TRANSACTIONAL STORAGE SYSTEM FOR HEALTHCARE INFORMATION

• US 20110276605A1
• Filed: 04/06/2011
• Published: 11/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Merative US LP
• Original Assignee: Kika Medical Inc.
• Inventors: Masson, Arnaud, Demoustier, Romain
• Granted Patent: US 9,747,416 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1734 Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1873 Versioning file systems, temporal file systems, e.g. file system supporting different historic versions of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/40 for data related to laboratory analysis, e.g. patient specimen analysis
• 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

Managing healthcare information data includes, on a computer, representing a state of a system based on the healthcare information, receiving a transaction representing a change to the system, changing the representation of the state of the system according to the transaction, and storing the transaction.

Claims

1. A method of managing healthcare information data comprising

on a computer, representing a state of a system based on the healthcare information, receiving a transaction representing a change to the system,

changing the representation of the state of the system according to the transaction, and

storing the transaction.

2. The method of claim 1 also comprising

repeatedly,

receiving a new transaction representing a new change to the system,

changing the representation of the state of the system according to the new transaction, and

storing the new transaction with previous transactions in a set of transactions.

3. The method of claim 1, in which representing the state of the system comprises

representing a system with an empty state, and

repeatedly for each transaction in a set of transactions,

changing the representation of the state of the system according to the transaction.

4. The method of claim 1 also comprising

representing a state of the system corresponding to a point in time by representing a system with an empty state, and

repeatedly for each transaction in a set of transactions corresponding to changes prior to the point in time,

changing the representation of the state of the system according to the transaction.

5. The method of claim 1 also comprising

representing a state of the system corresponding to a particular transaction by representing a system with an empty state, and

repeatedly for each transaction in a set of transactions preceding and including the particular transaction,

changing the representation of the state of the system according to the transaction.

6. The method of claim 1 also comprising

representing a state of a subset of the system corresponding to a point in time by representing a system with an empty state, and

repeatedly for each transaction in a set of transactions corresponding to changes to the subset of the system prior to the point in time,

changing the representation of the state of the system according to the transaction.

7. The method of claim 1 in which representing the state of the system comprises

storing in a memory a hierarchy of elements,

each element having one or more values,

each value comprising data or a representation of one or more additional elements.

8. The method of claim 3 also comprising

on a second computer,

representing a copy of the state of the system, and

whenever a transaction is added to the set of transactions,

changing the copy of the state of the system according to the transaction.

9. The method of claim 1 in which the transaction comprises a representation of the state of the system.

10. The method of claim 1 in which the transaction comprises

a subset of elements comprising the representation of the state of the system, and

a set of values corresponding to one or more elements in the subset of elements.

11. The method of claim 1 in which storing the transaction comprises adding the transaction or a functional representation of the transaction to a sequence of transactions in a storage.

12. The method of claim 11 in which a storage comprises one or more of

a disk, a flash memory, a network storage device, a virtual storage volume.

13. The method of claim 11 in which adding the transaction to a sequence of transactions comprises

adding the transaction to a queue of transactions, and

moving transactions from the queue of transactions to a storage.

14. The method of claim 11 in which adding the transaction to a sequence of transactions comprises sending the transaction to a representation of a storage.

15. The method of claim 13 in which the transaction is sent to a representation of a storage in the same manner that data would be sent to a local storage.

16. The method of claim 1 in which the healthcare information corresponds to one or more of

a clinical study, an epidemiological study, information about a healthcare product, medical records, or insurance information.

17. The method of claim 1 in which a transaction includes a binary file, and storing the transaction comprises

storing the binary file in a temporary location,

assigning the binary file a unique identifier,

adding the unique identifier to the transaction,

storing the transaction in a storage, and

storing the binary file in the storage.

18. An apparatus for managing healthcare information data comprising

a computer configured to

represent a state of a system based on the healthcare information,

receive a transaction representing a change to the system,

change the representation of the state of the system according to the transaction, and

store the transaction.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 in which the computer is also configured to repeatedly,

receive a new transaction representing a new change to the system,

change the representation of the state of the system according to the new transaction, and

store the transaction with previous transactions in a set of transactions.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 in which the computer is configured to represent the state of the system by

representing a system with an empty state, and

repeatedly for each transaction in a set of transactions,

changing the representation of the system according to the transaction.

21. A computer readable medium comprising instructions to cause a computer to

represent a state of a system based on healthcare information,

receive a transaction representing a change to the system,

change the representation of the state of the system according to the transaction, and store the transaction.

22. The medium of claim 21 in which the instructions also cause the computer to repeatedly,

receive a new transaction representing a new change to the system,

change the representation of the state of the system according to the new transaction, and

store the transaction with previous transactions in a set of transactions.

23. The medium of claim 21 in which the instructions cause the computer to represent the state of the system by

representing a system with an empty state, and

repeatedly for each transaction in a set of transactions,

changing the representation of the system according to the transaction.