Storing personal medical information

• US 6,415,295 B1
• Filed: 01/26/2000
• Issued: 07/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lawrence E. Feinberg
• Original Assignee: Lawrence E. Feinberg
• Inventors: Feinberg, Lawrence E.
• Primary Examiner(s): AMSBURY, WAYNE P
• Application Number:
  US09/491,546
• Time in Patent Office: 888 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/0288 Labels or tickets consisting of more than one part, e.g. with address of sender or other reference on separate section to main label; Multi-copy labels
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/904 Telephone telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 283/90 Medical record
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A system and method for data compression of structured medical history information using multiple, updatable, static dictionaries in conjunction with an advanced probability-based model. The system is not a free text, word or phrase compressor as is presented in generalized or universal data compression systems. It employs a series of static dictionaries consisting of structured data developed from standardized medical classifications of disease, disorders, surgical procedures and medications. Prior probability information is utilized to achieve a high level of data compression of multiple data items at a time. The dictionaries are designed for flexible updating, efficient storage and retrieval, and data integrity. A portable medical card may be imprinted with the compressed medical information.

Claims

1. A method of data compression of various items of patient medical information including any one or more of the following:

medical diagnoses associated with the patient, medicines the patient has taken or currently takes, and medical procedures the patient has undergone, the method comprising;

(a) searching a structured medical database classification comprising a plurality of records in which each record includes a medical description and an associated key value;

(b) if a match is found between an item of a particular patient'"'"'s medical information and a record in the structured medical database classification, selecting the associated key value;

(c) repeating (a) and (b) for other items of patient medical information, if any;

(d) if multiple key values have been selected for multiple items of the patient'"'"'s medical information, searching a combination medical description database comprising a plurality of records in which each record comprises one or more of said key values representing a combination of patient medical descriptions and an associated slot identifier value to uniquely identify the combination; and

(e) if a patient has multiple items of medical information and if a match is found between a combination of items of the patient'"'"'s medical information and a combination of key values in a record in the combination medical condition database, selecting the slot identifier value associated with the matching record from the multiple medical condition database.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said patient medical descriptions comprise any one or more of diagnoses, procedures, and medicines.

3. The method of claim 1 further including combining the slot identifier values, if any, selected in (d) with the key values selected in (b).

4. The method of claim 3 further including:

(f) converting the combined values to alphanumeric characters.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein (f) comprises representing the combined values as binary numbers, selecting groups of an integer number of said binary numbers and selecting an alphanumeric character for each group of binary numbers.

6. The method of claim 5 further including transmitting said compressed data over a network connection.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein (f) comprises representing the combined values as binary numbers, selecting groups of 5 binary numbers and selecting one of 32 unique alphanumeric characters for each group of 5 binary numbers.

8. The method of claim 4 further including printing said alphanumeric characters representing the patient medical information.

9. The method of claim 1 further including combining the slot identifier values, if any, selected in (d), the key values selected in (b) with supplemental data.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said supplemental data provides additional information regarding the patient medical descriptions identified by the slot identifier and key values.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein said supplemental information includes bits that represent information of a type selected from the group consisting of representation of patient age, acute or long term medicine, variable strength, medicine consumption frequency, and acute or chronic medical condition.

12. The method of claim 1 further including receiving said medical information for a patient from a remote electronic device over a network connection.

13. The method of claim 12 further including combining the slot identifier values, if any, selected in (d) with the key values selected in (b) and transmitting the combination of slot identifiers and key values back across the network connection.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said structured medical database classification includes ICD9, CPT, and NDC codes.

15. A method of creating a medical information database of records to be used to compress and decompress patient medical information, comprising:

(a) associating key values with a plurality of items of medical information, each of said key values uniquely identifying the associated item of medical information;

(b) creating combinations of said items of medical information, each combination representing a medical condition that a human may experience;

(c) associating a slot identifier value with each combination created in (b); and

(d) sorting the combinations created in (b) using a figure of merit that represents a relative frequency of occurrence of the combination in a human population.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of items of medical information in (a) comprises structured database classifications.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein said structured database classifications include ICD and NDC codes.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the population in (d) comprises a plurality of sub-populations, and (a)-(d) are repeated for each of the other sub-populations.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein (d) includes determining the figure of merit by multiplying the frequency of occurrence of the combination in the population by the number of items of medical information in the associated combination, and sorting the combinations in order of said figure of merit.

20. The method of claim 15 further including appending new items of medical information to said database and assigning unique key values to the new items.

21. The method of claim 15 further including updating an existing entry in said database by appending a new item of information representing the updated item to the database, associating a unique key value to the new item and linking the old item to the new item.

