Patent Application
20150269508
An example embodiment of the present invention relates generally to display of clinical task lists, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for configuring a task list based on monitored user interactions.
Due to ever-increasing case loads, medical practitioners (e.g., doctors, nurses, physician's assistants, orderlies, technicians, and the like) may employ a variety of techniques to efficiently manage their schedule. Practitioners may be required to balance scheduled activities, such as rounds, reviewing non-urgent imaging studies, attending meetings, conducting peer reviews, teaching students, and the like, with unscheduled activities, such as reviewing urgent studies from emergency room patients, conducting emergency surgeries, responding to urgent consultation requests, and the like. Efficient management of practitioner workflows is important to ensure that tasks are properly prioritized.
Furthermore, practitioners may have different workflow preferences and needs. For example, a radiologist may review a particular imaging study in a different manner than a cardiologist or a neurologist, or a more experienced practitioner may require less oversight and peer review than a less experienced practitioner. A one-size-fits-all approach to task assignment and prioritization that fails to take into account these preferences may result in an inefficient workflow for some practitioners.
Through applied effort, ingenuity, and innovation, Applicant has solved many of these identified problems by developing a solution that is embodied by the present invention, which is described in detail below.
A method, apparatus and computer program product are therefore provided according to an example embodiment of the present invention in order to provide for configuration of a clinical task list.
Embodiments may include methods, apparatuses, and computer readable storage media for configuring a task list. An example embodiment the method may include providing a task list based at least in part on a configuration setting defined in a profile. The task list may include an indication of at least one task to be performed by a user in a clinical setting. The method may also include monitoring at least one user interaction with the task list, analyzing, using a processor, the at least one user interaction to detect at least one configuration change criterion, and causing a configuration change event in response to detecting the at least one configuration change criterion. The configuration change event includes a modification to the configuration defined in the profile. The configuration change event may include prompting a user to confirm the modification to the configuration associated prior to modifying the configuration. The at least one user interaction may include at least one of marking a task as completed, assigning the task to another user, allowing the task to remain uncompleted, or accessing a folder associated with a task. The at least one configuration change criterion may include at least one of accessing a folder greater than a threshold number of times or reassigning a task to a particular user greater than a threshold number of times. The method may also include monitoring a plurality of user interactions and a plurality of configuration settings associated with a plurality of users, determining a set of user interaction analytics based on the plurality of user interactions, determining at least one correlation between the plurality of configuration settings and the plurality of user interactions, and recommending at least one configuration setting modification based on the determined at least one correlation.
In some embodiments, the method may also include identifying at least one user as a preferred user. The at least one user interaction may be performed by the preferred user, and the profile modified by the configuration change event may be associated with another user other than the preferred user. In some embodiments the modification to the configuration may include modifying a visual effect applied to a task in the task list. The modification to the configuration may also include adding an interface control to the task list. The interface control may perform at least one task selected from the group of reassigning a task or accessing a folder.
Additional embodiments may include an apparatus. The apparatus may include processing circuitry configured to cause the apparatus to provide a task list based at least in part on a configuration setting defined in a profile. The task list may include an indication of at least one task to be performed by a user in a clinical setting. The processing circuitry may further cause the apparatus to monitor at least one user interaction with the task list, to analyze the at least one user interaction to detect at least one configuration change criterion, and to cause a configuration change event in response to detecting the at least one configuration change criterion. The configuration change event may include a modification to the configuration defined in the profile. The processing circuitry may further configure the apparatus to monitor a plurality of user interactions and a plurality of configuration settings associated with a plurality of users, to determine a set of user interaction analytics based on the plurality of user interactions, to determine at least one correlation between the plurality of configuration settings and the plurality of user interactions, and to recommend at least one configuration setting modification based on the determined at least one correlation. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry may further configure the apparatus to identify at least one user as a preferred user, wherein the at least one user interaction is performed by the preferred user, and the profile modified by the configuration change event may be associated with another user other than the preferred user.
