Method and system for generation of medical reports from data in a hierarchically-organized database

• US 6,801,916 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2001
• Issued: 10/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ascend Hit LLC
• Original Assignee: Cyberpulse, L.L.C.
• Inventors: Soble, Jeffrey, Robergé, James, Donati, Alessandro Davide
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M.
• Application Number:
  US09/939,387
• Publication Number:
  US 20020111932A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/102, 707/103, 707/104, 707/100, 707/203, 707/3, 709/223, 709/224, 709/226, 345/421, 345/422, 345/427, 705/2, 705/3, 600/300
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• 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: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/00 ICT specially adapted for the handling or processing of medical references
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

Methods, systems, and user interfaces for navigating hierarchical database views are provided, that support the efficient entry, review, and updating of data using a navigation display. At any point in the navigation process, the navigation display consists of buttons corresponding to nodes of hierarchical database data. Buttons form series of menu items representing nodes that lie along the path to the last node visited (the set of previously made choices) and the children of this node (the set of current choices). Other buttons act as placeholders to facilitate global movement within the database and when selected, initiate new series of menu items. Reports are generated by creating and formatting text based on data entered into the database. Other features are provided for increasing the efficiency of entering data and created reports from data in a hierarchical database views. Information is separated regarding the organization of the knowledge base and user interface from information from the data-entering step and associating the entered data items with sections used to organize information in the report.

Claims

1. An automated method for generating a medical report based on results of a medical examination of a patient, said method comprising:

a) providing a hierarchically-organized database view having a plurality of nodes capable of having further related nodes, fields, or attributes;

b) displaying on a user interface;

I) a first series of menu items representing a first series of nodes according to their position in the hierarchical database view; and

ii) a first series of shortcuts representing a second series of nodes in an arrangement facilitating global navigation of the hierarchical database view;

c) displaying a second series of menu items in place of the first series of menu items by selecting a shortcut, the second series of menu items representing a third series of nodes according to their position in the hierarchical database view;

d) entering data items based on results of the medical examination into the hierarchically-organized database view by selecting a menu item or entering data into the menu item;

e) displaying at least one of the entered data items; and

f) generating the medical report by electronically transferring data from the hierarchically-organized database view into a report-generating function.

2. The automated method of claim 1, providing a knowledge base associated with the hierarchically-organized database wherein said report-generating step comprises separating information regarding the organization of the knowledge base and user interface from information from said data-entering step and associating the entered data items with sections used to organize information in the report.

3. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the user interface further displays a graphical representation of an anatomical region of the patient or other information related to the medical report, the graphical representation comprising a series of user-selectable portions effective for changing the series of menu items upon selection by a user.

4. The automated method of claim 3, wherein the medical report further comprises information being measurement tools, three-dimensional graphics, CT, MR, or ultrasound images.

5. The automated method of claim 1, wherein said displaying step for the second series of new items comprises displaying an indicator representing the selected shortcut for recording data directly at nodes of the hierarchical database view.

6. The automated method of claim 5, wherein said displaying step for the second series of menu items is displayed in an embedded view with the first series of menu items.

7. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the first series of shortcuts are displayed within a summary viewer section and the first and second series of menu items are displayed within a menu section visually separated from the summary viewer section on the user interface.

8. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the first series of shortcuts are displayed within a summary viewer section and the first and second series of menu items are displayed within the series of shortcuts within the summary viewer section on the user interface.

9. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the first and second series of menu items are displayed within a menu section and the first series of shortcuts are displayed within the first and second series of menu items within the menu section on the user interface.

10. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the user interface further comprises a medical image viewing area comprising a medical image of the patient related to the medical report.

11. The automated method of claim 3, wherein the graphical representation provides a user-selectable region of the graphical representation for displaying a second series of shortcuts in relation to the graphical representation for displaying a third series of menu items thereon, wherein the graphical representation displays a set of user recorded data items.

12. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the first series of shortcuts is dependent on information regarding the user, and wherein a series of placeholders are displayed on the user interface, said placeholders effective for providing prompts for required data.

