Patent Application
20100332256
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of medical data processing and, more specifically, to techniques for electronically indexing and searching medical data.
Healthcare facilities, such as medical practitioner offices, clinics, and hospitals, often include various electronic devices and systems for acquiring and storing patient data and other medical information. For instance, a hospital may include various imaging systems, such as X-ray systems, CT systems, MR systems, and PET systems, as well as various computer workstations, servers, and databases. While the hospital may include various networks and information technology infrastructure to facilitate communication between the numerous disparate devices and systems, patient data is typically distributed over these disparate systems.
For example, data associated with a single particular patient may include image data stored at various separate imaging systems or archives (e.g., CT scans and MR scans), a set of lab results on a computer within the hospital, additional lab results stored on one or more other computers, patient medical history stored within yet another computer, and additional patient information stored in still yet another computer. Additionally, in some instances patient information is stored in computers and systems that are distributed over multiple facilities, such as a network of hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities. While it may be desirable to find particular items of data within a healthcare network, such tasks are typically time-consuming and inefficient given the vast amount of data and array of storage locations to be searched.
Certain aspects commensurate in scope with the originally claimed invention are set forth below. It should be understood that these aspects are presented merely to provide the reader with a brief summary of certain forms the invention might take and that these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Indeed, the invention may encompass a variety of aspects that may not be set forth below.
Certain embodiments of the present invention may generally relate to techniques for indexing medical data in a networked healthcare system, such as a network of components within a hospital or other healthcare facility, or a network of components distributed over multiple facilities near or remote from one another. In one embodiment, a network medical data crawler may search the network and index DICOM data and HL7 data stored within the various components of the networked system. A user may then input search terms via a user interface, and the indexed DICOM and HL7 data may be searched based on the search terms.
Various refinements of the features noted above may exist in relation to various aspects of the present invention. Further features may also be incorporated in these various aspects as well. These refinements and additional features may exist individually or in any combination. For instance, various features discussed below in relation to one or more of the illustrated embodiments may be incorporated into any of the above-described aspects of the present invention alone or in any combination. Again, the brief summary presented above is intended only to familiarize the reader with certain aspects and contexts of the present invention without limitation to the claimed subject matter.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:
One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Moreover, while the term “exemplary” may be used herein in connection to certain examples of aspects or embodiments of the presently disclosed technique, it will be appreciated that these examples are illustrative in nature and that the term “exemplary” is not used herein to denote any preference or requirement with respect to a disclosed aspect or embodiment.
Turning now to the drawings, and referring first to
The exemplary processor-based system 10 may include a microcontroller or microprocessor 12, such as a central processing unit (CPU), which executes various routines and processing functions of the system 10. For example, the microprocessor 12 may execute various operating system instructions as well as software routines configured to effect certain processes and stored in or provided by a manufacture including a computer-readable storage medium, such as a memory 14 (e.g., a random access memory (RAM) of a personal computer) or one or more mass storage devices 16 (e.g., an internal or external hard drive, a solid-state storage device, CD-ROM, DVD, or other storage device). It is noted that such software may be fully encoded on a single computer-readable storage medium, or may be distributed over multiple computer-readable storage media (e.g., multiple disks each containing a portion of the software and collectively including all of the software). In addition, the microprocessor 12 processes data provided as inputs for various routines or software programs, such as data provided as part of the present technique in computer-based implementations.
Such data may be stored in, or provided by, the memory 14 or mass storage device 16. Alternatively, such data may be provided to the microprocessor 12 via one or more input devices 18. The input devices 18 may include manual input devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, or the like. In addition, the input devices 18 may include a network device, such as a wired or wireless Ethernet card, a wireless network adapter, or any of various ports or devices configured to facilitate communication with other devices via any suitable communications network, such as a local area network or a wide area network (e.g., the Internet). Through such a network device, the system 10 may exchange data and communicate with other networked electronic systems, whether proximate to or remote from the system 10. It will be appreciated that such a communication network may include various components that facilitate communication, including switches, routers, servers or other computers, network adapters, communications cables, and so forth.
Results generated by the microprocessor 12, such as the results obtained by processing data in accordance with one or more stored routines, may be provided to an operator via one or more output devices, such as a display 20 and/or a printer 22. Based on the displayed or printed output, an operator may request additional or alternative processing or provide additional or alternative data, such as via the input device 18. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art, communication between the various components of the processor-based system 10 may typically be accomplished via a chipset and one or more busses or interconnects which electrically connect the components of the system 10. Notably, in certain embodiments of the present technique, the exemplary processor-based system 10 may be configured to enable indexing of healthcare information stored in various components of a networked system and searching of such indexed information by a user, as discussed in greater detail below.
