Patient data mining

A method for producing structured clinical information from patient records, comprising:

• (a) extracting, by a machine, multiple pieces of information from at least one structured data source and at least one unstructured data source of a patient record of a patient, the extracting from the at least one unstructured data source comprising mining unstructured free text information, the multiple pieces indicating different first values for a same variable recorded for the patient;
• (b) combining, probabilistically by the machine, the extracted multiple pieces of information into a second value of the variable representing the patient, the second value being a function of the first values recorded for the patient;
• wherein one or both of (a) and (b) are performed as a function of domain-specific criteria;
• and
• repeating (a) and (b) for a different variable, the repetition searching for different pieces of information relevant to the different variable and combining the different pieces of information into a value for the different variable, the variable and the different variable representing the patient at a given time.

A method for providing structured clinical information from patient records, the method comprising:

• (a) mining, by a processor, a patient record having at least one unstructured data source comprising unstructured patient information, the mining comprising mining unstructured free text information, the patient record being from a healthcare provider, the mining including extracting at least one of multiple pieces of information related to each of multiple variables;
• (b) creating, probabilistically by the processor, structured clinical data for each of the variables from the extracted multiple pieces of information, including the at least one piece of the unstructured patient information mined from the unstructured data source, the structured clinical data being stored for answering a question regarding patients;
• (c) providing (a) as a service to the healthcare provider;
• and
• (d) mining from the structured clinical data as a function of the question.

A system for producing structured clinical information from patient records, comprising:

• a patient record comprising at least unstructured data and structured data;
• and
• a probabilistic data miner machine configured to (a) extract multiple pieces of information from the structured data and the unstructured data of the patient record of a patient, the extracting from the at least unstructured data comprising mining unstructured free text information, the multiple pieces indicating different first values for a same variable recorded for the patient, and configured to (b) combine the extracted multiple pieces of information into a second value of the variable representing the patient, the second value being a function of the first values recorded for the patient;
• wherein one or both of (a) and (b) are performed as a function of domain-specific criteria;
• and
• wherein the probabilistic data miner is configured to repeat (a) and (b) for a different variable, the repetition searching for different pieces of information relevant to the different variable and combining the different pieces of information into a value for the different variable, the variable and the different variable representing the patient at a given time.