Conditioned medical testing

• US 20100174505A1
• Filed: 01/05/2009
• Published: 07/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthineers AG (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Maschke, Michael, Abraham-Fuchs, Klaus, Schmidt, Sebastian, Hiltawsky, Karsten, Zahlmann, Gudrun
• Granted Patent: US 8,447,552 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/108
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

The invention refers to a computer implemented method, a computer system a test machine and a computer program product for executing conditioned and qualified test. An ordering instance may order a set of tests, comprising an initial test and a set of follow-up tests, wherein the execution of each of the follow-up tests is dependent of the result of the respective predecessor test, like the initial test. The conditions for executing the follow-up tests are dynamically definable and are analyzed automatically.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for implementing a set of tests, comprising the following steps:

receiving an order for at least one test;

automatically executing the received at least one test;

receiving a result of the executed at least one test;

analyzing the result in order to determine whether at least one follow-up test needs to be executed and if yes;

automatically generating an order for the at least one follow-up test and iteratively executing the steps for the at least one follow-up test.

2. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the tests of the set of tests and/or the follow-up test might be based on different clinical departments.

3. The computer implemented method and so on according to claim 1, wherein the test and/or the follow-up test of the set of tests might be based on the same or on different samples.

4. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein analyzing the result is based on aspects selected from

the received result of the respective predecessor test,

medical meta information,

medical knowledge, definable in rules,

user input

5. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein applying the steps iteratively for at least one follow-up test comprises automatically executing the test, receiving the result for the test, analyzing the result.

6. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one follow-up test is executed automatically or wherein the at least one follow-up test is executed in response to a user confirmation.

7. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein executing the received at least one test or the at least one follow-up test is done immediately after having received the order or is done at a pre-definable or selectable time schedule.

8. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one test or the at least one follow-up test are executed subsequently or in parallel.

9. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the result of the at least one test or of the at least one follow-up test are fed back.

10. The computer implemented method according to claim 1, wherein receiving the results further comprises:

notifying an ordering instance for the test about the result of the same.

14. A computer program product being loadable or loaded in a memory of a computer with computer readable instructions, wherein the instructions are adapted to carry out the steps of the method according to claim 1, if the instructions are executed on the computer.

11. The computer implemented method for implementing a workflow for tests, comprising the steps:

receiving an input;

based on the received input, deriving at least one test;

automatically executing the at least one test;

receiving a result of the executed at least one test;

analyzing the result in order to determine whether at least one follow-up test needs to be executed for responding to the input;

for the at least one follow-up test iteratively executing the steps;

automatically starting, receiving the result, analyzing, thereby implementing a workflow as a result-based cascade of tests, wherein a respective test might be dependent on a respective result of a respective predecessor test.

12. A computer implemented system for implementing a set of tests, comprising:

a reception unit for receiving an order for at least one test;

an execution unit for automatically executing the received at least one test by means of a test machine;

an analyzing module, adapted for receiving a result of executed at least one test and adapted for analyzing the result in order to determine whether at least one follow-up test needs to be executed.

an iteration unit for automatically generating an order for an at least one follow-up test, in case such a follow-up test needs to be executed and forwarding the order for the at least one follow-up test to the reception unit.

13. A test machine for executing clinical tests, comprising a computer implemented system according to claim 12.