22. A computer system usable to perform data compression and decompression of patient medical information, comprising:

a microprocessor;

an input device coupled to said microprocessor;

a display coupled to said microprocessor;

a computer readable storage medium coupled to said microprocessor containing encoder software and a database;

said database including a plurality of individual medical item records with each individual medical item record having a single medical item that is part of a medical classification system and an associated key value distinctly identifying the item, said database also including a plurality of combination records with each combination record including a combination of more than one medical item and an associated slot identifier value distinctly identifying the combination, the combination representing a medical description;

said encoder software receives a plurality of items of medical information for a patient from the input device and compresses the patient'"'"'s medical information using said database by searching the database for various combinations of items of the patient'"'"'s medical information and, if a match is found in the database, replacing each matched combination of items with the associated slot identifier value.

23. The computer system of claim 22 wherein said encoder software combines slot identifier values and, to the extent any medical information items cannot be matched as combinations to combination records in the database, key values of unmatched medical information items to produce a binary representation of the combined slot identifier and key values.

24. The computer system of claim 23 wherein said encoder software converts said binary representation to alphanumeric characters.

25. The computer system of claim 23 said encoder software converts said binary representation to alphanumeric characters by selecting five sequential bits in said binary representation and selecting an alphanumeric character corresponding to the selected five bit value.

26. The computer system of claim 25 wherein the alphanumeric characters consist of 32 unique characters.

27. The computer system of claim 22 further including translator software that receives a string of alphanumeric characters from the input device, the string of alphanumeric characters representing compressed medical information for a patient, and converting the string of alphanumeric characters to uncompressed medical information.

28. The computer system of claim 22 wherein said input device is part of an electronic device remotely coupled to said computer system.

29. The computer system of claim 22 wherein said input device is coupled to said computer system via the Internet.

30. The computer system of claim 22 wherein said database includes medical structured database classifications.

31. A method of data compression of input data into compressed data, the input data comprising patient-specific medical history items, including one or more of the following:

medical diagnoses, surgical procedures, and medications, and using a set of primary dictionaries with each dictionary in the set being associated with one of the types of patient-specific medical history items, the method comprising;

(a) searching the primary dictionary which comprises a structured medical database classification and which contains a plurality of records in which each record comprises a standardized medical description or name, a standardized code, and a uniquely assigned key value;

(b) if a match is found between an input item of patient-specific medical history information and a record in its primary dictionary, selecting the associated key value and adding it to a systematic tabulation;

(c) repeating (a) and (b) for each item of input data to produce a systematic tabulation for each type of input item, said systematic tabulation comprises one key value for each item of input data;

(d) from each systematic tabulation, preparing a table of combinations of all possible combinations of key values in each systematic tabulation taken one at a time, two at a time, three at a time and four at a time;

(e) searching a secondary dictionary selected from a set of secondary dictionaries with each secondary dictionary being associated with one of the types of patent-specific medical history and a subpopulation category, and which contains a plurality of records in which each record comprises one or more of said key values representing a combination of medical data items and an associated slot identifier value to uniquely identify the combination;

(f) comparing each combination of keys in the table of combinations to the records in the secondary dictionary, and if a match is found between a combination of keys representative of the patient'"'"'s medical history information and the key values in a record in the secondary dictionary, selecting the slot identifier value associated with the matching record in the secondary dictionary;

(g) repeating (e) and (f) until all tables of combinations have been searched for matches;

(h) searching through the matching combination records at least once to select the minimum number of slot identifier values to account for as many as possible of the items in each systematic tabulation from (c) above; and

(i) repeating (h) above for each type of medical history item to include the slot identifier values for the minimum number of combination records along with the key values from the systematic tabulation in (c) above for those individual items not accounted for.

32. The method of claim 31 further including combining the slot identifier values, if any, selected in (i) along with the key values selected in (c) but unaccounted for in (i).

33. The method of claim 32 further including:

(j) converting the compressed data to alphanumeric characters.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein (j) comprises representing the compressed data as binary numbers, selecting groups of an integer number of said binary numbers and selecting an alphanumeric character for each group of binary numbers.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein (j) comprises representing the compressed data as binary numbers, selecting groups of 5 binary numbers and selecting one of 32 unique alphanumeric characters for each group of 5 binary numbers.

36. The method of claim 33 further including printing said alphanumeric characters representing the compressed patient medical information.

37. The method of claim 31 further including combining the slot identifier values, if any, selected in (i) along with the key values selected in (c) but unaccounted for in (i), with supplemental data.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein said supplemental data provides additional information regarding the patient medical history items identified by the slot identifier and key values.

39. The method of claim 31 wherein said supplemental information includes bits that represent information specific to each type of item comprising representation of patient age, acute or long term medication, medication strength, medication dosage frequency, recurrent or non-recurrent medical diagnoses, and single or multiple surgical procedures.