Embodiments may also provide a computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium bearing computer program instructions embodied therein for use with a computer. The computer program instructions may include program instructions configured to provide a task list based at least in part on a configuration setting defined in a profile. The task list may include an indication of at least one task to be performed by a user in a clinical setting. The computer program instructions may further include program instructions configured to monitor at least one user interaction with the task list, to analyze the at least one user interaction to detect at least one configuration change criterion, and to cause a configuration change event in response to detecting the at least one configuration change criterion. The configuration change event may include a modification to the configuration defined in the profile. The configuration change event may include prompting a user to confirm the modification to the configuration associated prior to modifying the configuration.
The above summary is provided merely for purposes of summarizing some example embodiments to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the above-described embodiments are merely examples and should not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the invention in any way. It will be appreciated that the scope of the invention encompasses many potential embodiments in addition to those here summarized, some of which will be further described below.
Having thus described certain embodiments of the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
The present invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the inventions are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided in accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention in order to configure a clinical task list. In this regard, a method, apparatus and computer program product of an example embodiment may provide an interface allowing a user to view one or more assigned tasks. Tasks may be assigned manually or programmatically by a task management device. Tasks may be prioritized for the user according to a set of rules. Priority tasks may be displayed in a particular order (e.g., at the top of the list), displayed in a particular area of the display (e.g., a particular window for “urgent” tasks), indicated with a visual effect (e.g., highlighted in red or blinking in a particular color), or otherwise indicated to the user. The user's interactions with the task list may be monitored by a task list monitoring component in order to provide configuration changes to the task list. For example, rules for assigning and displaying tasks to the user may be modified based on the user's interactions. In this manner, embodiments provide for improved assignment and display of tasks to users, thereby increasing the efficiency of the user's selection and performance of tasks.
For the purposes of this application, the term “task list” should be understood to refer to an application or group of applications employed to manage tasks into a single list. Management of such tasks may include, but is not limited to, assignment of tasks to a particular user, group of users, or user role, altering a display of a particular task, reassigning of a task to another user (e.g., if the user has exceeded a time limit for performing a task), detecting and/or receiving a notification of completion of a task (e.g., receiving a notification from an imaging application that an imaging study has been completed), removing a task from a particular user upon task completion, changing task priority, assigning/reassigning a task, adding a value to a task, and the like.
The term “task” should be understood to refer to an activity performed or to be performed in a clinical setting. For example, a practitioner's tasks may include performing rounds, conducting a peer review of a study, conducting a review of a resident's study, attending a meeting, charting a case, or any other actions performed by a medical practitioner. Tasks may not necessarily be associated with a particular practitioner, and may instead be assigned to a group of practitioners or based on a role of one or more practitioners. For example, an “urgent” study may be assigned to multiple practitioners to ensure that the first available practitioner reviews the study, and the task may be removed from other practitioners' task lists when a first practitioner “claims” the study.
The term “medical practitioner” should be understood to refer to any individual employed or volunteering in a clinical setting, including, but not limited to, doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician's assistants, orderlies, technicians, or the like.
The term “configuration change criteria” refers to an a set of circumstances that, when occurring within a monitored user interaction or set of monitored user interactions, cause a configuration change to be performed on a profile used to provide a task list. The configuration change may relate to how tasks are assigned based on the profile and/or how tasks are displayed based on the profile.
The term “configuration change event” refers to an event that relates to a programmatic change caused in a configuration of a particular profile and which occurs in response to detection of a configuration change criterion or criteria. A configuration change event may include prompting a user to confirm the programmatic configuration change, or the configuration change may be automatically implemented without a confirmation or could be implemented by an administrator on behave of the user and their behavior.
