System and method for navigating patient medical information

• US 20020065686A1
• Filed: 11/05/2001
• Published: 05/30/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Draeger Medical Systems Incorporated (Dragerwerk AG)
• Original Assignee: Draeger Medical Systems Incorporated (Dragerwerk AG)
• Inventors: Auer, John E., Monteleone, Rand, Gilman, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,165,221 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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

Abstract

A network compatible user interface system and method are presented for supporting navigation through patient medical information. The system comprises a communication processor for acquiring a patient group identifier allocated to a grouping of patients and for acquiring medical information associated with the patients. A display generator operates to generate a composite display window incorporating a first window including the patient group identifier and a list of patients in the grouping and a second window for displaying different medical information corresponding to different medical applications. The different medical information is associated with patients within the patient grouping. A display navigation processor maintains the first window display while displaying different medical information in the second window in response to user navigation between the different applications.

Claims

1. A network compatible user interface system supporting navigation through patient medical information, comprising:

a communication processor for acquiring a patient group identifier allocated to a grouping of patients and for acquiring medical information associated with said patients;

a display generator for generating a composite display window incorporating

a first window including said patient group identifier and a list of patients in said grouping; and

a second window for displaying different medical information corresponding to different medical applications, said different medical information being associated with patients in said grouping of patients; and

a display navigation processor for maintaining said first window display while displaying different medical information in said second window in response to user navigation between said different applications.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said patient group identifier corresponds to one of a plurality of care units including two or more of (a) an intensive care unit, (b) a critical care unit, (c) maternity, gynecological or obstetric care unit, (d) emergency care unit, (e) burn unit, (f) neurological unit, (g) surgical unit, (h) pediatric unit, (i) infectious disease unit, and (j) oncology unit.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said different medical information corresponding to different medical applications comprising two or more of (a) a diagnosis information, (b) laboratory test results, (c) ventilation unit information, (d) trend information, (e) administrative or admission related information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said first window further displays one or more of bed label, patient name, age, height, weight and admission date.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said patient group identifier in said first window is user-selectable.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said display navigation processor is responsive to user selection of a deactivation element in said first window display for no longer maintaining said list of patients in said first window during user navigation between said different applications.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said patient group identifier is maintained in memory after user logout of the system.

8. A network compatible user interface system supporting navigation through patient medical information comprising:

a patient relocation detector for detecting a relocation indicator indicative of a patient having moved location in a care facility;

a communication processor for automatically acquiring new information for said relocated patient in response to said detected relocation indicator, said new information comprising,

a patient group identifier allocated to a grouping of patients including said relocated patient, and

medical monitoring information for said relocated patient at said new location.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said relocation indicator comprises a bit flag.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein said patient group identifier corresponds to one of a plurality of care units including two or more of (a) an intensive care unit, (b) a critical care unit, (c) maternity, gynecological or obstetric care unit, (d) emergency care unit, (e) burn unit, (f) neurological unit, (g) surgical unit, (h) pediatric or baby unit, (i) infectious disease unit, and (j) oncology unit.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein said medical monitoring information comprises two or more of (a) a diagnosis information, (b) laboratory test results, (c) ventilation unit information, (d) trend information, (e) administrative or admission related information.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said display navigation

processor automatically displays different medical information for said identified patients for said different applications without user re-entry of information determining said identified patients.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein said different applications comprise two or more of (a) a diagnosis information, (b) laboratory test results, (c) ventilation unit information, (d) administrative or admission related information.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein said at least one field comprises one or more of patient name, patient identifier, physician, diagnosis and procedure fields.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein said prompting menu further includes a selectable customization field responsive to a user command for generating a query based on said user-entered text string for subsequent execution without user re-entry of said text string.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of maintaining further comprises setting a variable corresponding to a user command for retaining said list of patients in said first window.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said first window further displays one or more of bed label, patient name, age, height, weight and admission date.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein said step of generating a composite display window further comprises generating a search menu for entering a text string in response to a user command.

12. A network compatible user interface system supporting navigation through patient medical information comprising:

a communication processor for acquiring patient medical information for storage in a database;

a menu generator for generating a menu prompting user entry and selection of at least one field to be searched;

a search engine for searching said database of acquired medical information to identify patients associated with search criteria determined by user selection of said field and entry of a text string; and

a display navigation processor for automatically displaying different medical information for said identified patients in response to user navigation between different applications.

17. An internet compatible method for displaying patient medical information, comprising:

acquiring medical information associated with patients;

collating said medical information including allocating a patient group identifier to a grouping of patients;

generating a composite display window incorporating a first window including said patient group identifier and a list of patients in said grouping, and a second window for displaying different medical information corresponding to different medical applications, said different medical information being associated with patients in said grouping of patients; and

maintaining said first window display while displaying different medical information in said second window in response to user navigation between said different applications.