System for communication of health care data

• US 8,650,044 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2013
• Issued: 02/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Healthtrio LLC (Spok Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Healthtrio LLC (Spok Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hasan, Malik M., Wallen, J. Dominic, Peterson, John C., Post, Cindy A., Korpman, Ralph A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lubin, Valerie
• Application Number:
  US13/923,122
• Publication Number:
  US 20130282402A1
• Time in Patent Office: 236 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• 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

A computer system to communicate healthcare data between healthcare participants includes a computer configured to display a personal healthcare record associated with a patient; wherein the personal healthcare record includes normalized data related to the patient and received from a payor computer and provider healthcare data related to the patient received from a provider computer; wherein the normalized data and the provider healthcare data are of a type that are displayed in separate fields; and wherein the normalized data is in a normalized format of a type that displays healthcare data from one or more sources such that any healthcare data associated with a patient which has the same meaning will be expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting.

Claims

1. A computer system to communicate health care data between health care participants the computer system comprising:

a computer configured to communicate with one or more payor computer systems from one or more payors;

wherein the computer is configured to communicate with each of the one or more payor computer systems of a type that includes one or more databases storing records of payor healthcare data of a type that are displayed in separate fields;

wherein the computer is configured to receive the payor healthcare data from at least one payor computer system from the one or more payor computer systems;

wherein the payor healthcare data from each of the one or more payor computer systems are configured to convert into a normalized format by a normalization system;

wherein a normalized format is of a type that displays healthcare data from one or more sources such that any healthcare data associated with a healthcare record which has the same meaning will be expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting;

wherein the normalization system comprises;

a rules engine that establishes the predefined format, predetermines how each of the payor healthcare data is to appear in its respective field, and remodels any of the payor healthcare data that is not expressed as predetermined by the normalized format into the normalized format becoming normalized data such that all normalized data expressing information having the same meaning now expresses that meaning in the same format;

wherein the normalized data form at least one personal healthcare record; and

wherein the at least one personal healthcare record is configured to be viewable on a recipient computer.

2. A computer system to communicate health care data between health care participants the computer system comprising:

a computer configured to communicate with one or more payor computer systems from one or more payors;

wherein the computer is configured to communicate with each of the one or more payor computer systems of a type that includes one or more databases storing records of payor healthcare data of a type that are displayed in separate fields;

wherein the computer is configured to receive the payor healthcare data from at least one payor computer system from the one or more payor computer systems;

wherein the payor healthcare data from each of the one or more payor computer systems are configured to convert into a normalized format by a normalization system;

wherein a normalized format is of a type that displays healthcare data from one or more sources such that any healthcare data associated with a healthcare record which has the same meaning will be expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting;

wherein the normalization system comprises;

a rules engine that establishes the predefined format, predetermines how each of the payor healthcare data is to appear in its respective field, and remodels any of the payor healthcare data that is not expressed as predetermined by the normalized format into the normalized format becoming normalized data such that all normalized data expressing information having the same meaning now expresses that meaning in the same format;

wherein the normalized data form at least one personal healthcare record;

wherein the at least one personal healthcare record is configured to be viewable on a recipient computer; and

wherein the at least one personal healthcare record is configured to have additional data added to it from the recipient computer.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the at least one personal healthcare record is configured to be viewable by a patient who is identified on that at least one personal healthcare record.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the at least one personal healthcare record is configured to be modifiable by the patient to authorize another person or persons to view that at least one personal healthcare record.

5. A computer system to communicate health care data between health care participants, the computer system comprising:

a computer configured to communicate with one or more payor computer systems from one or more payors;

wherein the computer is configured to communicate with each of the one or more payor computer systems of a type that includes one or more databases storing one or more healthcare records containing a plurality of payor healthcare data related to a patient;

wherein the plurality of payor healthcare data are of a type that are displayed in separate fields;

wherein the computer is configured to receive the one or more healthcare records related to the patient from the one or more payor computer systems from the one or more payors;

wherein the payor healthcare data related to the patient are configured to convert into a normalized format by a normalization system;

wherein the normalized format is of a type that displays healthcare data from one or more sources such that any healthcare data which has the same meaning will be expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting;

wherein the normalization system comprises;

a rules engine that establishes the predefined format, predetermines how each of the plurality of payor healthcare data is to appear in its respective field, and remodels any of the payor healthcare data that is not expressed as predetermined by the normalized format into the normalized format becoming normalized data such that all normalized data expressing information having the same meaning now expresses that meaning in the same format;

wherein the normalized data related to the patient form a personal healthcare record; and

wherein the at least one personal healthcare record is configured to be viewable on a recipient computer.

