Indexing, relating and managing information about entities

#This invention relates generally to a system and method for associating data records within one or more databases, and in particular to a system and method for identifying data records in one or more databases that may contain information about the same entity, associating those data records together for easier access to information about the entity, associating related entities for easier access to information about relationships between entities and interfaces for the management, manipulation and viewing of such data records, entities and relationships.

#Data about almost anything, such as people, products, or parts may be stored in digital format in a data source such as a computer database. These computer databases permit this data to be accessed rapidly and may permit the data to be cross-referenced to other relevant pieces of data within the database. The databases also permit a person to query the database to find data records pertaining to a particular search criteria. A database, however, has several limitations which may limit the ability of a person to find the correct data within the database. The actual data within the database is only as accurate as the person who entered the data. Thus, a mistake in the entry of the data into the database may cause a person looking for data in the database to miss some relevant data because, for example, a last name of a person was misspelled. Another kind of mistake involves creating a new separate record for something that already has a record within the database (e.g. duplicative records, where the data records may have one or more different attributes). Furthermore, several data records may contain information about the same thing, but, for example, the names or identification numbers contained in the two data records may be different so that the database may not be able to associate the two data records with one another.

#For a business that operates one or more databases containing a large number of data records, the ability to locate relevant information about a particular thing within and among the respective databases is very important, but not easily obtained. Once again, any mistake in the entry of data (including without limitation the creation of more than one data record for the same thing) at any information source may cause relevant data to be missed when the data for a particular thing is searched for in the database. In addition, in cases involving multiple information sources, each of the information sources may have slightly different data syntax or formats which may further complicate the process of finding data among the databases. An example of the need to properly identify something referred to in a data record and to locate all relevant data records in the health care field is one in which a number of different hospitals associated with a particular health care organization may have one or more information sources containing information about their patient, and a health care organization collects the information from each of the hospitals into a master database. It may be desired to link data records from all of the information sources pertaining to the same patient to enable searching for information for a particular patient in all of the hospital records.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a system including a master entity index system;

#FIGS. 2A and 2B are block diagrams illustrating representations of embodiments of data records;

#FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a master entity index system and its associated databases;

#The invention and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the nonlimiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well known starting materials, processing techniques, components and equipment are omitted so as not to unnecessarily obscure the invention in detail. Skilled artisans should understand, however, that the detailed description and the specific examples, while disclosing preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only and not by way of limitation. Various substitutions, modifications, additions or rearrangements within the scope of the underlying inventive concept(s) will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading this disclosure.

#Reference is now made in detail to the exemplary embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts (elements). In one embodiment, the system and method of the invention is particularly applicable to a system and method for indexing information from multiple information sources pertaining to organizations. It is in this context that certain embodiments will be described. It will be appreciated, however, that the systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention have utility in a large number of applications that involve identifying, associating, manipulating or otherwise managing data records in a variety of contexts.

#In reviewing embodiments of the systems and methods of the present invention, it may first be helpful to go over examples of embodiments of systems and methods for associating and indexing data records which may be utilized in conjunction with embodiments of the present invention, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,758, entitled “System and Method for Indexing Information about Entities from Different Information Sources”, issued Nov. 23, 1999 by inventor Scott Ellard and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/656,111 entitled “Method and System for Indexing Information about Entities with Respect to Hierarchies”, filed Jan. 22, 2007, and issued on Apr. 28, 2009 as U.S. Pat. No. 7,526,486, by inventors Scott Ellard et al both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.