It should be noted that the components, devices or elements illustrated in and described with respect to
The apparatus 102 may include or otherwise be in communication with processing circuitry 110 that is configurable to perform actions in accordance with one or more example embodiments disclosed herein. In this regard, the processing circuitry 110 may be configured to perform and/or control performance of one or more functionalities of the apparatus 102 (e.g., functionalities of a computing device on which the apparatus 102 may be implemented) in accordance with various example embodiments, and thus may provide means for performing functionalities of the apparatus 102 (e.g., functionalities of a computing device on which the apparatus 102 may be implemented) in accordance with various example embodiments. The processing circuitry 110 may be configured to perform data processing, application execution and/or other processing and management services according to one or more example embodiments. In some embodiments, the apparatus 102 or a portion(s) or component(s) thereof, such as the processing circuitry 110, may be embodied as or comprise a chip or chip set. In other words, the apparatus 102 or the processing circuitry 110 may comprise one or more physical packages (e.g., chips) including materials, components and/or wires on a structural assembly (e.g., a baseboard). The apparatus 102 or the processing circuitry 110 may therefore, in some cases, be configured to implement an embodiment of the invention on a single chip or as a single “system on a chip.” As such, in some cases, a chip or chipset may constitute means for performing one or more operations for providing the functionalities described herein.
In some example embodiments, the processing circuitry 110 may include a processor 112 and, in some embodiments, such as that illustrated in
The processor 112 may be embodied in a number of different ways. For example, the processor 112 may be embodied as various processing means such as one or more of a microprocessor or other processing element, a coprocessor, a controller or various other computing or processing devices including integrated circuits such as, for example, an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit), an FPGA (field programmable gate array), or the like. Although illustrated as a single processor, it will be appreciated that the processor 112 may comprise a plurality of processors. The plurality of processors may be in operative communication with each other and may be collectively configured to perform one or more functionalities of the apparatus 102 as described herein. The plurality of processors may be embodied on a single computing device or distributed across a plurality of computing devices collectively configured to function as the apparatus 102. In some example embodiments, the processor 112 may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory 114 or otherwise accessible to the processor 112. As such, whether configured by hardware or by a combination of hardware and software, the processor 112 may represent an entity (e.g., physically embodied in circuitry—in the form of processing circuitry 110) capable of performing operations according to embodiments of the present invention while configured accordingly. Thus, for example, when the processor 112 is embodied as an ASIC, FPGA or the like, the processor 112 may be specifically configured hardware for conducting the operations described herein. Alternatively, as another example, when the processor 112 is embodied as an executor of software instructions, the instructions may specifically configure the processor 112 to perform one or more operations described herein.
In some example embodiments, the memory 114 may include one or more non-transitory memory devices such as, for example, volatile and/or non-volatile memory that may be either fixed or removable. In this regard, the memory 114 may comprise a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. It will be appreciated that while the memory 114 is illustrated as a single memory, the memory 114 may comprise a plurality of memories. The plurality of memories may be embodied on a single computing device or may be distributed across a plurality of computing devices collectively configured to function as the apparatus 102. The memory 114 may be configured to store information, data, applications, instructions and/or the like for enabling the apparatus 102 to carry out various functions in accordance with one or more example embodiments. For example, the memory 114 may be configured to buffer input data for processing by the processor 112. Additionally or alternatively, the memory 114 may be configured to store instructions for execution by the processor 112. As yet another alternative, the memory 114 may include one or more databases that may store a variety of files, contents or data sets. Among the contents of the memory 114, applications may be stored for execution by the processor 112 in order to carry out the functionality associated with each respective application. In some cases, the memory 114 may be in communication with one or more of the processor 112, user interface 116, or communication interface118 via a bus or buses for passing information among components of the apparatus 102.
The user interface 116 may be in communication with the processing circuitry 110 to receive an indication of a user input at the user interface 116 and/or to provide an audible, visual, mechanical or other output to the user. As such, the user interface 116 may include, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, a display, a touch screen display, a microphone, a speaker, a Light Emitting Diode (LED), a lighting device, an electronic sensor for capturing human body movements, and/or other input/output mechanisms. In some embodiments, the user interface 116 includes a touch screen input device for displaying a task list. Although described with respect to a touch screen, it should also be appreciated that the user interface 116 may be provided via other techniques, such as a display device in concert with a mouse, keyboard, joystick, touchpad, or the like.
