ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS INFORMATION SYSTEM

• US 20090150289A1
• Filed: 12/05/2007
• Published: 06/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Antoni Grzegorz Otto, Ronald Stephen Joe
• Original Assignee: Antoni Grzegorz Otto, Ronald Stephen Joe
• Inventors: Otto, Antoni Grzegorz, Joe, Ronald Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 8,554,577 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

There is provided an apparatus for organizing a clinical observation in the form of clinical information entered by a user into memory. The apparatus includes a mechanism to receive the clinical information, which is associated with the clinical observation and has a plurality of clinical attributes. There is a mechanism for parsing the clinical information, and which identifies a clinical information data structure representative of the clinical information and which has one or more granule information data structures. Each of the granule information data structures has a collection of generic attributes. There is a mechanism to assign the clinical attributes to respective ones of the generic attributes of the one or more granule information data structures. The clinical information data structure associates the clinical attributes with respective ones of the generic attributes of each of the granule information data structures.

Claims

1. A memory for storing data for access by an application program being executed on a data processing system, comprising:

a data structure stored in said memory, said data structure including information resident in a database used by said application program and including;

a first clinical information data structure having a first clinical observation collection of one or more clinical observations associated therewith, each clinical observation comprising a plurality of clinical attributes, the first clinical information data structure including;

a first granule collection of one or more granule information data structures, each of the granule information data structures having a collection of generic attributes, the plurality of clinical attributes of the one or more clinical observations mapping to the generic attributes of the one or more granule information data structures.

2. The memory as claimed in claim 1, further including:

a granular layer; and

a second clinical information data structure, the second clinical information data structure having a second clinical observation collection of one or more clinical observations associated therewith, each clinical observation of the second clinical observation collection comprising a plurality of clinical attributes, the second clinical information data structure including;

a second granule collection of one or more granule information data structures, each of the granule information data structures of the second granule collection having a collection of generic attributes, the clinical attributes of the one or clinical observations of the second clinical observation collection mapping to the generic attributes of the one or more granule information data structures of the second granule collection;

wherein the granular layer comprises the first granule collection and the second granule collection.

3. The memory as claimed in claim 1, wherein the collection of generic attributes is a common collection of generic attributes between the one or more granule information data structures of the first granule collection.

4. The memory as claimed in claim 1, further including an attribute database, wherein new generic attributes can be added therewith.

5. The memory as claimed in claim 4, wherein the attribute database is an entity-attribute-value database.

6. The memory as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first clinical information data structure includes a clinical category information data structure and a base information data structure, the base information data structure including the first granule collection of the one or more granule information data structures, the clinical category information data structure mapping the clinical attributes to the generic attributes.

7. The memory as claimed in claim 6, wherein the base information data structure includes an attribute database, wherein new generic attributes can be added therewith.

8. The memory as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first clinical information data structure includes a base information data structure and a hierarchical structure of clinical category information data structures, the base information data structure including the first collection of the granule information data structures, the hierarchical structure of the clinical category information data structures mapping the clinical attributes to respective ones of the generic attributes.

9. A carrier wave embodying a computer data signal representing sequences of statements and instructions which, when executed by a processor cause the processor to organize a clinical observation in the form of clinical information entered by a user into memory, the statements and instructions comprising the steps of:

receiving the clinical information entered by the user, the clinical information being associated with the clinical observation and having a plurality of clinical attributes;

identifying a clinical information data structure representative of the clinical information entered by the user, the clinical information data structure being associated with the clinical observation and having one or more granule information data structures, each of the granule information data structures having a collection of generic attributes; and

assigning the clinical attributes of the clinical information to respective ones of the generic attributes of the one or more granule information data structures, the clinical information data structure associating the clinical attributes of the clinical information with respective ones of the generic attributes of each of the granule information data structures.

10. A computer program product, comprising:

a memory having computer readable code embodied therein, for execution by a CPU, for organizing a clinical observation in the form of clinical information entered by a user into memory, said code comprising;

user interface code means for receiving the clinical information entered by the user, the clinical information being associated with the clinical observation and having a plurality of clinical attributes;

parsing code means for parsing the clinical information entered by the user and identifying a clinical information data structure representative of the clinical information entered by the user, the clinical information data structure being associated with the clinical observation and having one or more granule information data structures, each of the granule information data structures having a collection of generic attributes; and

assignment code means for assigning the clinical attributes of the clinical information to respective ones of the generic attributes of the one or more granule information data structures, the clinical information data structure associating the clinical attributes of the clinical information with respective ones of the generic attributes of each of the granule information data structures.

11. An apparatus for organizing a clinical observation in the form of clinical information entered by a user into memory comprising:

means for receiving the clinical information entered by the user, the clinical information being associated with the clinical observation and having a plurality of clinical attributes;

means for parsing the clinical information entered by the user and identifying a clinical information data structure representative of the clinical information entered by the user, the clinical information data structure being associated with the clinical observation and having one or more granule information data structures, each of the granule information data structures having a collection of generic attributes; and

means for assigning the clinical attributes of the clinical information to respective ones of the generic attributes of the one or more granule information data structures, the clinical information data structure associating the clinical attributes of the clinical information with respective ones of the generic attributes of each of the granule information data structures.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, further including means for deriving a derived granule information data structure, the derived granule information data structure being derived from a calculation between one or more of the granule information data structures.

