Cloud-based clinical information systems and methods of use

A cloud-based clinical information system to facilitate collaboration between healthcare entities, comprising:

• a registration manager to assign first credentials to a first healthcare entity to enable the first healthcare entity to employ the cloud-based clinical information system, the first credentials granting the first healthcare entity first access rights and first sharing rights to access and share, respectively, first healthcare information associated with the first healthcare entity via the cloud-based clinical information system, the first access rights and the first sharing rights based on the first healthcare entity being a first entity type of a plurality of entity types organized hierarchically by the registration manager;
• an agreement manager to store a contractual agreement between the first healthcare entity and a second healthcare entity, the contractual agreement relating to second healthcare information associated with the second healthcare entity;
• an enrollment manager to assign rules to the first healthcare entity defining at least one of second access rights or second sharing rights of the first healthcare entity to the second healthcare information associated with the second healthcare entity, the second access rights to govern access by the first healthcare entity to the second healthcare information via the cloud-based clinical information system, the second sharing rights to govern sharing of the second healthcare information by the first healthcare entity to one or more other healthcare entities via the cloud-based clinical information system, wherein the second access rights and the second sharing rights are based on the contractual agreement and a selection by a second user associated with the second healthcare entity;
• and
• a processor to implement at least one of the registration manager, the agreement manager or the enrollment manager.

A method for sharing healthcare information via a cloud-based clinical information system, comprising:

• receiving patient information in the cloud-based clinical information system from a first healthcare entity, the first healthcare entity registered with the cloud-based clinical information system as a first entity type of a plurality of hierarchically organized entity types, wherein first sharing rules for the first healthcare entity to share the patient information via the cloud-based clinical information system are based on the first healthcare entity being the first entity type;
• storing a contractual agreement between the first healthcare entity and a second healthcare entity in the cloud-based clinical information system, the second healthcare entity registered with the cloud-based clinical information as a second entity type of the plurality of entity types;
• and
• enabling the second healthcare entity to access the patient information from the cloud-based clinical information system based on first access rules for the second healthcare entity, wherein the first access rules are based on the contractual agreement, the second healthcare entity being the second entity type, and a selection input by the first healthcare entity via the cloud-based clinical information system.