The communication interface 118 may include one or more interface mechanisms for enabling communication with other devices and/or networks. In some cases, the communication interface 118 may be any means such as a device or circuitry embodied in either hardware, or a combination of hardware and software that is configured to receive and/or transmit data from/to a network and/or any other device or module in communication with the processing circuitry 110. By way of example, the communication interface 118 may be configured to enable the apparatus 102 to communicate with another computing device via a wireless network, such as a wireless local area network (WLAN), cellular network, and/or the like. Additionally or alternatively, the communication interface 118 may be configured to enable the apparatus 102 to communicate with another computing device via a wireline network. In some example embodiments, the communication interface 118 may be configured to enable communication between the apparatus 102 and one or more further computing devices via the interne. Accordingly, the communication interface 118 may, for example, include an antenna (or multiple antennas) and supporting hardware and/or software for enabling communications with a wireless communication network (e.g., a wireless local area network, cellular network, and/or the like) and/or a communication modem or other hardware/software for supporting communication via cable, digital subscriber line (DSL), universal serial bus (USB), Ethernet or other methods.
Having now described an apparatus configured to implement and/or support implementation of various example embodiments, features of several example embodiments will now be described. It will be appreciated that the following features are non-limiting examples of features provided by some example embodiments. Further, it will be appreciated that embodiments are contemplated within the scope of disclosure that implement various subsets or combinations of the features further described herein. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that some example embodiments may omit one or more of the following features and/or implement variations of one or more of the following features.
The user device 202 may be any device capable of providing task information in a format that allows a user to view and/or otherwise interact with the task information. For example, the user device may be a laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartphone executing a task list application that receives task information and displays tasks to the user. To that end, the user device 202 may include a variety of hardware and/or software modules to facilitate providing the task information to the user. These modules may include a task interface module 208 and one or more application modules 212.
The task interface module 208 may be an application that operates to provide a list of tasks to the user. As described above, these tasks may correspond to various activities performed by a medical practitioner. Task assignments for the user may be received from the task management device 204 and displayed via the task interface module 208. For example, the task interface module 208 may provide for a user login to access a series of tasks managed by the task management device 204. Upon receiving the login information, the task management device 204 may send task information via the network to populate the task list displayed on the user device 202 by the task interface module 208. The task interface module 208 may provide for audio, video, and/or tactile feedback via a display, speakers, or other components of the user device 202 (not shown) to provide the task information to the user. The task interface module 208 may further receive user input to assist the user with obtaining and processing task information. For example, the user may interact with a particular task displayed in a list to obtain additional information about the task, such as the scheduled time for the task, the amount of time the task has been pending, another user that assigned the task, an application associated with the task, or the like. User interactions may further include indicating that the task has been performed (e.g., selecting a “complete” button associated with the task), launching an application associated with the task (e.g., where the task is “view a medical study”, selection of the task may launch a study viewer and/or open a file associated with the study), removing the task from the list, assigning the task to another practitioner, requesting assistance with the task (e.g., requesting a consult or peer review), obtaining reference material related to the task (e.g., providing a link to a teaching file or a medical atlas), creating a new related task (e.g., creating a task for a research action if a particular interpretation study is of research interest to the user), sharing a task with others, changing a task priority, assigning a task to a clinical trial space, indicating consent has been obtained from a clinical trial patient, or the like. The interactions provided to the task management device 204 may also include biographical information (e.g., the user's name, job title, specialty, or the like), temporal information (e.g., the time of day or the amount of time remaining in the user's shift), other involved users (e.g., a user to whom the task is being reassigned), or the like. The task interface module 208 may further monitor the user's interactions with the task list and transmit the interactions to the task management device 204 to assist with configuration of the task list and to derive task list analytics based on the interactions.
The application module(s) 212 may include other applications executing on the user device 202. These application module(s) 212 may include applications used to perform tasks provided in the task list. For example, the application module(s) 212 may include applications for viewing clinical studies, charting medical cases, accessing user e-mail, reviewing patient data, or any other application used to perform a task. In some embodiments, selection of a task from the task interface module 208 may cause the user device 202 to launch or open the particular application needed for the selected task. For example, selecting a task relating to review of a medical imaging study may open the study within a medical imaging viewer application.