13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, further including means for creating a diagnosis from one or more of the granule information data structures, the means for creating a diagnosis creating a diagnosis granule information structure.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, further including means for creating one or more treatment granule information data structures based on the diagnosis granule information data structure.

15. A method of organizing a clinical observation in the form of clinical information entered by a user into memory comprising the steps of:

receiving the clinical information entered by the user, the clinical information being associated with the clinical observation and having a plurality of clinical attributes;

identifying a clinical information data structure representative of the clinical information entered by the user, the clinical information data structure having one or more granule information data structures and being associated with the clinical observation, each of the granule information data structures having a collection of generic attributes; and

assigning the clinical attributes of the clinical information to respective ones of the generic attributes of the one or more granule information data structures, the clinical information data structure associating the clinical attributes of the clinical information with respective ones of the generic attributes of each of the granule information data structures.

16. A memory for storing data for access by an application program being executed on a data processing system, comprising:

a data structure stored in said memory, said data structure including information resident in a database used by said application program and including;

an existing clinical information data structure having a clinical observation associated therewith, the clinical observation comprising a plurality of clinical attributes, the existing clinical information data structure including;

one or more granule information data structures, each of the granule information data structures having a collection of generic attributes, the clinical attributes of the clinical observation mapping to the generic attributes of the one or more granule information data structures; and

a versioned clinical information data structure comprising one or more versions of the existing clinical information data structure, each of the versions of the existing clinical information data structure being differentiated temporally.

17. The memory as claimed in claim 16, further including a hash data structure having a hash of the existing data structure.

18. A carrier wave embodying a computer data signal representing sequences of statements and instructions which, when executed by a processor cause the processor to version an existing clinical information data structure, the statements and instructions comprising the steps of:

retrieving existing clinical information from a first location in a memory store;

presenting the existing clinical information to a user;

receiving a signal from the user to version the existing clinical information; and

copying the existing clinical information as a version to a second location in the memory store, the second location in the memory store containing one or more versions of the clinical information.

19. A computer program product, comprising:

a memory having computer readable code embodied therein, for execution by a CPU, for versioning an existing clinical information data structure, said code comprising;

retrieving code means for retrieving existing clinical information from a first location in a memory store;

user interface code means for presenting the existing clinical information to a user;

versioning signal receiving means for receiving a signal from the user to version the existing clinical information; and

versioning code means for copying the existing clinical information as a version to a second location in the memory store, the second location in the memory store containing one or more versions of the clinical information.

20. An apparatus for versioning clinical information in an electronic medical records information system comprising:

means for retrieving existing clinical information from a first location in a memory store;

means for presenting the existing clinical information to a user;

means for receiving a signal from the user to version the existing clinical information; and

means for copying the existing clinical information as a version to a second location in the memory store, the second location in the memory store containing one or more versions of the clinical information.

21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20, further including means for generating a hash.

22. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20, further including means for comparing hash values.

23. A method of versioning clinical information in an electronic medical records information system comprising the steps of:

retrieving existing clinical information from a first location in a memory store;

presenting the existing clinical information to a user;

receiving a signal from the user to version the existing clinical information; and

copying the existing clinical information as a version to a second location in the memory store, the second location in the memory store containing one or more versions of the clinical information.

24. The method of versioning clinical information as claimed in claim 23 further comprising the steps of:

collecting updated clinical information from the user; and

storing the updated clinical information in the first location of the memory store.

25. An apparatus for visually playing back versioned information to a user in a graphical user interface comprising:

means for displaying a first version of the versioned information to the user in the graphical user interface;

means for selecting a second version of the versioned information including a slider control, the slider control being displayed in the graphical user interface, the user adjusting the slider control thereby providing a version selection signal; and

means for retrieving the second version of the versioned information, the means for retrieving receiving the version selection signal and retrieving the second version, the means for displaying the second version.

26. An apparatus for clinical contextual encounter between a patient and a clinician in an electronic medical records information system comprising:

means for receiving new clinical information related to the patient into the electronic medical records information system;

means for recognizing a fundamental unit of medical observation of the new clinical information;

means for retrieving historical clinical information related to the patient from a memory store, the historical clinical information being of the same type of the fundamental unit of medical observation; and

means for presenting the new clinical information and the historical clinical information to the clinician, whereby a trend in the fundamental unit of medical observation is thereby displayed.

28. The apparatus as claimed in claim 26, further including means for analyzing the new clinical information and the historical clinical information and means for providing an opinion.

29. The apparatus as claimed in claim 28, wherein the opinion is a diagnosis.

27. A method of clinical contextual encounter between a patient and a clinician in an electronic medical records information system comprising the steps of:

receiving new clinical information related to the patient into the electronic medical records information system;

recognizing a fundamental unit of medical observation of the new clinical information;

retrieving historical clinical information related to the patient from a memory store, the historical clinical information being of the same type of the fundamental unit of medical observation; and

presenting the new clinical information and the historical clinical information to the clinician, whereby a trend in the fundamental unit of medical observation is thereby displayed.

30. The method as claimed in claim 27, further including the steps of analyzing the new clinical information and the historical clinical information and providing an opinion.