By way of example, a networked healthcare system 26 is depicted in
In one embodiment, other components of the networked healthcare system 26 include medical imaging devices of one or more modalities, such as a computed tomography (CT) system 36, a positron emission tomography (PET) system 38, a magnetic resonance (MR) system 40, an X-ray system 42, or the like. It should be appreciated, however, that the present teachings may also or instead be used in consort with other imaging system modalities, as well as patient monitors, diagnostic devices, other medical resources, or some combination of these devices and systems. Such other medical resources may include, but are not limited to, one or more picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) 44, radiological information systems (RIS) 46, hospital information systems (HIS) 48, other databases 50 and devices 52, and so forth. While various components of the system 26 are generally depicted as communicatively coupled to the server 34, it is noted that such components may be coupled in any desirable fashion, and need not be commonly coupled to any single device or component.
In various embodiments, the present techniques allow for the indexing of medical information, such as patient images and electronic medical records, in the networked healthcare system 26. In one embodiment, a network crawler application may be stored on one or more memory devices within the system 26 and may be executed by a processor to crawl the networked healthcare system 26 and discover medical data. Particularly, the network crawler application may discover medical data stored in or provided by various components of the system 26, and may add such information to an index table stored within the system 26, such as within one or more of the workstations 28, 30, and 32, the server 34, the database 50, or some other component of the system 26.
For example, in one embodiment, the server 34 may include the network crawler application, which may be executed to browse the network system 26 in a methodical manner to locate and index information from components within the system 26 that are known by the server 34. For instance, in various embodiments, the network crawler application may locate and index DICOM information stored on or generated by various components of the healthcare system 26, such as the CT system 36, the PET system 38, the MR system 40, and the X-ray system 42, as well as the PACS 44. In another embodiment, the network crawler application may also or instead be configured to locate and index HL7 information resident in the system 26, such as within the RIS system 46, the HIS system 48, or the like. In some embodiments, the server 34 may be able to access each of the other components of the system 26, in which case the network crawler application on the server 34 may be capable of locating and indexing all of the desired information in the system 26.
In other embodiments, however, the server 34 may not be aware of, or be able to access, at least some of the additional components of the system 26. For instance, in the embodiment illustrated in
By way of further example, an exemplary method 72 for creating a searchable index of medical data is generally depicted in
With respect to searching the index, a method 90 of performing such searching is provided in
Once the user provides one or more search terms 94, software embodying the present techniques may be executed to search the index for relevant patient data, as generally depicted in block 96, and may display a list of search results, as depicted in block 98. The displayed list of search results may be provided in any suitable format, including a visual display in a graphical user interface of one of the components (e.g., a workstation), a printed list of search results, or the like. The user may also enter additional search terms 94 to refine the results of the search. It is noted that the list of search results based on a query for a particular patient name may generally represent a virtual electronic medical record for that patient, and may include various data obtained from disparate systems. For instance, in one embodiment, the search results may include data on patient history, physicals, lab reports, scheduled procedures, patient images, and the like. Such a virtual electronic medical record could then be stored locally on an internal memory of a computing device, or may be stored on removable media, such as a USB drive, a memory card, or an optical disc.
Additionally, the index search may employ various algorithms (e.g., fuzzy logic and/or data correlation routines) in matching certain search terms (e.g., names and identifiers) to data contained within the index, and may provide assurance scores or other relevance indicators to the user regarding the strength of the match between a search term and data returned by the search. For instance, the searching of the index may account for common misspellings in names to be searched. Still further, in one embodiment such searching and assurance scores may include enhanced matching and correlation of data based on various patient characteristics (e.g., weight, height, age, data of birth, etc.), the type of exams in a sequence of exams, dates of exams, the treating physician, the diagnostic technician, and the like.
In embodiments in which the list is displayed to a user electronically, a user may provide an input 100 to select or manipulate one or more items of information listed in the search results. For instance, the user may interact with the system to access patient data and to send patient data from its location on one or more of the components of the system 26 to a new location, such as generally depicted in blocks 102 and 104. For example, in one embodiment, a user of the workstation 30 may search for data relevant to a particular patient. A list of information relevant to that patient may be displayed (block 98) and may include, for example, medical images generated by one of the imaging modalities of the system 26, or stored within the PACS 44. Additionally, relevant information may also include various lab results, electronic medical records, or other informational items. A user of the workstation 30 may then view the data or may send data from one location in the network system 26 to another location via DICOM or HL7, such as to another department or user workstation.
A technical effect of the systems and methods described herein may include, among other things, enabling efficient electronic searching of medical data by a user via accessing and indexing such medical data across multiple components in a networked medical system. While only certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.
