System and method for minimizing transmitted data between diverse institutions

• US 20090228444A1
• Filed: 03/04/2008
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Haider, Sultan
• Granted Patent: US 7,917,542 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• 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

A system and method transmitting data in heterogeneous networks is described. A plurality of fillable forms is available to a user, each form having a name and metadata corresponding to the data fields that are displayable or retrievable by the form. The same form name is associated with the same metadata at another site, which may be another user or a central data base. When data values are filled in a form, the data values and the form name is transmitted over a network interface. At another location, the data values are received over a network interface, and a form having the same name as that of the received data is retrieved from a forms data base at the receiving location and used either to display the received data values in a form substantially the same as the transmitting form, or to formulate a query to a data base.

Claims

1. A system for managing patient information, comprising:

a central data base having a data base server communicating with a first network interface;

a display terminal and a client server communicating with a second network interface;

a forms data base at the data base server and a forms data base at the client server, the client forms data base being a subset of the data base server forms data base, each form having a unique name and metadata associated with each unique name;

wherein information filled in fields of a named form at the display terminal is transmitted through the second interface, the information including a form name of the unique names, the information is received thought the first network interface and the unique form name used to retrieve metadata from the data base server forms data base and to formulate a query to the central data base.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data values extracted from the central data base by the query are transmitted through the first network interface and received through the second network interface.

3. The system of claim 2, where the data values received though the second network interface are filled into the form having the named form name and displayed.

4. A computer program product, stored or distributed on a machine readable medium, the product comprising:

instructions executable by a computer to;

communicate with a central data base having a data base server communicating over a network with a display terminal and a client server;

manage a forms data base at the data base server and a forms data base at the client server, the client forms data base being a subset of the data base server forms data base, each form having a unique name and metadata associated with each unique name;

wherein information filled in fields of a named form at the display terminal is transmittable over the network, the information including a form name of the unique names, and the unique form name used to retrieve metadata from the data base server forms data base and to formulate a query to the central data base.

5. A method of managing patient information, the method comprising:

providing a locally located forms data base, each form in the data base having a name and associated metadata;

providing a remotely located forms data base, each form in the data base having a name and associated metadata;

displaying a fillable form having a name of the names in the local forms data base;

entering information into at least one field of the fillable form, the information being at least the value of one of the fillable fields;

transmitting the information entered into the form and at least the name of the form over an interface to a network.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving the transmitted information from the network at a remotely located location;

retrieving a form from the remotely located forms data base using the name of the received form, or selecting a form from the remotely located data base having metadata corresponding to the metadata of the received data;

filling the fields of the retrieved or selected form with the received data values; and

displaying the filled form.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a named form in the local forms data base and a named form in the remotely located data base have the same metadata for fillable fields.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the named form in each of the local forms data base and the remote forms data base correspond to a same named form in a central data base.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the transmitted data values are formatted as an XML (extensible markup language) document.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the metadata associated with the fillable form fields have an XFDF (XML forms data format) data structure.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving the transmitted information including the form name over a network interface at a remotely located location;

retrieving a metadata from the remotely located data base using the name of the received form;

using the received information and the metadata to formulate a data base query for a data base located at the remote location;

retrieving data values from the data base corresponding to the query;

transmitting the retrieved data values over the network interface.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving the retrieved data values at the local site over the network interface;

selecting the form having the received form name;

filling the received data values into fields of the selected form; and

displaying the filled form.

11. The method of claim 16, wherein the selected form has metadata corresponding at least to the received metadata of the received data values.