The task management device 204 is operable to provide tasks and/or task information to the user device 202 and to receive task list interactions from the user device 202. The user interactions may be monitored to determine configuration changes to the task list. These configuration changes may be communicated to the user device 202 and stored in a profile configuration 210. To this end, the task management device 204 may comprise a plurality of hardware and/or software modules, such as a task generation module 214, a user interaction monitoring module 216, a profile management module 218, and an analytics module 220.
The task generation module 214 may identify tasks for association with a particular user or users and notify a corresponding user device of the task, so that the task may be displayed to the user by a task interface module 208. The task generation module 214 may generate and assign tasks based on data received by the task management device 204. For example, the task management generation module 214 may monitor incoming medical data, such as HL7 messages, to detect events that indicate a task should be generated. For example, an incoming message may indicate that a protocoling task should be created, or a Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) import operation may cause creation of a medical image study task. In response, a task for reviewing the imaging study may be generated and assigned to a practitioner associated with the particular patient, a practitioner with the appropriate specialty, a practitioner on call at a particular time, a practitioner who has a highest efficiency rating for a particular task based on metrics or analytics, a practitioner with the lightest workload, a practitioner who is a designated subject matter expert, or the like. Additionally or alternatively, the task generation module 214 may provide an interface, via the task management device 204 or via a user device 202, for generating new tasks. For example, the interface may allow another practitioner to input task information for generation of a new task. Generated tasks may be stored as task data 228. The task data 228 may be updated, edited, deleted, and modified by the task generation module 214 in response to actions being taken on those tasks. For example, a task that is marked as completed by a user using a user device 202 may be marked as such in the task data 228 and removed from the user's task list, or a reassigned task may be associated with a different user by changing a user association for the task as stored in the task data 228.
The task generation module 214 may generate and assign tasks to practitioners or groups of practitioners according to a set of rules. In this manner, the task generation module 214 may function as a rule engine to process incoming medical data according to a set of specified rules and generate and assign tasks accordingly. These rules may be defined manually or programmatically, and stored on the task management device as rule data 222. The rule data 222 may include rules for how to process incoming messages to generate tasks, the content of tasks, to which users tasks should be assigned, and the like.
Rules may be defined in a markup language. For example, a set of rules assigning emergency room tasks to a user named “Dr. Moore” and displaying a notification on Dr. Moore′
The user interaction monitoring module 216 monitors user interactions with a task list. For example, as described above with respect to the user device 202, user interactions may include information such as how long the user takes to perform tasks (e.g., the amount of time between when the user receives the task and when the task is marked as completed, or the amount of time spent in a task-specific application performing the task), when the user performs tasks, which other users are involved in the user's tasks (e.g., to which other users the user frequently reassigns tasks), or the like. The user interaction monitoring module 216 may store information regarding these interactions in a set of user profile data 224.
