System for exchanging medical information

• US 8,825,786 B1
• Filed: 12/04/2013
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MEDarchon, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Iii, William Baxter Webb
• Inventors: Webb, William Baxter III, Rathermel, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Lubin, Valerie
• Application Number:
  US14/096,062
• Time in Patent Office: 272 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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 server-based system enables exchange of medical messages between users, monitors for a probability of communications breakdown likely to result in medical error, and instigates corrective actions to prevent communications breakdown from occurring. Monitoring may include whether a user has read or acted upon a message received within a specified timeframe and whether a user has specified routing preferences for delivering a message to a user better suited to read or act on the message. Corrective actions include the determination of and routing of messages to an optimal recipient and the generation of alerts to subsequent users where a message has not been read or acted upon within a specified timeframe.

Claims

1. A medical messaging server system comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having software residing thereon, the software executable by a processor to direct the performance of operations comprising:

enabling a user to create a message associated with a medical patient, the message comprising message content and an intended recipient selected from a plurality of healthcare providers;

algorithmically determining a priority value for the message based on an analysis of the message content and information associated with the patient;

determining an optimal recipient different from the intended recipient based on routing preferences comprising the priority for the message and a predicted likelihood of medical error resulting from communications breakdown with respect to the intended recipient;

delivering the message to the optimal recipient;

calculating a first value corresponding to a post-delivery status of the message, the value based in part on the priority value associated with the message; and

generating an alert based on the first value exceeding a second value as a risk maximum threshold.

2. The server system of claim 1, an operation of predicting the likelihood of medical error resulting from communications breakdown comprising analyzing patient data associated with the patient from an electronic medical records system and message data associated with the patient from a message database functionally linked to the server with respect to associated benchmark values.

3. The server system of claim 2, the patient data comprising one or more of patient diagnoses, patient status, treating clinicians and care-related events.

4. The server system of claim 2, the message data comprising one or more of historical message content, a total number of messages, times at which the messages were sent, and healthcare provider participation in messages sent.

5. The server system of claim 4, the operation of predicting the likelihood of medical error resulting from communications breakdown further comprising comparing a total number of messages associated with the patient to a benchmark volume.

6. The server system of claim 5, the benchmark volume determined according to one or more of a first listed diagnosis of the patient, a healthcare provider for the patient and a day of hospitalization for the patient.

7. The server system of claim 1, the likelihood of medical error resulting from communications breakdown being predicted using a logistic regression formula derived from patient data and healthcare provider data, the formula further associated with a Boolean determination of prior medical error having occurred from a communication breakdown.

8. The server system of claim 1, the likelihood of medical error resulting from communications breakdown being further predicted based on a determined location of a messaging device associated with the intended recipient.

9. The server system of claim 8, the software further executable to determine the location of the messaging device associated with the intended recipient based on any one or more of GPS coordinates, a determined visibility of or connectivity with one or more defined WiFi networks, and a determined visibility of or connectivity with one or more defined cellular network towers.

10. The server system of claim 1, wherein the first value is calculated based on:

an elapsed time associated with the message, the elapsed time comprising a duration of time since the message was generated;

a read status associated with the message, the read status comprising information pertaining to whether the optimal recipient has viewed the message; and

a time limit associated with the read status.

11. The server system of claim 10, wherein the second value as a risk maximum threshold is determined by comparing the read status and the elapsed time against the time limit.

12. The server system of claim 10, wherein the time limit is determined according to the determined message priority associated with the message.

13. The server system of claim 1, the message routing preferences causing a message to be routed from the intended recipient to another recipient based on a determined location of a messaging device associated with the intended recipient being away from a location for the patient.

14. The server system of claim 13, the message routing preferences further causing a message to be routed from the intended recipient to another recipient based on a time of day and the priority value associated with the message.

15. The server system of claim 14, the message routing preferences defined according to predetermined forwarding protocols.

16. A medical messaging system comprising:

a perimeter communications network comprising a server interface for a plurality of user computing devices;

a server network communicatively linked to the perimeter network via a secure message bus, the server network comprising a processor, a data storage network and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program instructions residing thereon, the instructions executable by the processor to direct the performance of operations comprising;

providing a user interface platform executable from the plurality of user computing devices, the user interface platform effective to

enable users to submit respective message routing preferences for storage in the data storage network, and

enable a first user to submit a messaging request associated with a medical patient, the messaging request defining a user as an intended recipient;

in response to the messaging request, identifying one or more users as healthcare providers associated with the patient;

generating a message associated with the patient, the message comprising patient-related content;

algorithmically determining a priority value for the message based on an analysis of the message content and information associated with the patient;

determining an actual recipient for the message from among the identified one or more healthcare providers based at least in part on message routing preferences associated with the intended recipient and comprising the priority for the message and a predicted likelihood of medical error resulting from communications breakdown with respect to the intended recipient;

delivering the message to the actual recipient;

applying a risk assessment algorithm effective to determine a first value corresponding to a post-delivery status of the message, the value based in part on the priority value associated with the message;

comparing the first value to a second value as a risk maximum threshold, wherein if the first value exceeds the second, further generating an alert associated with the patient to an alert recipient chosen from the one or more healthcare providers;

calculating messaging benchmarks associated with the patient based on expected messaging activity for each of one or more user-selectable benchmark criteria; and

user-selectably generating a graphical representation of the calculated benchmarks with respect to actual messaging activity associated with the patient, the graphical representation displayable on a respective user interface platform.

17. The medical messaging system of claim 16, an operation of predicting the likelihood of medical error resulting from communications breakdown comprising analyzing

patient data associated with the patient from an electronic medical records system, the patient data comprising one or more of patient diagnoses, patient status, treating clinicians and care-related events, and

message data associated with the patient from a message database functionally linked to the server with respect to associated benchmark values, the message data comprising one or more of historical message content, a total number of messages, times at which the messages were sent, and healthcare provider participation in messages sent.

18. The medical messaging system of claim 17, the operation of predicting the likelihood of medical error resulting from communications breakdown further comprising using a logistic regression formula derived from patient data and healthcare provider data, the formula further associated with a Boolean determination of prior medical error having occurred from a communication breakdown.

19. A method for reducing medical error resulting from communications breakdowns between healthcare providers, the method comprising:

providing a user interface enabling a user to create a message associated with a medical patient, the message comprising message content and an intended recipient selected from a plurality of healthcare providers;

algorithmically determining a priority value for the message based on an analysis of the message content and information associated with the patient;

determining an optimal recipient different from the intended recipient based on routing preferences comprising the priority for the message and a predicted likelihood of medical error resulting from communications breakdown with respect to the intended recipient;

delivering the message to the optimal recipient;

calculating a first value corresponding to a post-delivery status of the message, the value based in part on the priority value associated with the message; and

generating an alert based on the first value exceeding a second value as a risk maximum threshold.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the likelihood of medical error resulting from communications breakdown is predicted using a logistic regression formula derived from patient data and healthcare provider data, the formula further associated with a Boolean determination of prior medical error having occurred from a communication breakdown.