# US 2014/0156305 A1 · Data management mechanism for wide-area distributed medical information network > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0156305 A1 - Document ID: US20140156305A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 14/081,410 - Filed: 2013-11-15 - Published: 2014-06-05 - Earliest claimed: 2012-11-30 - Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation - Applicants: International Business Machines Corporation - Inventors: NOBUAKI TAKAHASHI; GAKU YAMAMOTO - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140156305A1 ## CPC - G16H 10/60: for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records - G16H: HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING OR PROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA ## Abstract A method distributes and manages medical information on a communication network over a wide area. Encrypted medical information is acquired from one of a plurality of first computers by a second computer connected to the communication network, the plurality of first computers being connected to the communication network, holding identical medical information, encrypting medical information, and sending and receiving encrypted medical information. The second computer decrypts the acquired encrypted medical information, browses and updates decrypted medical information, and then encrypts the browsed and updated medical information. The second computer then sends the encrypted browsed and updated medical information to the plurality of first computers. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for distributing and managing medical information on a communication network over a wide area, the method comprising: acquiring encrypted medical information from one of a plurality of first computers by a second computer connected to the communication network, the plurality of first computers being connected to the communication network, holding identical medical information, encrypting medical information, and sending and receiving encrypted medical information; decrypting the acquired encrypted medical information on the second computer; browsing and updating the decrypted medical information and encrypting browsed and updated medical information on the second computer; and sending the encrypted browsed and updated medical information from the second computer to the plurality of first computers. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method according to claim 1, further comprising: acquiring address information of the plurality of first computers from one or more third computers and sending a medical information request to first computers associated with the acquired address information, the one or more third computers being connected to the communication network and holding address information of the plurality of first computers. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method according to claim 2, further comprising: acquiring decryption information for decrypting the acquired encrypted medical information from a user of a first computer and applying the decryption information to the decryption; and acquiring encryption information for encrypting browsed and updated medical information from the user of the first computer and applying the encryption information to the encryption. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method according to claim 3, further comprising: sending an electronic message including encrypted browsed and updated medical information and updated identification information to the plurality of first computers; and receiving a receipt notification of the electronic message. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The method according to claim 4, further comprising: in response to a quantity of first computers from which a receipt notification has been received after the first transmission of the electronic message being less than a quantity of first computers to which the electronic message has been sent at the first transmission: sending, to one or more fourth computers, the electronic message including the encrypted browsed and updated medical information; updating identification information and address information of a first computer that has not sent a receipt notification; and receiving a receipt notification from the first computer from the one or more fourth computers, wherein the one or more fourth computers are connected to the communication network, are receiving encrypted medical information, are temporarily holding the encrypted medical information, and are sending the encrypted information. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The method according to claim 5, further comprising: in response to the a of the number of first computers from which a receipt notification has been directly received plus the number of first computers from which a receipt notification has been received through a fourth computer being less than the number of first computers to which the electronic message has been sent at the first transmission, repeatedly: sending the electronic message including the encrypted browsed and the updated medical information and updated identification information to a first computer that has not sent a receipt notification; and sending to the fourth computer the electronic message including the encrypted browsed and updated medical information, the updated identification information and the address information of the first computer that has not sent a receipt notification, until the sum reaches the number of the first computers to which the electronic message has been sent at the first transmission. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method according to claim 6, further comprising: receiving, at a fourth computer, an electronic message including encrypted browsed and updated medical information, updated identification information and address information of a first computer that has not sent a receipt notification; sending an electronic message including encrypted browsed and updated medical information and updated identification information from the fourth computer to the first computer identified by the address information of the first computer that has not sent a receipt notification; and receiving a receipt notification for the electronic message from the first computer at the fourth computer and sending the receipt notification to a second computer. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method according to claim 7, further comprising: in response to a duplicate-receipt notification for the electronic message being received at a fourth computer from a first computer, deleting address information of the first computer that has sent the duplicate-receipt notification from the address information of first computers that have not sent a receipt notification; and until the address information of first computers that have not sent a receipt notification becomes empty, repeating at the fourth computer the steps of: sending the electronic message including the encrypted browsed and updated medical information and the updated identification information from the fourth computer to the first computers identified by address information of the first computers that have not sent a receipt notification; and receiving a receipt notification from the first computer at the fourth computer and notifying the second computer of the reception. