Computerized Search System for Medication and Other Items

• US 20080016042A1
• Filed: 07/17/2007
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: McKnight, Lawrence
• Granted Patent: US 7,779,003 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage

Abstract

A search system finds an order to provide an item. The search system includes a repository including a plurality of records identifying a corresponding plurality of items for order. A record of an individual item for order includes a plurality of related text terms describing order related parameters. A search processor searches the plurality of records to find candidate items for order corresponding to a user entered search term by: identifying and prioritizing candidate items for order in response to a relative frequency of occurrence of the user entered search term in corresponding records of the candidate items for order; and ranking the identified and prioritized candidate items for order in response to a relative frequency of ordering of the identified and prioritized candidate items for use by users. An output processor provides search result data representing the ranked, identified and prioritized candidate items.

Claims

1. A search system for finding an order for providing an item, comprising:

a repository including a plurality of records identifying a corresponding plurality of items for order, a record of an individual item for order including a plurality of related text terms describing order related parameters;

a search processor for searching said plurality of records to find candidate items for order corresponding to a user entered search term by;

identifying and prioritizing candidate items for order in response to a relative frequency of occurrence of said user entered search term in corresponding records of said candidate items for order; and

ranking said identified and prioritized candidate items for order in response to a relative frequency of ordering of said identified and prioritized candidate items for use by users; and

an output processor for providing search result data representing said ranked, identified and prioritized candidate items

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said user entered search term comprises a plurality of individual search terms; and

said search processor;

determines a relative frequency of occurrence of an individual user entered search term in a corresponding record of a candidate item for order for each term of said plurality of individual search terms;

sums data representing said relative frequency of occurrence of individual user entered search terms for each term of said plurality of individual search terms to provide summed data; and

ranks said identified and prioritized candidate items for order in response to said summed data and data representing said relative frequency of ordering of said identified and prioritized candidate items for use by users.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein said search processor weights said summed data relative to said data representing said relative frequency of ordering of said identified and prioritized candidate items for use by users, to provide data indicating ranking of said ranked, identified and prioritized candidate items.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein said search processor ranks said identified and prioritized candidate items for order in response to at least one of, (a) a diagnosis code associated with a candidate order, (b) a medical condition associated with a candidate order and (c) a medical problem associated with a candidate order.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein said orders are orders for providing particular medical treatments for a patient and said order related parameters identify at least one of, (a) quantity, (b) a route of administration of a medical treatment, (c) a frequency of administering a treatment and (d) a form of medical treatment.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein said form of medical treatment comprises at least one of, (a) a package type, (b) a strength of a medical treatment and (c) a concentration of a medical treatment.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein said orders are orders for providing particular medical treatments for a patient and said order related parameters identify at least one of, (a) order urgency and (b) associated order instructions.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein said search processor identifies and prioritizes individual candidate items for order proportional to a number of occurrences of said user entered search term relative to a total number of terms in a corresponding record of an individual candidate item for order.

9. A system according to claim 8, wherein said search processor identifies and prioritizes individual candidate items for order using:

$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{tf}=\frac{n_i}{\underset{k}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br>\left(n_k\right)}\\ \mathrm{Tf}*\mathrm{idf}=\mathrm{tf}·<br><br>\log <br><br>\left(\frac{<br><br>D<br><br>}{<br><br>d_j\supset <br><br>t_i<br><br>}\right)\end{array}$

where;

tf=the term frequency

n_i=the number of occurrences of the term in a search string

Σ

(n_k)=the number of terms in a search string

|D|=number of orderable items

|(d_j with t_i)|=number of orderable item records in which term appears

Tf*idf=the weight or importance of the term.

10. A system according to claim 1, including:

a repository of mapping information associating an individual term with a plurality of corresponding synonyms;

wherein

said search processor parses said user entered search term and expands said user entered search term to a corresponding plurality of search terms using said mapping information

11. A system according to claim 1, including at least one repository of term substitution information comprising:

first mapping information associating a term string comprising a plurality of terms with a corresponding single term; and

second mapping information associating a single term with a corresponding plurality of terms.

12. A system according to claim 11, wherein said search processor parses a search term and substitutes terms for said search term by firstly applying said first mapping information and secondly applying said second mapping information.

13. A system according to claim 1, including:

at least one repository of term substitution information comprising mapping information associating a term with a corresponding term; and

said search processor parses a search term and substitutes a term for said search term by applying said mapping information.

14. A system according to claim 13, wherein:

said user entered search term comprises a plurality of individual search terms; and

said search processor searches for terms beginning with the same letters of an associated corresponding term in said search terms.

15. A system according to claim 14, wherein said search processor identifies and prioritizes individual candidate items for order proportional to a number of occurrences of said user entered search term relative to a total number of terms in a corresponding record of an individual candidate item for order.

16. A system according to claim 13, wherein said search processor excludes short terms that potentially map to multiple irrelevant terms.

17. A system according to claim 1, including:

a repository of first mapping information associating an individual term with a plurality of corresponding synonyms;

wherein

said search processor parses said user entered search term and expands said user entered search term to a corresponding plurality of search terms using said mapping information.

18. A system according to claim 17, including at east one repository of term substitution information comprising:

second mapping information associating a term string comprising a plurality of terms with a corresponding single term and

third mapping information associating a single term with a corresponding plurality of terms term;

wherein;

said search processor parses a search term and substitutes terms for said search term by firstly applying said second mapping information and secondly applying said third mapping information.

19. A system according to claim 1, wherein said search processor alters search result ranking based on voting mechanisms for said items for order and voting is achieved by at least one of a) sequential selection of an item for order in normal use and b) manual adjustment of priority weighting of that item for order.

20. A method of searching for a particular orderable item within a catalog of orderable items, comprising the steps of:

creating an index of characteristic words associated with orderable items residing within the catalog of orderable items;

creating a search phrase that includes words likely to be present in a description of the particular orderable item;

associating words appearing in the index of characteristic words with mapped words that share similarities with the characteristic words;

parsing the search phrase and substituting a mapped word for at least some words appearing in the search phrase;

creating a list of orderable items containing substituted mapped words; and

ranking the list of orderable items according to a frequency of ordering particular orderable items by previous users of the catalog of orderable items.

21. A system for searching for a particular orderable item within a catalog of orderable items, comprising:

at least one repository of information including,

an index of characteristic words associated with orderable items residing within the catalog of orderable items,

a search phrase that includes words likely to be present in a description of the particular orderable item and

associating words appearing in the index of characteristic words with mapped words that share similarities with the characteristic words; and

a data processor for,

parsing the search phrase and substituting a mapped word for at least some words appearing in the search phrase,

creating a list of orderable items containing substituted mapped words and

ranking the list of orderable items according to a frequency of ordering particular orderable items by previous users of the catalog of orderable items.