Inventory tracking for anatomic pathology consultations

• US 8,131,561 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2006
• Issued: 03/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Burke, Mary Kay, Arnold, Joshua W., Cross, Lori N., Stroud, James L.
• Primary Examiner(s): O'Connor, Gerald J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PAULS, JOHN A
• Application Number:
  US11/422,779
• Publication Number:
  US 20070288261A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,099 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/4, 340/572, 364/413.02, 700/99
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring

Abstract

An on-line approach to coordinating intradepartmental anatomic pathology consultations, including coordinating access to physical case materials and/or electronic case materials, is provided. In accordance with one method in a clinical computing environment, a command to initiate a share event for an anatomic pathology case is received. One or more share recipients are determined manually and/or automatically for the share event. In addition, whether any physical case materials and/or electronic case materials are associated with the anatomic pathology case is determined. If any physical case materials and/or electronic case materials are associated with the anatomic pathology case, share recipient access to the materials is coordinated. After each share recipient reviews the case, the share recipient may enter comments.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method for coordinating a share event for an anatomic pathology case, the method comprising:

receiving a command to initiate the share event for the anatomic pathology case;

determining a pool of share recipients to include in the share event;

sending a notification to each of the pool of share recipients, wherein the notification includes a special designation in each share recipient'"'"'s work queue indicating that a request to review the share event for the anatomic pathology case has been received;

determining a plurality of share recipients, based on the share recipients who accept the share request, for the share event;

considering capabilities and expertise of the plurality of share recipients;

identifying physical case materials associated with the share event for the anatomic pathology case;

based on the consideration, determining a schedule for the plurality of share recipients to review the anatomic pathology case, the schedule including an order of review by the plurality of share recipients facilitating sequential review of the physical case materials;

defining a time period for each share recipient'"'"'s review;

monitoring the amount of time each share recipient maintains ownership of the share event for the anatomic pathology case;

notifying the share recipient or share initiator when the time period is nearly reached;

tracking the location of the physical case materials for the anatomic pathology case during the share event;

receiving at least one comment from at least one of the plurality of share recipients after reviewing the anatomic pathology case.

2. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein receiving a command to initiate the share event comprises:

providing one or more rules defining when a share event is to be initiated; and

determining that the share event is to be initiated based on at least one of the one or more rules.

3. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of share recipients is determined based on user input.

4. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of share recipients is automatically determined based on one or more pre-defined criteria.

5. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein identifying physical case materials associated with the anatomic pathology case comprises receiving a user-specified identification of the physical case materials.

6. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein tracking the location of the physical case materials during the share event comprises receiving a manual indication of the location of the physical case materials.

7. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein tracking the location of the physical case materials during the share event comprises:

identifying one of the plurality of share recipients as a share owner; and

identifying the location of the share owner as the location of the physical case materials.

8. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein tracking the location of the physical case materials comprises:

placing an RFID on the physical case materials; and

tracking the location of the physical case materials using the RFID.

9. The one or more computer storage media of claim 1, wherein tracking the location of the physical case materials comprises:

providing a repository for the physical case materials; and

tracking the physical case materials to one of the plurality of share recipients when the one of the plurality of share recipients removes the physical case materials from the repository.

10. One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method for coordinating a share event for an anatomic pathology case, the method comprising:

receiving a command to initiate the share event for the anatomic pathology case;

determining a pool of share recipients to include in the share event;

sending a notification to each of the pool of share recipients, wherein the notification includes a special designation in each share recipient'"'"'s work queue indicating that a request to review the share event for the anatomic pathology case has been received;

determining a plurality of share recipients for the share event, based on the share recipients who accept the share request;

identifying physical case materials associated with the anatomic pathology case;

identifying electronic case materials corresponding with the physical case materials associated with the anatomic pathology case;

considering capabilities and expertise of the plurality of share recipients;

based on the consideration, coordinating share recipient access to the physical case materials for the anatomic pathology case during the share event; and

receiving at least one comment from at least one of the plurality of share recipients after reviewing the anatomic pathology case.

11. The one or more computer storage media of claim 10, wherein providing the plurality of share recipients access to the electronic case materials comprises allowing the plurality of share recipients to simultaneously access the electronic case materials.

12. The one or more computer storage media of claim 11, wherein coordinating share recipient access to the physical case materials comprises:

receiving a request for the physical case materials from a share recipient;

determining if the physical case materials are available; and

if the physical case materials are available, allowing the share recipient to access the physical case materials.

13. A system, including one or more processors and one or more computer storage media, for coordinating a share event for an anatomic pathology case, the system comprising:

a share event initiation component for receiving a command to initiate a share event for the anatomic pathology case for a plurality of share recipients, determining a pool of share recipients to include in the share event, sending a notification to each of the pool of share recipients, wherein the notification includes a special designation in each share recipient'"'"'s work queue indicating that a request to review the share event for the anatomic pathology case has been received, and determining a plurality of share recipients, based on the share recipients who accept the share request, for the share event;

a case material tracking component for tracking access by the plurality of share recipients to physical case materials for the anatomic pathology case associated with the share event, wherein the case material tracking component designates one of the plurality of share recipients as a share owner, based on a consideration of capabilities and expertise of the plurality of share recipients, and identifies the physical case materials for the anatomic pathology case as being located with the share owner, and further wherein the case material tracking component defines a time period for each share recipient'"'"'s review

a share timer for monitoring the amount of time each share recipient maintains ownership of the share event for the anatomic pathology case and sending an alarm to the share recipient or share initiator when the time period is nearly reached; and

a share comment component for receiving at least one comment from at least one of the plurality of share recipients after reviewing the anatomic pathology case.