Clinical Guidelines Engine

• US 20100211402A1
• Filed: 01/03/2008
• Published: 08/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXGN Management, LLC. (NextGen Healthcare, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Incorporated (Quality Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hale, Robert, Ellis, Robert, Cline, Patrick, Rosenberger, Bryan, Nary, Robert, Eggena, Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 8,612,246 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/20 relating to practices or guidelines

Abstract

A medical guideline integration engine is presented. The engine imports medical guideline information from disparate sources based on various guideline standards into a knowledge base. The knowledge base houses the information in a database. Upon request, the engine retrieves the information from the knowledge base and converts the information into a desired guideline format.

Claims

1. A medical guidelines integration engine comprising:

a guideline import facility that imports both (a) a first guideline that uses a first set of standards, and (b) a second guideline that uses a second set of standards that is at least partially incompatible with the first set of standards;

a mapping facility that maps each of the first and second guidelines into a common set of standards;

a presentation facility that maps from the common set of standards to a plurality of other sets of standards.

2. The engine of claim. 1, wherein the import facility includes a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that captures a patient identifier and an encounter identifier.

3. The engine of claim 1, wherein the mapping facility maps values and decision variables of each of the guidelines.

4. The engine of claim 1, wherein the presentation facility comprises an evaluator that accepts a call to initiate itself, and then it passes results back to a calling application.

5. The engine of claim 1, further comprising a compliance tracking facility that receives data relative to whether a practitioner followed the first guideline.

6. The engine of claim 1, further comprising an analytical facility that compares an outcome of a group of patients that deviated from the first guideline, as opposed to another group of patients where there was no deviation.