The user profile data 224 may include a set of rules and settings used to configure the task interface module 208. For example, the task interface module 208 may control the display of task information according to a set of rules defined within the user profile data 224. These rules may configure the way in which task information is provided to the user, such as altering the audible, visual, or tactile characteristics of a task list interface. For example, the user profile data 224 may include rules that configure the task interface module 208 such that an audible alert happens every time an urgent task is received, or particular tasks may be color coded based on the priority of the task, a user that assigned the task, the length of time the task has been on the user's task list, or the like. The user profile data 224 may also include additional rules that define interface controls. For example, particular practitioners may be identified as having use for certain shortcuts (e.g., access to certain folders, or hotkeys for reassigning tasks to a particular practitioner) based on their previous interactions. The user profile data 224 may provide rules to control the presence and operation of these interface controls. Although the user profile data 224 is generally described as related to a particular user, it should be appreciated that a given profile configuration may be associated with a group of users, a particular user role, a particular user device 202, or the like. The profile configuration may be received from a task management device 204, such as in response to the task management device 204 detecting certain task list interactions that indicate that particular configuration settings should be included in the user profile data 224. An example user profile is described further below with respect to
A profile management module 218 may function to manage a particular user's task list experience. The profile management module 218 may facilitate alteration to a configuration associated with a particular user based on the monitored user interactions. The profile management module 218 may cause certain configuration changes in response to detection of certain configuration change criteria in the user's monitored interactions. For example, if a user frequently performs a particular interaction (e.g., accessing a particular folder or assigning cases to a particular practitioner), the profile management module may modify the user's profile to adjust the user's profile configuration to facilitate those tasks (e.g., by adding shortcuts or hotkeys). Detection of configuration change criteria may initiate a configuration change event, in which a configuration change is made for the user, or the user is prompted to indicate whether they would like to make the configuration change. Configuration change criteria may also be defined within the rule data 222. In some embodiments, the configuration change criteria may be programmatically determined, such as by correlating certain metrics with certain configuration settings using a machine learning algorithm (e.g., measuring the amount of time taken by practitioners or the accuracy of practitioners for a particular study type and correlating with particular settings for window size, gamma, and contrast for practitioners with faster times or higher accuracy rates).
An analytics module 220 may function to derive profile analytics 226 from monitored user interactions. The analytics module 220 may measure various metrics (e.g., length of time taken for a particular study type, frequency of tasks being overdue, frequency of task reassignment) and generate a set of analytics that detect correlations between the measured metrics and certain configuration settings. These correlations may be stored and used to derive rule data for use in altering profile configurations to improve performance. In some embodiments, the analytics module 220 may receive input for assisting with analytics. For example, certain practitioners may be identified as highly qualified, especially accurate, or otherwise a good source of “best practices,” and the analytics module may be configured to analyze the configuration settings of these practitioners to suggest configuration changes to other practitioners. The analytics module 220 may also be configured to generate reports of the settings employed by various practitioners and to provide these reports to users or other interested parties. The analytics module 220 may further generate elements of the rule data 222 to assist with generation of configuration change criteria to cause configuration change events for users.
The task assignment configuration 302 may include data related to adding, removing, editing, and reassigning tasks to and from a particular user's task list. The task assignment configuration 302 may also include interface configuration data used for accessing task information, such as shortcut data, data defining interface controls, and the like. The task assignment configuration 302 may include configuration settings derived based on monitored user interactions, configuration settings defined by a user, or default configuration settings. The task assignment configuration 302 may further control how tasks are assigned priorities for the particular user. Additionally, the task assignment configuration 302 may include one or more settings for altering tasks. For example, the task assignment configuration 302 may include instructions that increase a task priority if the task has not been closed within a certain time period (e.g., the task has been open for more than 4 hours).
The task display configuration 304 may include data related to how tasks are communicated to users in an audible, visual, or tactile manner. For example, the task display configuration 304 may include instructions causing tasks to be displayed in a certain color, causing tasks to be displayed in a certain area of a display screen, causing an audible alert to occur upon task assignment, causing an audible alert upon a task being older than a certain threshold time, causing a user device to vibrate in response to a task being added, or the like. The task display configuration 304 may also include settings such as volume, contrast, gamma, or the like used to provide task data to the user. The task display configuration may further define which columns are displayed in the task list, the ordering of the columns, certain graphical flags and icons, or the like. While the task assignment configuration 302 may control which tasks are displayed, the task display configuration 304 may control how those tasks are displayed.
The task assignment configuration 302 and task display configuration 304 may be modified by a rules engine (e.g., the profile management engine 218 described with respect to
Some example configuration change events that may occur in response to various configuration change criterions are as follows:
Automatic Task Addition—In response to the configuration change criterion occurring, a task may be automatically added to the user's task list and a notification may be displayed. A notification may indicate that a task has been added.