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method according to claim 8, wherein the first computers are a medical data management computer and a medical data management replica computer, the second computer is a medical data browsing and updating computer, the third computer is a medical data address management computer, and the fourth computer is a medical data temporary storage computer. ### Claim 10 A computer program product for distributing and managing medical information on a communication network over a wide area, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code readable and executable by a processor to perform a method comprising: acquiring encrypted medical information from one of a plurality of first computers by a second computer connected to the communication network, the plurality of first computers being connected to the communication network, holding identical medical information, encrypting medical information, and sending and receiving encrypted medical information; decrypting the acquired encrypted medical information on the second computer; browsing and updating the decrypted medical information and encrypting browsed and updated medical information on the second computer; and sending the encrypted browsed and updated medical information from the second computer to the plurality of first computers. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises: acquiring address information of the plurality of first computers from one or more third computers and sending a medical information request to first computers associated with the acquired address information, the one or more third computers being connected to the communication network and holding address information of the plurality of first computers. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises: acquiring decryption information for decrypting the acquired encrypted medical information from a user of a first computer and applying the decryption information to the decryption; and acquiring encryption information for encrypting browsed and updated medical information from the user of the first computer and applying the encryption information to the encryption. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises: sending an electronic message including encrypted browsed and updated medical information and updated identification information to the plurality of first computers; and receiving a receipt notification of the electronic message. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises: in response to a quantity of first computers from which a receipt notification has been received after the first transmission of the electronic message being less than a quantity of first computers to which the electronic message has been sent at the first transmission: sending, to one or more fourth computers, the electronic message including the encrypted browsed and updated medical information; updating identification information and address information of a first computer that has not sent a receipt notification; and receiving a receipt notification from the first computer from the one or more fourth computers, wherein the one or more fourth computers are connected to the communication network, are receiving encrypted medical information, are temporarily holding the encrypted medical information, and are sending the encrypted information. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises: in response to a sum of the number of first computers from which a receipt notification has been directly received plus the number of first computers from which a receipt notification has been received through a fourth computer being less than the number of first computers to which the electronic message has been sent at the first transmission, repeatedly: sending the electronic message including the encrypted browsed and the updated medical information and updated identification information to a first computer that has not sent a receipt notification; and sending to the fourth computer the electronic message including the encrypted browsed and updated medical information, the updated identification information and the address information of the first computer that has not sent a receipt notification, until the sum reaches the number of the first computers to which the electronic message has been sent at the first transmission. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, at a fourth computer, an electronic message including encrypted browsed and updated medical information, updated identification information and address information of a first computer that has not sent a receipt notification; sending an electronic message including encrypted browsed and updated medical information and updated identification information from the fourth computer to the first computer identified by the address information of the first computer that has not sent a receipt notification; and receiving a receipt notification for the electronic message from the first computer at the fourth computer and sending the receipt notification to a second computer. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises: in response to a duplicate-receipt notification for the electronic message being received at a fourth computer from a first computer, deleting address information of the first computer that has sent the duplicate-receipt notification from the address information of first computers that have not sent a receipt notification; and until the address information of first computers that have not sent a receipt notification becomes empty, repeating at the fourth computer the steps of: sending the electronic message including the encrypted browsed and updated medical information and the updated identification information from the fourth computer to the first computers identified by address information of the first computers that have not sent a receipt notification; and receiving a receipt notification from the first computer at the fourth computer and notifying the second computer of the reception. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the first computers are a medical data management computer and a medical data management replica computer, the second computer is a medical data browsing and updating computer, the third computer is a medical data address management computer, and the fourth computer is a medical data temporary storage computer. ### Claim 19 A system for distributing and managing medical information on a communication network over a wide area, the system comprising: a plurality of first computers connected to the communication network, the plurality of first computers holding identical medical information, encrypting the medical information and sending and receiving the encrypted medical information; and a second computer connected to the communication network, the second computer comprising an acquisition section for acquiring encrypted medical information from any of the plurality of first computers, a decrypting section for decrypting the encrypted medical information acquired by the acquisition section, a browsing and updating section for browsing and updating the medical information decrypted by the decrypting section, an encryption section for encrypting the medical information browsed and updated on the browsing and updating section, and a sending section for sending browsed and updated medical information encrypted by the encryption section to the plurality of first computers. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The system according to claim 19, wherein the acquisition section comprises an address information acquisition section acquiring address information of a plurality of first computers from one or more third computers and sends a medical information request to first computers associated with the address information, the one or more third computers being connected to the communication network and holding address information of the plurality of first computers.