Interface for patient context sharing and application switching

• US 6,401,138 B1
• Filed: 10/28/1996
• Issued: 06/04/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Judge, Frank, Braunstein, Andrew Scott, Sumner, Howard
• Primary Examiner(s): Courtenay, III, St. John
• Assistant Examiner(s): BULLOCK JR, LEWIS ALEXANDER
• Application Number:
  US08/739,087
• Time in Patent Office: 2,045 Days
• Field of Search: 395/680, 395/684, 709/300, 709/108, 709/302, 709/318, 709/328, 705/2, 705/3, 705/1, 705/500
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/60 relating to pathologies

Abstract

In a medical information system, a facility is provided so that different application programs can share information about their current state, so that a user of these applications can move more efficiently among them. This facility includes a patient context interface (PCI) that each application can access by means of an application programming interface (API). This API provides mechanisms by which applications can register their identity and their interest in certain types of data and events. The PCI stores data received from applications for sharing with other applications, and the PCI notifies certain applications of events received from other applications. In operation, an application that is used to review data for a patient stores (in the PCI) an identification of the patient whose data is currently being reviewed, and another application retrieves (from the PCI) that patient identification so that it can automatically present that patient'"'"'s data when the user switches to that application. In addition, an application can retrieve the names of other applications and can present these names to a user, so that the user can switch to one of those applications to review data that is related to data that the user is reviewing in the first application (e.g., data about the same patient).

Claims

1. A medical information system comprising:

(A) a patient context interface comprising;

(1) shared memory means for storing a patient identification;

(2) means for responding to a first type of service request from an application program by registering that application program as one to which notification is to be sent when the stored patient identification is updated;

(3) means for responding to a second type of service request from an application program by

(i) storing a patient identification that is provided by that application program, and

(ii) notifying each application program that has registered to be notified of updates to be the stored patient identification that such a change has occurred;

(4) means for responding to a third type of service request from an application program by retrieving the previously stored patient identification and providing it to that application program;

(5) means for notifying one application program of a focus change event in response to a request from another application program;

(B) a first application program storing data about patients using an organization that provides for retrieval and display of patient data associated with a patient identification, this first application program being configured to use the second type of service request to store a patient identification corresponding to data being displayed by the first application program, this first application program further includes a mechanism for presenting the user with an application switching option, and a mechanism responsive to the user selecting the application switching option for requesting that the patient context interface send a focus change event to another application program; and

(C) a second application program storing data about patients using an organization that provides for retrieval and display of patient data associated with a patient identification, this second application program being configured to use the first type of service request and for responding to notification of changes in the stored patient identification by using the third type of service request to retrieve the stored patient identification and to retrieve and display data associated with the retrieved patient identification, the second application program further includes a mechanism for receiving a focus change event from the patient context interface, obtaining the user interface focus, requesting that the patient context interface provide a patient identification, and retrieving and displaying data for the corresponding patient.

2. A method for switching the user interface focus of a medical information system from a first application program to a second application using a patient context interface service program and maintaining continuity of patient context comprising:

(A) the first and second application programs each registering with the patient context interface service program;

(B) the first application program sending a patient identification corresponding to data being displayed by the first application program to the patient context interface service program;

(C) the patient context interface service program storing the patient identification;

(D) the first application program generating a service request for retrieving from the patient context interface service program a list of application programs that have registered with the patient context interface service program;

(E) the first application program sending to the patient context interface service program a request to send a focus change event to the second application program;

(F) the patient context interface service program sending a focus change event to the second application program; and

(G) the second application program receiving the focus change event, becoming the user interface focus, retrieving the stored patient identification from the patient context interface service program, and retrieving and displaying patient data corresponding to that patient identification;

whereby the user interface focus is switched from the first application program to the second application program with continuity of patient context.

3. An interface for sharing patient context information, including patient identification information, among a plurality of application programs that provide for display of data about particular patients, the interface comprising:

a shared memory storing patient context information; and

an interface program through which the plurality of application programs update and obtain patient context information by issuing service requests, the interface program performing the following functions;

responding to a first type of service request by registering the application program that issued the first type of service request;

responding to a second type of service request from a registered application program by storing updated patient context information that is provided by the application program that issued the second type of service request and notifying each registered application program of the updated patient context information; and

responding to a third type of service request from a first registered application program to which focus is being switched by retrieving stored patient context information currently being used by a second registered application program and providing the stored patient context information to the first registered application program so that the first application program can display data for the same patient that was displayed by the second application program thereby maintaining continuity of patient context.

4. The interface, as set forth in claim 3, wherein the interface program further performs the following function:

responding to a fourth type of service request by providing a list of registered application programs to which focus can be switched while maintaining continuity of patient context.

5. A healthcare information system comprising:

a patient context interface program that controls access to centrally stored patient context information and provides applications with an indication of which patient'"'"'s patient context information is currently being used by an application that is currently the focus of a user; and

at least two application programs, each application program performing a healthcare related function using a sub-set of patient data including a patient context, each application program upon start up or becoming the focus of a user requesting the patient context interface program to provide patient context information so that the application program can retrieve and display data for the same patient that was displayed by the application program that previously was the focus of the user so as to maintain continuity of patient context.

6. The interface, as set forth in claim 5, wherein the interface program further maintains a list of all application programs for which the interface program controls access to the centrally stored patient context information;

and

wherein an application program having focus can request a list of application programs from the interface program to which focus can be switched while maintaining continuity of patient context.