Querying by semantically equivalent concepts in an electronic data record system

• US 8,930,386 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2009
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Mayr, Florian Alexander, Shroff, Anand, Currie, Hamish Daniel, Kuhnen, Gregory, Moores, Matthew Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): KUDDUS, DANIEL A
• Application Number:
  US12/485,888
• Publication Number:
  US 20100318549A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,030 Days
• US Class Current: 707/759
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention enable processing of concept-based query requests submitted to a query service within a healthcare transaction framework. In embodiments, a terminology service within the healthcare transaction framework manages terminology content (concepts represented by a set of terminologies). In embodiments, search criteria from a data access query request are submitted to the terminology service to extract a set of concepts from the terminology content that are associated with the search criteria. In embodiments, equivalence search criteria include a seed concept, and the terminology service returns a set of equivalent concepts comprising the seed concept. In embodiments, classification search criteria include a classification identifier, and the terminology service returns a set of concepts associated with the classification identifier. In embodiments, the query service generates and submits a data access query comprising predicates associated with the returned set of concepts.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to generate a query to retrieve a set of stored data records from a data store by performing steps comprising:

providing a repository of terminology content, wherein the terminology content includes a plurality of backbone classes that form data structures representing a plurality of high level concepts,

wherein the plurality of high level concepts includes a plurality of semantically equivalent concepts stored in one or more of domains of concepts, and

wherein the plurality of semantically equivalent concepts are mapped to one another using inter-domain or intra-domain mappings defined in the terminology content;

receiving an initial query comprising a set of search criteria comprising a seed concept;

generating an equivalence concept query based on at least a subset of the search criteria that includes the seed concept;

providing the equivalence concept query to a terminology service which manages the repository of terminology content, wherein the terminology service operates to extract, from the terminology content, a set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept using the defined mappings;

receiving the set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept in response to submitting the equivalence concept query to the terminology service; and

generating a structured query language (SQL) query for retrieving a set of structured records from an electronic data record system, wherein the SQL query comprises

predicates corresponding to the seed concept and the set of concepts semantically equivalent to the seed concept, and

an equality predicate that compares a search criterion attribute value to a value within a structured record to determine they are equal.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the terminology content comprises concepts that are associated with at least one terminology code system.

3. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the seed concept has a coded data type.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the subset of search criteria comprises an equivalence definition type.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 wherein the equivalence definition type is semantic equivalence or mapping equivalence.

6. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the subset of search criteria comprises an indication of an equivalence definition domain boundary.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the equivalence definition domain boundary is indicated to be within a single code system associated with a terminology or is indicated to span across a plurality of code systems associated with a plurality of terminologies.

8. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the equivalence definition domain boundary is indicated to be within a usage context.

9. A system to generate a database query to retrieve a set of stored data records from a data store, the system comprising:

a computer including memory and one or more microprocessors;

a concept query system that executes on the computer, wherein the concept query system operates to

receive a query comprising a set of search criteria that comprises a seed concept,

generate an equivalence concept query based on at least a subset of the search criteria that includes the seed concept,

provide the equivalence concept query to a terminology service that manages a repository of terminology content, wherein the terminology content includes a plurality of backbone classes that form data structures representing a plurality of high level concepts,

wherein the plurality of high level concepts includes a plurality of semantically equivalent concepts stored in one or more of domains of concepts, and

wherein the plurality of semantically equivalent concepts are mapped to one another using inter-domain or intra-domain mappings defined in the terminology content,

wherein the terminology service operates to extract, from the terminology content, a set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept using the defined mappings, and

receive a concept query result comprising the seed concept and an extracted set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept; and

a database query generator to receive the concept query result and generate a structured query language (SQL) query for retrieving a set of structured records from a database, where the SQL query comprises

predicates associated with the seed concept and the retrieved set of concepts semantically equivalent to the seed concept, and

an equality predicate that compares a search criterion attribute value to a value within a structured record to determine they are equal.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising a database query processor to receive the database query and retrieve the set of stored data records in response to submitting the database query to the data store.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the terminology content comprises stored concepts that are associated with at least one terminology code system.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the seed concept has a coded data type.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the subset of search criteria comprises an equivalence definition type.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the equivalence definition type is semantic equivalence or mapping equivalence.

15. A computer implemented method for generating a set of semantically equivalent concepts for generating a database query for retrieving a set of stored data records from an electronic data record system, the method comprising:

providing a repository of terminology content, wherein the terminology content includes a plurality of backbone classes that form data structures representing a plurality of high level concepts,

wherein the plurality of high level concepts includes a plurality of semantically equivalent concepts stored in one or more of domains of concepts, and

wherein the plurality of semantically equivalent concepts are mapped to one another using inter-domain or intra-domain mappings defined in the terminology content;

receiving an initial query comprising a set of search criteria comprising a seed concept;

generating an equivalence concept query based on at least a subset of the search criteria that includes the seed concept;

providing the equivalence concept query to a terminology service which manages the repository of terminology content, wherein the terminology service operates to extract, from the terminology content, a set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept using the defined mappings;

receiving the set of concepts that are semantically equivalent to the seed concept in response to submitting the equivalence concept query to the terminology service; and

generating a structured query language (SQL) query for retrieving a set of structured records from an electronic data record system, wherein the SQL query comprises

predicates corresponding to the seed concept and the set of concepts semantically equivalent to the seed concept, and

an equality predicate that compares a search criterion attribute value to a value within a structured record to determine they are equal.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the terminology content data repository comprises stored concepts that are associated with at least one terminology code system.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the seed concept has a coded data type.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the set of semantically equivalent concepts have inter-version semantic equivalence.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the set of semantically equivalent concepts are associated with a plurality of terminology codes and have inter-terminology mapping equivalence.