System and methods for real-time worklist service

A method of displaying a customizable worklist to a user of a medical data management system, the method comprising:

• receiving a worklist pushed from a real-time worklist service, wherein the worklist includes one or more worklist items, and each worklist item includes one or more data items;
• selecting which data items to display in the worklist, based at least in part on a customizable set of display attributes associated with the worklist;
• and
• displaying the selected data items of the one or more worklist items.

A method of providing worklist information concurrently to a plurality of users of a medical data management system, the method comprising:

• defining scoping rules for items to be included in each of a plurality of worklists, the scoping rules permitting the same item to appear in more than one of the plurality of worklists;
• applying the scoping rules to a set of worklist items to populate the plurality of worklists with the worklist items, wherein two or more of the worklists in the plurality of worklists simultaneously include the same worklist item;
• and
• displaying one or more of the plurality of worklists on a client computer.

A medical data management system comprising:

• a worklist module that employs a plurality of worklist items, each worklist item including a set of data items;
• and that assembles one or more worklists from the worklist items by employing a customizable set of scoping rules to determine which of the worklist items are assembled into each of the one or more worklists;
• and
• a real-time worklist service that, in response to the one or more worklists being assembled, provides worklist information to users by pushing the one or more worklists, in substantially real-time, to one or more client computers for display.