40. The method of claim 31 wherein said structured medical database classification includes ICD9-CM, CPT, and NDC.

41. A method of creating a primary dictionary of records from a structured medical database classification to be used to compress and decompress patient medical history information, comprising:

(a) associating key values with a plurality of items of medical information, each of said key values uniquely identifying the associated item of medical history information;

(b) creating combinations of said items of medical history information, each combination representing a medical condition that a human may experience;

(c) associating a slot identifier value with each combination created in (b); and

(d) sorting the combinations created in (b) using a figure of merit that represents a relative frequency of occurrence of the combination in a human population.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the plurality of items of medical history information in (a) comprises structured database classifications.

43. The method of claim 41 wherein said structured database classifications include ICD9-CM, CPT and NDC.

44. The method of claim 41 wherein the population in (d) comprises a plurality of sub-populations, and (a)-(d) are repeated for each sub-population.

45. The method of claim 41 wherein (d) includes determining the figure of merit by multiplying the frequency of occurrence of the combination in the population by the number of items of medical information in the associated combination, and sorting the combinations in order of said figure of merit.

46. The method of claim 41 further including appending new items of medical history information to said database and assigning unique key values to the new items.

47. The method of claim 41 further including updating an existing entry in said primary dictionary by appending a new item of information representing the updated item to the dictionary, associating a unique key value to the new item and identifying the new item with an updated release number.

48. A computer system usable to perform data compression and decompression of patient medical history information, comprising:

a microprocessor;

an input device coupled to said microprocessor;

a display coupled to said microprocessor;

a computer readable storage medium coupled to said microprocessor containing encoder software, decoder software and a primary and secondary dictionary;

said primary dictionary including a plurality of individual medical item records which are derived from a structured medical database classification with each record consisting of a standardized medical description, a standardized code, and an associated key value uniquely identifying the item, and

said secondary dictionary including a plurality of records each comprising of a combination of up to four key values, where each key is associated with an individual record in the primary dictionary, and an associated slot identifier value uniquely identifying the combination record;

said encoder software receives a plurality of items of uncompressed medical information for a patient and compresses the patient'"'"'s medical information using said primary and secondary dictionaries.

49. The computer system of claim 48 wherein said encoder software:

searches the primary dictionary for a match for each item of the patient'"'"'s medical information and selects the associated key value of the matching primary dictionary item;

forms a table of combinations of the selected key values taken one at a time, two at a time, three at a time, and four at a time;

searches the secondary dictionary for combination records which match entries in the table of combinations, and selects the associated slot identifier values;

performs one or more passes through the selected slot identifier values to select the minimum number of slot identifier values to account for a maximum number of patient medical items, and for patient medical items whose associated key values are not selected in combinations, these key values are selected individually.

50. The computer system of claim 49 wherein said encoder software further converts said selected slot identifier values to a stream of binary digits that includes error checking and then represents groups of five binary digits as alphanumeric characters.

51. The computer system of claim 49 wherein said encoder software converts said binary representation to alphanumeric characters.

52. The computer system of claim 49 said encoder software converts said binary representation to alphanumeric characters by selecting five sequential bits in said binary representation and selecting an alphanumeric character corresponding to the selected five bit value.

53. The computer system of claim 48 wherein said decoder software receives compressed medical history information in the form of a stream of alphanumeric characters representative of a patient'"'"'s medical history from the input device and decompresses the information using said primary and secondary dictionaries by:

converting the alphanumeric characters into a contiguous stream of binary information where five binary digits are substituted for each alphanumeric character;

deciphering the binary information into groups of patient medical history data comprising patient demographics, allergies, immunizations, screening information, donor and directives information; and

deciphering further binary information into groups of items of patient medical history information comprising diagnoses, surgical procedures and medications, each of which is comprised of individual key values for items to be found in the primary dictionary, slot identifier values for records to be found in the secondary dictionary, said records comprising combinations of one or more key values for items to be found in the primary dictionary, and supplemental information for each immediately preceding key value.

54. The computer system of claim 53 wherein the alphanumeric characters consist of 32 unique characters.

55. The computer system of claim 48 wherein said encoder software combines slot identifier values and, to the extent any medical information items cannot be matched as combinations to combination records in the database, key values of unmatched medical information items to produce a binary representation of the combined slot identifier and key values.

56. The computer system of claim 48 further including translator software that receives a string of alphanumeric characters from the input device, the string of alphanumeric characters representing compressed medical information for a patient, and converting the string of alphanumeric characters to uncompressed medical information.

57. The computer system of claim 48 wherein said input device is part of an electronic device remotely coupled to said computer system.

58. The computer system of claim 48 wherein said input device is coupled to said computer system via the Internet.

59. The computer system of claim 48 wherein said database includes medical structured database classifications.