6. A computer system to communicate healthcare data between healthcare participants the computer system comprising:

a computer configured to communicate with one or more payor computer systems from one or more payors;

wherein the computer is configured to communicate with each of the one or more payor computer systems of a type that includes one or more databases storing one or more healthcare records containing a plurality of payor healthcare data related to a patient;

wherein the plurality of payor healthcare data are of a type that are displayed in separate fields;

wherein the computer is configured to receive the one or more healthcare records related to the patient from the one or more payor computer systems from the one or more payors;

wherein the payor healthcare data related to the patient are configured to convert into a normalized format by a normalization system;

wherein the normalized format is of a type that displays healthcare data from one or more sources such that any healthcare data which has the same meaning will be expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting;

wherein the normalization system comprises;

a rules engine that establishes the predefined format, predetermines how each of the plurality of payor healthcare data is to appear in its respective field, and remodels any of the payor healthcare data that is not expressed as predetermined by the normalized format into the normalized format becoming normalized data such that all normalized data expressing information having the same meaning now expresses that meaning in the same format;

wherein the normalized data related to the patient form a personal healthcare record;

wherein the personal healthcare record is configured to be viewable on a recipient computer; and

wherein the personal healthcare record is configured to receive additional data from the recipient computer.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the personal healthcare record is configured to be modifiable by the patient to authorize another person or persons to view that personal healthcare record.

8. A computer system to communicate healthcare data between healthcare participants, the computer system comprising:

a computer configured to display a personal healthcare record associated with a patient;

wherein the personal healthcare record includes normalized data related to the patient and received from a payor computer;

wherein the normalized data are of a type that are displayed in separate fields; and

wherein the normalized data is in a normalized format of a type that displays healthcare data from one or more sources such that any healthcare data associated with a patient which has the same meaning will be expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting.

9. A computer system to communicate healthcare data between healthcare participants, the computer system comprising:

a computer configured to display a personal healthcare record associated with a patient;

wherein the personal healthcare record includes normalized data related to the patient and received from a payor computer;

wherein the normalized data are of a type that are displayed in separate fields; and

wherein the normalized data is in a normalized format of a type that displays healthcare data from one or more sources such that any healthcare data associated with a patient which has the same meaning will be expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting; and

wherein the personal healthcare record is configured to receive data from a recipient computer.

10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the personal healthcare record is configured to be modifiable by the patient to authorize another person or persons to view the personal healthcare record.

11. A computer system to communicate healthcare data between healthcare participants, the computer system comprising:

a computer configured to display a personal healthcare record associated with a patient;

wherein the personal healthcare record includes normalized data related to the patient and received from a payor computer;

wherein the normalized data are of a type that are displayed in separate fields; and

wherein the normalized data is in a normalized format of a type that displays healthcare data from one or more sources such that any healthcare data associated with a patient which has the same meaning will be expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting.

12. A computer system to communicate healthcare data between healthcare participants, the computer system comprising:

a computer configured to display a personal healthcare record associated with a patient;

wherein the personal healthcare record includes normalized data related to the patient and received from a payor computer;

wherein the normalized data are of a type that are displayed in separate fields; and

wherein the normalized data is in a normalized format of a type that displays healthcare data from one or more sources such that any healthcare data associated with a patient which has the same meaning will be expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting; and

wherein the at least one personal healthcare record is configured to be viewable on a recipient computer.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the personal healthcare record is configured to be modifiable by the patient to authorize another person or persons to view the personal healthcare record.

14. A computer system to communicate health care data between health care participants, the computer system comprising:

a computer configured to communicate with one or more payor computer systems from one or more payors;

wherein the computer is configured to communicate with each of the one or more payor computer systems of a type that includes one or more databases storing one or more healthcare records containing a plurality of payor healthcare data related to a patient;

wherein the plurality of payor healthcare data related to the patient have been converted into a normalized format by a normalization system;

wherein the computer is configured to receive the one or more healthcare records related to the patient in the normalized format from the one or more payor computer systems from the one or more payors;

wherein the normalized format is of a type that displays healthcare data from one or more sources such that any healthcare data which has the same meaning will be expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting;

wherein the payor healthcare data related to the patient converted into the normalized format form a plurality personal healthcare records of the patient; and

wherein the at least one personal healthcare record is configured to be viewable on a recipient computer.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of personal healthcare records related to the patient is configured to be viewable by the patient who is identified on the plurality of healthcare records.

16. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of personal healthcare records related to the patient are configured to be modifiable by the patient to authorize another person or persons to view that at least one personal healthcare record.