Apparatus and method for viewing medical information

• US 9,471,747 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2013
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: UPMC
• Original Assignee: UPMC
• Inventors: Shrestha, Rasu Bickram K., Romero Lauro, Gonzalo, Black, Harry Alton, Kolowitz, Brian John, Lauffer, Nathan John
• Primary Examiner(s): Uddin, Md. I
• Application Number:
  US13/733,326
• Publication Number:
  US 20130179462A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,384 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707/769, 707/737, 707/722, 707/770, 705/2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS

Abstract

An apparatus includes a computer system programmed to retrieve information from a plurality of data sources; the computer system including a plurality of vault query services; an adapter for each of the data sources, each adapter translating an interface for one of the data sources to a vault query service interface; and a cross-vault query service providing an interface for data communication between an application program and the plurality of vault query services; and a user display for displaying the information retrieved from the data sources in response to a query from the application program.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a computer system programmed to retrieve medical data related to an individual patient from a plurality of medical data sources;

the computer system including a plurality of vault query services using a business rule configuration to create a real-time virtual patient object for the individual patient by a singleview framework wherein the singleview framework integrates or remove data sources without historical data migration;

an adapter for each of the data sources, each adapter translating an interface for one of the data sources to a vault query service interface; and

a cross-vault query service providing an interface for data communication between an application program and the plurality of vault query services; and

using the real-time virtual patient object when a query is requested to query the data sources, wherein the cross-vault query service splits the query from the application program into N independent queries, asynchronously queries each of the medical data sources, combines medical data relating to the individual patient retrieved in response to the independent queries, wherein the application program interacts with an Enterprise Master Patient Index through a cross-vault query rules engine, and wherein the Enterprise Master Patient Index identifies multiple patient instances and presents a single aggregated dataset of the medical data for the individual patient to the application program; and

a user display for displaying the medical data relating to the individual patient retrieved from the data sources in response to the query.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the application program uses patient information as search criteria that to retrieve the information.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the Enterprise Master Patient Index identifies multiple patient instances through a single numeric identifier.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vault query service includes an interface for communications with both the data sources and the cross-vault query service.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data sources comprise a plurality of imaging archives.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein application program interacts with a workstation used to enter information requests.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the workstation uses worklists to assist a user in building specific queries using a standard language and syntax, and wherein the application program converts the a standard language and syntax into imaging archive specific syntax.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein user display shows a timeline in combination with images retrieved from the data sources.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the images are shown as icons or thumbnail images.

10. A method comprising:

entering search criteria into a computer system programmed to retrieve medical data related to an individual patient from a plurality of medical data sources;

wherein the computer system includes a plurality of vault query services using a business rule configuration to a create real-time virtual patient object for the individual patient by a singleview framework wherein the singleview framework integrates or remove data sources without historical data migration;

an adapter for each of the data sources, each adapter translating an interface for one of the data sources to a vault query service interface; and

a cross-vault query service providing an interface for data communication between an application program and the plurality of vault query services, wherein the cross-vault query service splits the query from the application program into N independent queries, asynchronously queries each of the data sources, combines information relating to the individual patient retrieved in response to the independent queries, wherein the application program interacts with an Enterprise Master Patient Index through a cross-vault query rules engine, and wherein the Enterprise Master Patient Index identifies multiple patient instances and presents a single aggregated dataset of the information to the application program; and

using the real-time virtual patient objects when a query is requested to query the data sources; and

displaying the medical data relating to the individual patient retrieved from the data sources in response to the search criteria.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the search criteria comprises patient information.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the Enterprise Master Patient Index identifies multiple patient instances through a single numeric identifier.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the vault query service includes an interface for communications with both the data sources and the cross-vault query service.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the data sources comprise a plurality of imaging archives.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein application program interacts with a workstation used to enter search criteria.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the workstation uses worklists to assist a user in building specific queries using a standard language and syntax, and wherein the application program converts the a standard language and syntax into imaging archive specific syntax.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein user display shows a timeline in combination with images retrieved from the data sources.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the images are shown as icons or thumbnail images.