US 8,285,565 B2Granted

Gathering, storing, and retrieving summary electronic healthcare record information from healthcare providers

OwnerGordon S. Kerr, Gregory S. Kerrinventors

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Abstract

The system and method of the invention describes a unique approach to gathering patient treatment information in summary form from a universe of health care providers, each using any form of patient information management; converting that information to pointers that can be searched by a healthcare provider before or during treatment to determine if further information needs to be acquired from the original provider; and a variety of methods to provide access to detailed healthcare treatment and diagnosis information from the original healthcare provider through an access and display method provided by the healthcare provider housing the records, if available. The system and method envisages one or more providers of repository services, each offering various ways for healthcare providers to update and maintain summary information, and each providing for continual exchange of information among them to ensure complete access to all available information.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A computer-based system for accessing patient medical information in a network comprising:

a plurality of healthcare provider computing devices storing detailed medical records about a plurality of patients, a first of said plurality of healthcare provider computing devices configured and arranged to generate and upload a first set of medical record pointers to a repository computing device, a second of said plurality of healthcare provider computing devices configured and arranged to generate and upload a second set of medical record pointers to said repository computing device, said medical record pointers including summary information sufficient to locate detailed medical records about one or more patients, without including the entire substantive content of said detailed medical records themselves;
a repository database residing on said repository computing device, said repository database storing medical records of a plurality of patients generated at least in part from said first and second set of medical record pointers, each medical record, being associated with a healthcare provider, further includes a healthcare provider identification code, a date of service, a diagnostic or billing code, and an availability code listing an ability to access the medical record with the respect to the healthcare provider;
a search processor, including at least one computer hardware component, for initiating, in response to a first command, a search of said repository database to locate at least one medical record associated with a particular patient;
and
an interface processor, including at least one computer hardware component, for generating in response to a second command, a request to access said stored medical record of the particular patient, which said response to said second command includes at least one of the following:
a link to the actual medical record being stored on said repository database, or direct contact information associated with the healthcare provider;
wherein at least one of said plurality of stored medical records has an availability code indicating that the stored medical record is available in direct form online, at least another of said plurality of stored medical records has an availability code indicating that a browser-based display of the stored medical record is available in a standard format, and at least still another of said plurality of stored medical records has an availability code indicating that a request form must be submitted to the associated healthcare provider so as to request that a faxed or printed copy of the stored medical record be sent.

4 more elements

A computer-based system for accessing patient medical information in a network comprising:

a plurality of healthcare provider computing devices storing detailed medical records about a plurality of patients, a first of said plurality of healthcare provider computing devices configured and arranged to generate and upload a first set of medical record pointers to a first repository computing device, a second of said plurality of healthcare provider computing devices configured and arranged to generate and upload a second set of medical record pointers to a second repository computing device, said medical record pointers including summary information sufficient to locate detailed medical records about one or more patients, without including the entire substantive content of said detailed medical records themselves;
a plurality of repository databases, a first of said plurality of repository databases residing on said first repository computing device and a second of said plurality of repository databases residing on said second repository computing device, each of said plurality of repository databases storing medical links generated at least in part from said first and second set of medical record pointers, each medical link being associated to a medical record, the medical link including a healthcare provider identification code, a date of service, a diagnostic or billing code, and an availability code listing an ability to access the medical record with the respect to the healthcare provider;
and
an interface processor, including at least one computer hardware component, for generating medical links in response to a generation command initiated by a healthcare provider having access to one of the repository databases, wherein the generation of medical link creates availability codes for medical records depending on the manner in which the medical records are capable of being accessed, and wherein the creation of availability codes includes creating each of the following:
(a) a first availability code indicating that at least one of said medical records is available in direct form online,
(b) a second availability code indicating that a browser-based display of at least another of said medical records is available in a standard format, and
(c) a third availability code indicating that, in order to access at least still another of said medical records, a request form must be submitted to the associated healthcare provider so as to request that a faxed or printed copy of the medical record be sent.

4 more elements

A computer-based system for accessing patient medical information in a network comprising:

a plurality of healthcare provider computing devices storing detailed medical records about a plurality of patients, a first of said plurality of healthcare provider computing devices configured and arranged to generate and upload a first set of medical record pointers to a first repository computing device, a second of said plurality of healthcare provider computing devices configured and arranged to generate and upload a second set of medical record pointers to a second repository computing device, said medical record pointers including summary information sufficient to locate detailed medical records about one or more patients, without including the entire substantive content of said detailed medical records themselves;
a plurality of repository databases, a first of said plurality of repository databases residing on said first repository computing device and a second of said plurality of repository databases residing on said second repository computing device, each of said plurality of repository databases storing medical links generated at least in part from said first and second set of medical record pointers, each medical link being associated to a medical record, the medical link including a healthcare provider identification code, a date of service, a diagnostic or billing code, and an availability code listing an ability to access the medical record with the respect to the healthcare provider;
and
an interface processor, including at least one computer hardware component, for generating medical links in response to a generation command initiated by a healthcare provider having access to one of the repository databases, wherein the generation of medical links creates availability codes for medical records depending on the manner in which the medical records are capable of being accessed, and wherein the generation of medical links includes generating each of the following:
(a) a hyper-link to a first medical record being stored on one of the repository databases,
(b) a hyper-link to a second medical record being stored on a healthcare provider database, and
(c) non-networked direct contact information for a healthcare provider having a third medical record that is not directly accessible by electronic means.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/642,907Filed 21 Dec 2009
Published: US 2011/0153359 A123 Jun 2011
Granted: 9 Oct 2012
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification3 codes

G16H 10/60
ICT specially adapted for the handling or processing of patient-related medical or healthcare data: for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic…
G16H 40/67
For the operation of medical equipment or devices: for remote operation
G16H
Healthcare informatics, i.e. information and communication technology [ict] specially adapted for the