Querying by Semantically Equivalent Concepts in an Electronic Data Record System

• US 20100318549A1
• Filed: 06/16/2009
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Mayr, Florian Alexander, Moores, Matthew Thomas, Kuhnen, Gregory, Currie, Hamish Daniel, Shroff, Anand
• Granted Patent: US 8,930,386 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/759
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention enable processing of concept-based query requests submitted to a query service within a healthcare transaction framework. In embodiments, a terminology service within the healthcare transaction framework manages terminology content (concepts represented by a set of terminologies). In embodiments, search criteria from a data access query request are submitted to the terminology service to extract a set of concepts from the terminology content that are associated with the search criteria. In embodiments, equivalence search criteria include a seed concept, and the terminology service returns a set of equivalent concepts comprising the seed concept. In embodiments, classification search criteria include a classification identifier, and the terminology service returns a set of concepts associated with the classification identifier. In embodiments, the query service generates and submits a data access query comprising predicates associated with the returned set of concepts.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising at least one computer-readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to generate a query to retrieve a set of stored data records from an electronic data record system, by performing the steps comprising:

receiving a query request comprising a set of search criteria comprising a seed concept;

generating an equivalence concept query based on at least a subset of the search criteria that includes the seed concept;

receiving a set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept in response to submitting the equivalence concept query to a terminology service that manages a repository of terminology content; and

generating the query comprising predicates corresponding to the seed concept and the set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the terminology content comprises concepts that are associated with at least one terminology code system.

3. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the seed concept has a coded data type.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the subset of search criteria comprises an equivalence definition type.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 wherein the equivalence definition type is semantic equivalence or mapping equivalence.

6. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the subset of search criteria comprises an indication of an equivalence definition domain boundary.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the equivalence definition domain boundary is indicated to be within a single code system associated with a terminology or is indicated to span across a plurality of code systems associated with a plurality of terminologies.

8. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the equivalence definition domain boundary is indicated to be within a usage context.

9. A system to generate a database query to retrieve a set of stored data records from an electronic data record system, the system comprising:

a concept query system, coupled to receive a concept query request comprising a set of search criteria that comprises a seed concept, that generates a concept query result in response to submitting an equivalence concept query to a terminology service that manages a repository of terminology content comprising mappings between the stored concepts, the concept query result comprising the seed concept and a retrieved set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept; and

a database query generator, coupled to receive the concept query result, that generates the database query comprising predicates associated with the seed concept and the retrieved set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the concept query system comprises:

a concept query generator, coupled to receive the set of search criteria that comprises the seed concept, that generates the equivalence concept query comprising the seed concept; and

a concept query results generator, coupled to receive the equivalence concept query, that generates the concept query result in response to submitting the equivalence concept query to the terminology service that manages a repository of terminology content, the concept query result comprising the seed concept and a retrieved set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept.

11. The system of claim 9 further comprising a database query processor, coupled to receive the database query, that retrieves the set of stored data records in response to submitting the database query to the electronic data record system.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the terminology content comprises stored concepts that are associated with at least one terminology code system.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the seed concept has a coded data type.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the subset of search criteria comprises an equivalence definition type.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the equivalence definition type is semantic equivalence or mapping equivalence.

16. A method for generating a set of semantically equivalent concepts, the method comprising:

receiving a set of search criteria comprising a seed concept;

retrieving a set of stored concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept, the set of semantically equivalent stored concepts being stored within a terminology content data repository; and

generating the set of semantically equivalent concepts comprising the seed concept and the retrieved set of semantically equivalent concepts.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the terminology content data repository comprises stored concepts that are associated with at least one terminology code system

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the seed concept has a coded data type.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the set of semantically equivalent concepts have inter-version semantic equivalence.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the set of semantically equivalent concepts are associated with a plurality of terminology codes and have inter-terminology mapping equivalence.