Process of interfacing a patient indirectly with their own electronic medical records

• US 20020128870A1
• Filed: 03/09/2001
• Published: 09/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Willis Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: Patientlink Enterprises Incorporated
• Inventors: Whitson, Debi
• Granted Patent: US 7,487,102 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A process of allowing a patient to have limited input access to their electronic medical record including the steps of forming a basic patient medical record in a computer through entry of information using a keyboard, providing the patient with a machine readable medical questionnaire concerning their history, environment, symptoms, and other pertinent information for answering by the patient, interfacing the machine readable medical questionnaire with a scanner to send the data stream to a microprocessor and converting the patient'"'"'s answers to a protocol simulating the protocol from a party having authority to export data to the patient'"'"'s medical record, and transferring the protocol-arranged data into the patient'"'"'s medical record housed in a database through use of an interface engine.

Claims

1. A process of allowing a patient to have limited input access to their electronic medical record comprising of the steps of forming a basic patient medical record in a computer application through entry of information using a machine-readable questionnaire, a scanner, and a computer application;

a) providing the patient with a machine readable questionnaire concerning their medical history, their environment, their symptoms, or other pertinent information for answering by the patient;

b) interfacing the machine readable card with a scanning type machine to convert the patient'"'"'s written answers to a data stream;

c) arranging the data stream into a defined set of data structure simulating the protocol structure from a party having authorization to export data to the patient'"'"'s medical record;

d) sending the formatted data to an assigned location for importing into the patient'"'"'s medical record;

2. The process of claim 1 wherein the step of forming a basic patient medical record in a computer through entry of information using a keyboard is accomplished by a professional staff member.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein the step of forming a basic patient medical record is accomplished by the patient in providing this information by written responses on the questionnaire.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein the step of providing the patient with a machine readable questionnaire concerning their medical history, their environment, their symptoms and other pertinent information includes the step of providing the patient with a medical questionnaire including questions concerning the systems making up the human body with designated locations for patient responses and is accomplished by a member of the clinical staff. This questionnaire may be provided within the medical facility or mailed to the patient.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein the step of interfacing the machine readable card with a scanner to convert the patient'"'"'s written answers to a data stream includes the step of interfacing the machine readable card with a scanner type machine and is accomplished by a member of the clinical staff.

6. The process of claim 1 wherein the step of arranging the data stream into a defined set of data structure simulating the protocol from a party having authorization to export data to the patient'"'"'s medical record includes the step of the invention converting and arranging the data stream to a defined set of data structures simulating the protocol of Health Level Seven (HL7).

7. The process of claim 1 wherein the step of arranging the data stream into a defined set of data structure simulating the protocol from a party having authorization to export data to the patient'"'"'s medical record includes the step of the invention converting and arranging the data stream to a defined set of data structures simulating the protocol of ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials).

8. The process of claim 1 wherein the step of transferring the protocol-arranged data into the patient'"'"'s electronic medical record housed in a database includes the steps of using the invention and computer keyboard to send the formatted data through the microprocessor to the location specified by the user.

9. The process of claim 1 wherein the step of transferring the protocol-arranged data into the patient'"'"'s electronic medical record housed in a database includes the steps of using an interface engine which receives the protocol-arranged data from the location specified by the user and sending it to the database containing the patient'"'"'s electronic medical record.

10. The process of claim 2 wherein the computer processor is a standard PC microcomputer and the keyboard is compatible therein.

11. The process of claim 4 wherein the machine readable questionnaire is a paper answer sheet comprised of questions with designated areas for patient responses.

12. The process of claim 5 wherein the scanner reading machine is a scanner either of optical mark reader technology or character recognition technology.

13. The process of claim 9 wherein said database is any database that accepts HL7 or ASTM messaging.

14. The process of claim 6 wherein the step of arranging the data stream into a defined set of data structure simulating the protocol from a party having authorization to export data into the patient'"'"'s electronic medical record includes the step of the application supplied with the invention accepting the data stream from the scanner and arranging the data stream into a defined set of data structures simulating the HL7 specification.

15. The process of claim 7 wherein the step of arranging the data stream into a defined set of data structure simulating the protocol from a party having authorization to export data into the patient'"'"'s electronic medical record includes the step of the application supplied with the invention accepting the data stream from the scanner and arranging the data stream into a defined set of data structures simulating the ASTM specification.

16. The process of claim 7 wherein the step of arranging the data stream into a defined set of data structure simulating the protocol from a party having authorization to export data to a patient'"'"'s medical record includes the step of the application supplied with the invention accepting the data stream from the scanner and arranging the data stream into a defined set of data structures simulating the protocol of an ANSI—

accredited Standards Developing Organization.

17. The process of claim 8 wherein the computer process is a standard PC, with at least 32 mg hard drive and 100 MHz speed.