13. The automated method of claim 1, further comprising before the creating the report step, displaying a second series of shortcuts based on the data entered, the second series of shortcuts representing a fourth series of nodes in an arrangement facilitating global navigation of the hierarchical database view.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting previously recorded data items and marking them as primary, wherein the data items from the primary subset is displayed prominently in the medical report.

15. The method of claim 14, in which some data items in the database view include an auto-primary attribute or field such that the recording of said data items automatically results in their placement in the primary subset.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said auto-primary function is conditioned upon predetermined criteria for selective display of data in the medical report.

17. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises providing a macro capable of being initiated by a user by selecting a shortcut, a menu item, or a portions of the graphic representation, initiation of said macro causing entry of preset data into several nodes of the hierarchically-organized database view.

18. The automated method of claim 1, further comprising providing a second database, distinct from the hierarchical database view, before the displaying step and displaying data items from the second database as menu items as part of the displaying step;

wherein;

a) menu items from the second database are displayed in and among the menu items from the hierarchical database view; and

b) data can be entered by selecting menu items from the second database.

19. The automated method of claim 18, comprising interface to data originated from a medical device, clinical information system, or hospital information system for the second database.

20. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises providing a query function wherein data and nodes of the hierarchically-organized database view are selected by a user to construct a database query.

21. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the method uses Hypertext Markup Language code to generate the displaying steps, and wherein the Hypertext Markup Language code is derived from an Extensible Markup Language representation using Extensible Style Language Transformation.

22. A medical report-generating system for the automated generation of a medical report based on a medical examination of a patient, the medical report-generating system comprising:

a) a hierarchically-organized database representation of a medical information database, said hierarchically-organized database representation having a plurality of nodes capable of having further related nodes, fields, or attributes;

b) a user interface comprising;

I) a first series of displayed menu items representing a first series of nodes according to their position in the hierarchical database, said first series of menu items effective for entry of data into the hierarchically-organized database representation;

ii) a first series of displayed shortcuts representing a second series of nodes in an arrangement facilitating global navigation of the hierarchical database representation, said first series of displayed shortcuts effective for global navigation of the hierarchically-organized database representation; and

iii) a first series of placeholders effective for providing prompts for commonly entered data; and

c) a report-generating function effective for automatically generating a medical report based on data in the hierarchically-organized database representation.

23. The medical report-generating system of claim 22, further comprising a macro function, wherein the user interface further comprises a display of a graphical representation of an anatomical region of the patient related to the medical report, the graphical representation comprising a series of user-selectable portions effective for changing the series of menu items upon selection by a user, said macro function being effective for facilitating entry of data in multiple nodes of the hierarchical database upon selection by a user of a menu item, a shortcut, or a user-selectable portion of the graphical representation.

24. The medical report-generating system of claim 22, further comprising a query function effective for querying the hierarchically-organized database based on user selection of data and nodes from the hierarchically-organized database.

25. The medical report-generating system of claim 22, further comprising an auto-primary function effective for tagging data items from predetermined nodes of the hierarchically-organized database for prominent placement within the report.

26. The medical report-generating system of claim 25, wherein said auto-primary function is conditioned upon predetermined criteria for selective display of data in the medical report.

27. A method for populating a medical information database, said method comprising:

a) providing a hierarchically-organized database representation of a medical information database, said hierarchically-organized database representation having a plurality of nodes capable of having further related nodes, fields, or attributes;

b) displaying on a user interface;

I) a first series of menu items representing a first series of nodes according to their position in the hierarchical database representation;

ii) a first series of shortcuts representing a second series of nodes in an arrangement facilitating global navigation of the hierarchical database representation; and

iii) a first series of placeholders effective for providing prompts for commonly entered data;

c) displaying a second series of menu items in place of the first series of menu items by selecting a shortcut, the second series of menu items representing a third series of nodes according to their position in the hierarchical database representation;

d) entering data based on results of the medical examination into the hierarchically-organized database representation by selecting a menu item or entering data into the menu item; and

e) populating the medical information database by electronically transferring data from the hierarchically-organized database representation to the medical information database.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the user interface further displays a graphical representation of an anatomical region of the patient or other information related to the medical report, the graphical representation comprising a series of user-selectable portions effective for changing the series of menu items upon selection by a user.