Task Addition Confirmation—In response to the configuration change criterion occurring, a notification may be displayed asking the user to confirm an addition of a task to the user's task list, and the task may be added to the user's task list in response to selecting a confirmation dialogue.
Suggested Task—In response to the configuration change criterion occurring, a notification may provide information to the user about a particular task that is suggested for them. The user may decide to either add or ignore the task suggestion. If the user chooses to add the suggested task, the task is added to the user's task list.
Automatic Action Addition—In response to the configuration change criterion occurring, a target task for the user may automatically have a particular action added and a notification may be provided.
Confirm Action Addition—In response to the configuration change criterion occurring, a confirmation dialogue may be presented for adding a particular action to a target task.
Suggested Action—In response to the configuration change criterion occurring, a particular action for a particular task may be suggested to the user.
Suggested View—In response to the configuration change criterion occurring, a view for an imaging study task may be suggested to the user for a medical imaging task. For example, view suggestions may include separating the CT studies into different folders based on the patient location (e.g., one for ER patients, one for in-patients and one for out-patients), changing the location of a particular folder by moving it up in the a folder tree to reflect its higher important and usage, adding Image Count and Series Count columns to the task list for users that frequently view imaging studies, or the like.
Grouping/Organizing of tasks into a parent folder (for example, certain tasks may only be accessed by users of a particular type of Specialty □ The Specialty name could be suggested as a folder)
Service Level Agreement Notification—In response to detecting that the user is failing to meet the requirements of a service level agreement (e.g., certain studies must be reviewed within a certain period of time after receipt), then move studies in danger of failing the requirement to the top of the task list, or create a separate notification window for studies in danger of failing the requirement.
Teaching File Creation—In response to detecting that a particular case is frequently accessed, suggest creation of a teaching file or addition of the case to a teaching file for the particular user.
Patient Association—In response to detecting that the user has interacted with the same patient at least a threshold number of times, suggest adding a link to the records and/or studies associated with the particular patient.
The profile 300 may also include biographical information 306. The biographic information 306 may include information about the user or users to which the profile is associated. For example, the biographical information 306 may include user account credentials (e.g., a user name(s) and password), user access permissions (e.g., to which folders or patient medical records the user has access), user roles (e.g., medical specialty and/or sub-specialty), the user's assigned rotation (e.g., ER, surgery, radiology), or the like. In some embodiments, the profile is associated with a particular user role or a particular group of users, which may also be indicated by the biographical information 306.
The task overview 402 may display a breakdown of tasks associated with the user. For example, in the present illustration, the user has a total of 50 tasks, separated into three task types: interpretation, quality, and communication. Each of these task types has a further breakdown of particular task sub-types within the group. As tasks are assigned to the user, reassigned to other users, and completed, the task overview 402 may be updated to add newly assigned tasks and to remove completed or reassigned tasks. The user may select a particular task type or sub-type from the task overview 402 to view a detailed breakdown of the tasks of the selected type or subtype in the detailed task view 406. In the present example, the user has selected the “interpretation” task type, and the user's interpretation tasks are displayed in the detailed task view 406. Selection of a task from the detailed task view 406 (e.g., “tapping” the area of a touch screen corresponding to the task, or selecting a task with the mouse cursor) may launch an application associated with that task. For example, the interpretation tasks listed are musculoskeletal (MSK) studies, and selection of a task related to a particular study may launch an imaging application and open the corresponding study in the imaging application. Tasks may be listed in the detailed task view 406 in a particular order. In the present example, tasks are ordered according to whether the patient is an emergency room patient, an in-patient, or an out-patient. Tasks may also be ordered by time (e.g., with the oldest task listed first), to assist users with prioritization of tasks that have been pending for a longer period of time. The notification window 404 may be used to notify the user of events that occur with respect to their tasks, such as newly added tasks, reassigned tasks, configuration change events, and various other task-related notifications.
