ALERT OPTIMIZER

• US 20170098037A1
• Filed: 10/06/2015
• Published: 04/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: AGASSI, NATALEE, AGASSI, EMIN, KIM, JAY, HALEY, JOHN
• Granted Patent: US 10,607,728 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

An alert optimizer subsystem for a HIT system modifies, reconciles, and/or prioritizes candidate clinical alerts. The optimized alerts may be filtered, prioritized, enriched, and/or formatted so that the alerts are more relevant and/or more actionable for a system user.

Claims

1. A method for preserving computer processing capacity in a HIT system, the method comprising:

receiving one or more clinical orders;

checking the one or more clinical orders against a set of clinical alert rules;

identifying two or more candidate clinical alerts related to the clinical orders;

optimizing the two or more candidate clinical alerts; and

presenting an optimized clinical alert, if any, for display by a user interface;

wherein the optimizing reduces the time and/or processing capacity required to present the candidate clinical alerts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein checking the clinical alert rules comprises:

identifying clinical information relevant to checking the clinical alert rules;

accessing an EHR associated with the HIT system; and

extracting the relevant clinical information from the EHR.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the relevant clinical information comprises patient demographics, clinical test results, clinical observations, medical conditions, medical risk factors, recent clinical orders, patient medication history, active patient medication, patient home medication, patient allergies, patient diagnosis, patient genetics, prior patient clinical choices, patient clinical directives, or combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein optimizing the two or more clinical alerts comprises:

accessing an alert history for a specific patient; and

filtering out any alert which has previously been ignored or overridden by a clinician who issued the clinical orders in regard to the patient, such that the filtered-out alert is not presented.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein optimizing the two or more clinical alerts comprises filtering out any alert inconsistent with the patient medication history, active patient medication, and/or patient home medication, such that the filtered-out alert is not presented.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein optimizing the two or more clinical alerts comprises filtering out any alert inconsistent with a patient care directive or prior patient clinical choice, such that the filtered-out alert is not presented.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning to each candidate clinical alert a level based on a likelihood of an undesired outcome and a severity of the undesired outcome.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the level distinguishes at least between urgent, precautionary, and advisory clinical alerts.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein if a total number of optimized alerts exceeds a threshold number, advisory clinical alerts are not presented.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein if the total number of optimized alerts exceeds a second threshold number, precautionary clinical alerts are not presented.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating alert text targeted to a variable audience.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the variable audience is defined by a role of a system user.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising formatting an alert targeted to the system user.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the variable audience is defined by a role of a clinician who generated the clinical order underlying the optimized clinical alert.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising formatting an alert targeted to the clinician.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a prescribed actions list; and

filtering out any alert which has a prescribed resolution, such that the filtered-out alert is not presented.

17. A graphical user interface for reviewing clinical alerts in a HIT system, the graphical user interface comprising:

one or more display areas for clinical alerts arranged in a background display;

one or more clinical alerts presented in the one or more display areas;

wherein clinical alerts of different clinical significance are presented in different display areas and/or different formats, and all of the formats for the clinical alerts are visually distinct from the background display.

18. The graphical user interface of claim 17, further comprising a link to a separate display page or tab, wherein the separate display page or tab presents deprioritized or withheld alerts.

19. A system for preserving computer processing capacity while handling clinical alerts, the system comprising:

a HIT system associated with one or more patient EHRs;

a COE subsystem configured to receive one or more clinical orders entered by or on behalf of a clinician with regard to a particular patient;

a medical knowledge model configured to provide adaptable clinical information for a variety of clinical situations;

a CCC subsystem configured to identify, with reference to the medical knowledge model, a set of clinical alert rules, the one or more clinical orders, and the patient'"'"'s EHR, a current clinical situation for the patient and one or more candidate clinical alerts, wherein the one or more candidate clinical alerts are based on entries or omissions in the patient'"'"'s EHR or the clinical orders which may, based on the medical knowledge model, change the clinical situation in an undesirable manner; and

an Alert Optimizer configured to filter, prioritize, enrich, format, and/or reconcile candidate clinical alerts, with reference to the patient'"'"'s EHR and the medical knowledge model.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising an EHR subsystem for maintaining the one or more patient EHRs.