Systems and methods for free text searching of electronic medical record data

• US 8,037,052 B2
• Filed: 05/18/2007
• Issued: 10/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Mahesh, Prakash, Kariathungal, Murali Kumaran
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali; Monammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOCKER, JOHN P
• Application Number:
  US11/750,819
• Publication Number:
  US 20080120296A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,607 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707/709, 707/710, 707999001-99901
• US Class Current: 707/709
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records

Abstract

Certain embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for free text searching of electronic medical records. Certain embodiments provide a system including an interface configured to accept search criteria and display search results and a search engine accepting a free text search query from the interface. The free text search query is based on search criteria entered via the interface. The search engine communicates with a search crawler, which searches electronic medical record data based on the free text search query and provides search results. In certain embodiments, the system may de-identify patient/physician data from the search results. Certain embodiments provide a system for retrieving EMR search results. The system includes an interface configured to accept search criteria and display search results, a database interface adapter for interfacing with an electronic medical record database to transmit and receive data and a formatter for formatting search results.

Claims

1. A system for free text searching of electronic medical record data, said system comprising:

an interface configured to accept search criteria and display search results;

a search engine to accept a free text search query from the interface, the free text search query based on search criteria entered via the interface, the search engine communicating with a search crawler;

a search crawler to search electronic medical record data based on the free text search query, said electronic medical record data including at least alphanumeric data and image data, and providing search results consolidating patient data through the free text search, the search crawler searching identified and de-identified electronic medical record data to provide consolidated search results, said search crawler to search a plurality of departmental information systems; and

a formatter to format the search results for display via the interface, the formatter configured to consolidate results by relevance to search criteria and with respect to a particular patient, the formatter automatically de-identifying at least one of patient and physician data from the search results and providing local re-identification of at least a portion of the search results for an authorized healthcare provider user who has been identified and verified for local re-identification and access to the at least a portion of the search results at a local system,

wherein the search results including at least one of de-identified patient data and de-identified physician data are provided to the local system and re-identified at the local system for the authorized healthcare provider user based on re-identification functionality at the authorized healthcare provider user'"'"'s local system to provide physical separation of re-identified search results available to the authorized healthcare provider user and de-identified search results available to one or more additional users.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said formatter categorizes said search results according to at least one relevance factor.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said search crawler is configured to search a particular departmental information system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface comprises a web interface.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said search crawler searches both alphanumeric and image data based on said search query.

6. A system of retrieving electronic medical record search results, said system comprising:

an interface configured to accept search criteria and display search results;

a database interface adapter to interface with an electronic medical record database to transmit and receive data, wherein the database interface adapter facilitates searching identified and de-identified electronic medical record data from a plurality of departmental information systems; and

a formatter to format search results for display via the interface, the formatter configured to consolidate results by relevance to search criteria and with respect to a particular patient, the formatter automatically de-identifying at least one of patient and physician data from the search results and providing local re-identification of at least a portion of the search results for an authorized healthcare provider user who has been identified and verified for local re-identification and access to the at least a portion of the search results at a local system,

wherein the search results including at least one of de-identified patient data and de-identified physician data are provided to the local system and re-identified at the local system for the authorized healthcare provider user based on re-identification functionality at the authorized healthcare provider user'"'"'s local system to provide physical separation of re-identified search results available to the authorized healthcare provider user and de-identified search results available to one or more additional users.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said interface comprises a web interface and wherein said formatter formats the search results for display via the web interface.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein said formatter categorizes said search results according to at least one relevance factor.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein said database interface adapter is configured to interface with a particular departmental information system.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein said database interface adapter is configured to interface across a plurality of departmental information systems.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein said formatter formats both alphanumeric and image search results for output.

12. A method for free text searching of electronic clinical data, said method comprising;

receiving one or more search terms for searching of electronic clinical data;

forming a search query based on said one or more search terms;

crawling one or more databases associated with one or more clinical information systems including a plurality of departmental information systems to identify relevant data based on said search query, the crawling comprising searching identified and de-identified patient data in the one or more databases; and

formatting said relevant data as search results for output, the formatting including consolidating results by relevance to search criteria and with respect to a particular patient, the formatting including automatically de-identifying at least one of patient and physician data from the search results and providing local re-identification of at least a portion of the search results for an authorized healthcare provider user who has been identified and verified for local re-identification and access to the at least a portion of the search results at a local system,

wherein the search results including at least one of de-identified patient data and de-identified physician data are provided to the local system and re-identified at the local system for the authorized healthcare provider user based on re-identification functionality at the authorized healthcare provider user'"'"'s local system to provide physical separation of re-identified search results available to the authorized healthcare provider user and de-identified search results available to one or more additional users.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said forming step further comprises forming a search query customized for a particular departmental information system based on said one or more search terms.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said formatting step further comprises categorizing said search results according to at least one relevance factor.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein said crawling step further comprises a targeted search customized for a particular departmental information system.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein said relevant data comprises one or more of alphanumeric and image data.