System and method for evaluating data sets over a communications network

• US 20060202037A1
• Filed: 12/12/2005
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: U.S. Army Medical Research And Materiel Command, United States Army (U.S. Department Of Defense)
• Original Assignee: U.S. Army Medical Research And Materiel Command
• Inventors: Reifman, Jacques, Gunawardena, Jamila
• Granted Patent: US 7,779,025 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/462.150
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing researchers with a computer-assisted tool to evaluate, over a communications network, large electronic data sets stored on a remote server. The system allows the centralization of multiple data manipulation and analysis software modules co-located with the large data sets to reduce the amount of data from the data sets and software that has to be downloaded to a particular user'"'"'s client computer. The system is designed to accommodate multiple researchers located at different geographic locations each of whom may have, with regard to the data, different scientific research objectives.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented tool for evaluating electronic data sets, comprising:

a communications network;

a first server in data communication with the communications network;

a first electronic database stored on the first server and populated with data records;

a plurality of analysis modules on the first server, wherein each of the plurality of analysis modules is adapted to inputting a set of the records and outputting a result; and

a first interface associated with a first client computer in data communication with the communications network, wherein the first interface is adapted to sending a request to one of the plurality of analysis modules and is adapted to displaying on the fist client computer the result.

2. The data evaluation tool according to claim 1, wherein at least some of the data records are time-series data records.

3. The data evaluation tool according to claim 2, wherein the time-series data records one of EKG, SpO2, respiratory rate, NIBP, end-tidal CO2, and heart rate time-series data.

4. The data evaluation tool according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of analysis modules comprises at least one of a data query module, data analysis module, data visualization module, and data cleansing module.

5. The data evaluation tool according to claim 1, further comprising means for customizing the data query and data analysis modules in an interactive manner.

6. The data evaluation tool according to claim 1, further comprising a second interface associated with a second client computer in data communication with the communications network, wherein the second interface is adapted to sending a request to one of the plurality of analysis modules and displaying on the second client computer the result.

7. The data evaluation tool according to claim 1, further comprising a library of data analysis functions stored on the first server, wherein each of the analysis functions comprises an analysis function operator for generating the result.

8. The data evaluation tool according to claim 7, wherein the analysis function operator is a univariate or multivariate data operator.

9. The data evaluation tool according to claim 1, further comprising a second database stored on the first server and populated with data records, wherein the records in the first database are different than the records in the second database.

10. A communications network-enabled tool for evaluating electronic data sets in a distributed computing environment, comprising:

a server;

an electronic database in data communications with the server and populated with data records;

a plurality of analysis modules associated with the server and adapted to inputting a set of the data records and outputting a result;

a plurality of client computers in data communication with the server adapted to sending a request to one of the plurality of analysis modules; and

an interface associated with each of the plurality client computers for displaying the result on at least one of the plurality of client computers.

11. The evaluation tool according to claim 10, wherein the data records are time-series data records containing data fields populated with physiological time-series information.

12. The evaluation tool according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of analysis modules comprises at least one of a data query module, data analysis module, data visualization module, and data cleansing module.

13. The evaluation tool according to claim 10, further comprising a library of data analysis functions stored on the server, wherein each of the analysis functions comprises an analysis function operator for generating the result.

14. A method for evaluating electronic data records over an electronic communications network, comprising the steps of:

receiving over a communications network a set of electronic data records;

storing the set of electronic data records in at least one database on a server;

receiving at the server a first instruction from a remote client computer to identify one or more of the data records;

receiving at the server a second instruction to identify at least one mathematical operation to be applied to the identified data records;

receiving at the server a third instruction to analyze the result of the applied mathematical operation;

formatting a response using at least the result from the applied mathematical operation; and

delivering or providing the result to the client computer,

wherein the first, second, and third instructions are part of the same request or a different request.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein each of the set of electronic data records is a portion of a time-series data set.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the time-series data set is a physiologic time-series data set.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein the step of receiving a set of electronic data records comprises collecting electronic signals from a monitoring device.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the steps of receiving the instructions and delivering or providing the result are done over a secure HTTP connection between the server and the client computer.

19. The method according to claim 14, further comprising the step of:

receiving authentication information from a user; and

comparing the authentication information to credentials stored in the at least one database.

20. The method according to claim 14, further comprising the step of:

receiving a plurality of instructions from the remote client computer; and

outputting a customized analysis report.

21. A method for mining and analyzing electronic data records over a distributed network of client computers, comprising the steps of:

storing on a central server a set of data records obtained from an electronic monitoring device;

receiving a data mining request, a function request, and an analysis request from a remote client computer;

selecting a subset of the data records based on the data mining request;

performing at least one mathematical operation on the subset of data records based on the function request;

performing an analysis of a result of the at least one mathematical operation based on the analysis request;

delivering or providing a response to the client computer containing information about the subset of data records, the result of the at least one mathematical operation, and the analysis of the result.

22. The method for mining and analyzing electronic data records according to claim 21, wherein the subset of data records includes physiologic time-series data.

23. The method for mining and analyzing electronic data records according to claim 21, wherein the steps of receiving, selecting and performing are done by the central server.