SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR REFERRING PHYSICIANS BASED ON HIERARCHICAL DISEASE PROFILE MATCHING

• US 20120173280A1
• Filed: 12/30/2010
• Published: 07/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Gustafson, Steven Matt, Cardoso, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 8,489,418 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/60 relating to pathologies

Abstract

Systems, apparatus, and methods for referring physicians based on hierarchical disease profile matching are disclosed. An example system includes a data store to include a plurality of disease profiles, each disease profile associated with a patient condition, a user interface to accept a user request for a referral of a patient to a physician, and a referral processor to compare a profile associated with the patient including a patient symptom to the plurality of disease profiles to generate one or more physician recommendations for referral, the referral processor to refine the one or more physician recommendations based on one or more characteristics associated with each of the one or more physician recommendations, the referral processor to provide the refined one or more physician recommendations to a user for review and selection via the user interface.

Claims

1. A physician referral system comprising:

a data store to include a plurality of disease profiles, each disease profile associated with a patient condition; and

a user interface to accept a user request for a referral of a patient to a physician; and

a referral processor to compare a profile associated with the patient including a patient symptom to the plurality of disease profiles to generate one or more physician recommendations for referral, the referral processor to refine the one or more physician recommendations based on one or more characteristics associated with each of the one or more physician recommendations, the referral processor to provide the refined one or more physician recommendations to a user for review and selection via the user interface.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a hierarchical profile of physicians within a health care organization.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a secondary data store containing electronic medical records of patient information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein disease profiles are created for one or more types of diseases.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the patient profile further comprises demographic information.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the physician characteristics comprises one or more of patient treatment history, patient feedback, clinical outcome data, expected cost of delivery including financial and schedule analysis.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the referral processor is to further refine the one or more physician recommendations based on clinical best practices retrieved from one or more knowledge bases.

8. A computer-implemented method of generating physician referral recommendations for a patient, the method comprising:

selecting a patient; and

matching the patient to a patient condition profile, the patient condition profile associated with a patient health condition; and

retrieving a group of one or more physicians based on the patient condition profile; and

refining the group of one or more physicians associated with the patient condition profile based on one or more features associated with each physician in the group; and

generating a recommendation of one or more physicians; and

providing the recommendation of one or more physicians to a user for review and selection.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the recommendation of one or more physicians comprises scoring each physician based on an association with the patient condition profile and the physician'"'"'s features.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the recommendation of one or more physicians takes into account a cost of delivery.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising organizing physicians within a health care organization according to a set of categories.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising creating patient condition profiles for one or more types of diseases.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more features associated with each physician comprise one or more of patient treatment history, patient feedback, clinical outcome data, expected cost of delivery including financial and schedule analysis.

14. A computer-implemented method of generating physician referral recommendations for a patient, the method comprising:

categorizing physicians in an organization by department and specialty; and

classifying and assembling disease profiles for a plurality of diseases; and

determining a disease profile for a patient; and

identifying a group of one or more categorized physicians matching the disease profile of the patient; and

refining the group of one or more categorized physicians associated with the patient disease profile based on one or more features associated with each physician in the group; and

generating a recommendation of one or more physicians; and

providing the recommendation of one or more physicians to a user for review and selection.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the recommendation of one or more physicians comprises scoring each physician based on an association with the patient condition profile and the physician'"'"'s features.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the recommendation of one or more physicians takes into account a cost of delivery.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising creating disease profiles for one or more types of diseases.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more features associated with each physician comprise one or more of patient treatment history, patient feedback, clinical outcome data, expected cost of delivery including financial and schedule analysis.

19. A tangible computer readable storage medium including executable program instructions which, when executed by a computer processor, cause the computer to implement a method of generating physician referral recommendations for a patient, the method comprising:

selecting a patient; and

matching the patient to a patient condition profile, the patient condition profile associated with a patient health condition; and

retrieving a group of one or more physicians based on the patient condition profile; and

refining the group of one or more physicians associated with the patient condition profile based on one or more features associated with each physician in the group; and

generating a recommendation of one or more physicians; and

providing the recommendation of one or more physicians to a user for review and selection.

20. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the one or more features associated with each physician comprise one or more of patient treatment history, patient feedback, clinical outcome data, expected cost of delivery including financial and schedule analysis.