ICU telemedicine system for varied EMR systems

A telemedicine system for monitoring multiple intensive care units at a remote site, the system comprising:

• a remote electronic processing system at the remote site;
• a plurality of ICU electronic processing systems:
• at each of the multiple intensive care units, each ICU electronic processing system including:
• (a) an ICU database system for receiving clinical data related to at least one patient in an intensive care unit;
• (b) at least one ICU patient device communicating with the at least one patient to collect clinical data related to the at east one patient;
• (c) an ICU computer system in communication with the ICU database system and with the remote site, the ICU computer system programmed to execute a stored program held in non-transient media to:
• (a) receive a query formulator inquiry from the remote site;
• (b) transmit a query formulator response to the remote site indicating whether the ICU computer system includes an installed, system specific query formulator;
• (c) receive and instantiate a query formulator from the remote site based on a negative query formulator response, wherein the received and instantiated query formulator is system specific to the database type of the intensive care unit telemedicine system;
• (d) receive at least one rule from the remote site, the rule defining one or more decision outcomes to be generated when clinical data satisfies one or more clinical parameters for the decision outcome;
• (e) generate a plurality of data requests for each received rule using the system specific query formulator, each data request
• 1) using data protocols using the data structures or terminology compatible with the database type of the intensive care unit telemedicine system;
• and
• 2) correlated to a single clinical data entry from at least one of the ICU database system and the ICU patient device related to the at least one patient in the intensive care unit;
• (f) executing the received rule including execution of the plurality of data requests and application of the rule to data entries provided based on the execution of the data requests to generate a decision outcome;
• and
• (g) transmitting the generated decision outcome to the remote site, wherein the ICU database system of at least one of the plurality of ICUs has a database type that is a different database type from at least one of the remaining ICUs.

A method of implementing a telemedicine system for monitoring an intensive care unit at a remote site using a system having;

• an ICU database system for receiving clinical data related to at least one patient in an intensive care unit;
• at least one ICU patient device linked to and communicating to the database system clinical data related to the at least one patient;
• an ICU computer system in communication with the database system and with the remote site;
• the method comprising the execution of a stored program held in non-transient media by the ICU computer system to:
• (a) receive a query formulator inquiry from the remote site;
• (b) transmit a query formulator response to the remote site indicating whether the ICU computer system includes an installed, system specific query formulator;
• (c) receive and instantiate a query formulator from the remote site based on a negative query formulator response, wherein the received and instantiated query formulator is system specific to the database type of the intensive care unit telemedicine system;
• (d) receive at least one rule from the remote site, the rule defining one or more decision outcomes to be generated when clinical data satisfies one or more clinical parameters for the decision outcome;
• (e) generate a plurality of data requests for each received rule using the system specific query formulator, each data request
• 1) using data protocols using the data structures or terminology compatible with the database type of the intensive care unit telemedicine system;
• and
• 2) correlated to a single clinical data entry from at least one of the ICU database system and the ICU patient device related to the at least one patient in the intensive care unit;
• (f) executing the received rule including execution of the plurality of data requests and application of the rule to data entries provided based on the execution of the data requests to generate a decision outcome;
• and
• (g) transmitting the generated decision outcome to the remote site, wherein the ICU database system of at least one of the plurality of ICUs has a database type that is a different database type from at least one of the remaining ICUs.