cursor.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the conversion of the recorded audio file to a text file with the same unique identifier is by utilization of voice recognition software.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the conversion of the recorded audio file to a text file with the same unique identifier is by transcription performed by a transcriptionist.

11. A user interface of a system for correlating spoken information with a specified data field and subsequently transcribed text within a database application, the user interface comprising:

a means for initiating speech recording and the creation of a digital audio file with a unique identifier;

a means for automatically inserting the unique identifier into any appropriate field in a user interface;

a means for transmitting the recorded audio file;

a means for converting the recorded audio file to a text file with the same unique identifier;

a means of receiving back the converted text file;

a means of replacing the unique identifier associated with the digital audio file in the appropriate field in the user interface with the contents of the corresponding text file.

a means of monitoring the unique identifiers, digital audio files, and converted text files so as to maintain the correlation throughout the workflow and provide a means of management.

12. The user interface of claim 11, wherein the means for inputting data relevant to data items and data fields is a voice recorder.

13. The user interface of claim 11, wherein the means for inputting data relevant to data items and data fields is by converting a recorded audio file to a text file by utilization of voice recognition software.

14. A system for providing medical information regarding a patient in response to a system user request, the system comprising:

a means for providing a chart for showing a medical graph of medical data over a time period;

a means for selecting the medical data to be displayed on the medical graph from the Electronic Health Record;

a means for providing a user-adjustable viewing window displayed on the medical graph;

a means for providing one or more medical event flags displayed on the medical graph of the medical chart, with each medical event flag anchored at a time period that corresponds to the occurrence of a medical event; and

means for providing a medical events section displayed concurrently with the medical chart graph, and for displaying a link to each of the medical events as recorded in the Electronic Health Record.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein related medical events links displayed in the medical event section are updated responsive to the user-adjustable viewing window being adjusted and updates in the Electronic Health Record, so that only medical event links corresponding to the relevant time period are displayed on the medical graph.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein medical event flags displayed on the graph of the chart represent medical events which are selected from the Electronic Health Record based on a pre-determined default relationship set by the user to link a medical event with the medical data to be concurrently displayed, wherein the medical data to be displayed on the medical chart graph is selected by user and represents medical data items extracted from the Electronic Health Record.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the user-adjustable viewing window is configurable with navigation handles that enable a user to adjust viewing window size.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the user-adjustable viewing window is configurable with navigation handles that enable a user to adjust viewing window position.

19. A machine-readable medium encoded with instructions, that when executed by one or more processors, cause the processor to carry out a process for providing medical information about a patient in response to a user request, the process comprising:

providing a chart for showing a medical graph of medical data over a time period;

providing a plurality of data links to medical data in the Electronic Health Record selectable by user to be displayed on the medical graph;

providing a user-adjustable viewing window displayed on the medical graph;

providing one or more medical event flags displayed on the medical graph of the medical chart, with each medical event flag anchored at a time period that corresponds to the occurrence of a medical event;

providing a medical events section displayed concurrently with the medical chart graph, and for displaying a link to each of the medical events as recorded in the Electronic Health Record.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein related medical events links displayed in the medical event section are updated responsive to the user-adjustable viewing window being adjusted and updates in the Electronic Health Record, so that only medical event links corresponding to the relevant time period are displayed on the medical graph.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein medical event flags displayed on the graph of the chart represent medical events that are selected from the Electronic Health Record based on a pre-determined default relationship set by the user to link a medical event with the medical data to be concurrently displayed, wherein the medical data to be displayed on the medical chart graph is selected by user and represents medical data items extracted from the Electronic Health Record;

22. A user interface of a system for providing medical information regarding a patient as part of an Electronic Health Record system, the user interface comprising:

a chart for showing a graph of medical data over a time period, wherein one or more series of numeric medical data elements are user-selectable for display on the graph, individually or in combination;

one or more event markers displayed on the graph, with each marker anchored at a time included in the time period that corresponds to a clinical event;

a capability for the system user to annotate the interface display with an ‘

Ink’

application in free-hand; and

a user-adjustable viewing window.

23. The user interface of claim 23 further comprising:

a list of medical data presented to the user, wherein the user can select what medical data from the list is to be charted and presented on a medical graph; and

a plurality of user selectable markers selected from the default list of medical data, to be displayed as a flagged, annotatable points relative to the medical data presented on the medical graph.

24. The user interface of claim 23 wherein the medical data elements for display on the graph, individually or in combination are selected from the group including clinical visits, medical procedures, patient condition and vitals, allergies, medications, medication dosage changes, medication discontinuation, test results, utilized medical devices, symptom onset, symptom cessation, disease onset, or disease resolution.

25. The user interface of claim 23, wherein the means for graphically presenting data relevant to the medical data elements and the medical data fields to the user is an annotatable graphic display, wherein one or more series of numeric medical data elements are user-selectable, and are plotted individually or in combination over a time period.

26. The user interface of claim 23 wherein one or more medical event markers displayed on the graph are selected from the group including clinical visits, medical procedures, patient condition and vitals, allergies, medications, medication dosage changes, medication discontinuation, test results, utilized medical devices, symptom onset, symptom cessation, disease onset, or disease resolution

27. The user interface of claim 23 wherein the chart for showing a graph of medical data over a time period is annotated with digital ink that scrolls with the graph.

28. The user interface of claim 23 wherein the chart for showing a graph of medical data over a time period is annotated with voice recordings stored as a digital audio file, wherein the digital audio file is contextualized by placing a dictation marker on the graph.

29. The user interface of claim 23, further comprising a medical events section displayed concurrently with the medical chart, and for displaying a link to each of the related medical events in the Electronic Health Record.

30. The user interface of claim 23, wherein related patient medical event links displayed in the patient medical events section are updated responsive to the user-adjustable viewing window being adjusted, so that only patient medical event links corresponding to the time period are displayed.

31. The user interface of claim 23, wherein only patient medical event markers and links relating to the selected medical data series and corresponding to the user adjustable viewing window are displayed in the events section.

32. The user interface of claim 23, wherein the user-adjustable viewing window is configurable with navigation handles that enable a user to adjust viewing window size and position.

33. The user interface of claim 23, wherein the chart includes one or more pan controls that allow a user to adjust the time period.

34. The user interface of claim 23, wherein the chart includes one or more pan controls that allow a user to select time scale across the width of the graph.

35. The user interface of claim 30, wherein the chart includes one or more pan controls that allow a user adjust the viewing window of the graph to go forward and backward along the time axis.

36. The user interface of claim 30, wherein the user interface is incrementally updated with new medical data received in response to subsequent system user input into the Electronic Health Record.

37. A system that enhances the context, interactivity, functionality, and efficiency for Electronic Health Record (EHR) system users when entering, recording, displaying, manipulating, and clinically using specific types of patient health data in the EHR.