The user may interact with these tasks to mark the task as completed, to launch an application related to the task, to obtain additional information about the task, to reassign the task to another user, or the like. Such interactions may be monitored by the process at action 604. As the user interacts with the task list, the task list interactions may be stored and/or reported to a remote device, such as a task management device as described with respect to
At action 606, the monitored interactions are analyzed to detect the presence of configuration change criteria. The configuration change criteria may comprise rules that are tied to particular configuration changes. For example, a configuration change criterion may relate to a user opening a particular file folder more than a threshold number of times. In response to detecting that the threshold has been met, a rule may be triggered suggesting a shortcut be added to the interface leading to the particular file folder. Such configuration change criteria may be manually defined, such as by a system administrator or supervisory user, or dynamically defined, such as by a machine learning algorithm.
In some embodiments, various methods and metrics may be utilized to identify and cause configuration changes. For example, different types of configuration changes could be assigned a classification for the degree to which a particular configuration change will impact the task list, such as the degree to which the change will affect task assignment or display of assigned tasks. Configuration changes that have a low impact (e.g., adding a link to a shared folder) may be more likely to be suggested than configuration changes with a higher impact (e.g., removal of a particular task type, organizing tasks into different display windows, reassignment of all tasks to another practitioner, or the like). In some embodiments, a calculation may be employed to weight the degree to which a configuration change is likely to improve a user's task list experience against the impact classification of the task, such that tasks with a large “reward” (e.g., a high likelihood of making the user's workflow more efficient) and a low “risk” (e.g., configuration changes that do not make significant changes to task assignment logic or task display) are more likely to be suggested to the user than tasks with a lower reward and greater risk. The impact and benefit of given configuration changes may be determined programmatically based on measured user interactions and/or analytics.
As an example of this process, a particular user may consistently exceed their budgeted time for a particular task type (e.g., emergency room MSK studies). As a result, tasks of this task type may be marked as a higher priority task. Another user may have a similar task load of tasks of the same task type, but not have any problem attending to the tasks within their budgeted time. Since the metric being used to identify a possible configuration change (e.g., budgeted time being exceeded) may be tied to a number of different factors, additional correlating metrics, such as the particular task type, may also be utilized to identify good candidate configuration changes. In the instant example, since both users are performing studies of the same type, configuration changes associated with the second user may be judged to have less of an impact and a greater likelihood of a reward for the first user, and thus the first user may have the configuration of the second user suggested as a possible configuration change. In another scenario, where the study types do not match, then a configuration change may be identified as having a higher possible impact (e.g., users of different specialties may require different configurations), and/or a lower possible reward (e.g., configuration changes that result in efficiency for a first specialty may not be efficient for a different specialty) and thus the system may not suggest the change.
At action 608, in response to detection of the configuration change criteria, a configuration change event may occur. The configuration change event may include prompting a user of the task list with the option to implement a configuration change based on the detected configuration change criteria. Alternatively, some embodiments may implement the configuration change event without prompting. The configuration change event may include making changes to one or more configuration settings associated with the user's profile. For example, a configuration file stored on a task management device may be altered and sent to the user device to reconfigure the user's task list to operate with the new configuration change, such as in the case where the configuration change modifies the user's task list interface by altering the display of the task list or adding, removing, of modifying an interface control of the task list interface. Alternatively or additionally, the configuration change may be implemented on the task management device, such as in the case where the configuration change relates to how tasks are generated and/or assigned to the user.
At action 702, the process 700 provides access to various folders, such as a set of clinical studies or a task folder. At action 704, the user accesses one of these folders (e.g., one physician accessing another physician's folder, as described above). This access may include traversing of several directory trees, or inputting login information to obtain access to the folder. Traversing the directory structure or inputting the same login information for a folder that is frequently accessed is inefficient due to the need to perform the same task repeatedly. The act of accessing the folder may be transmitted to a user interaction monitoring module, such as described above with respect to
At action 708, the user may be prompted with a suggestion to add a shortcut to the accessed folder to their task list configuration in response to detecting that the folder has been accessed at least the threshold number of times. Otherwise, the method returns to action 702 to continue providing the task list. In this manner, the process 700 may detect a scenario that may result in increased efficiency of the task list interface (by saving the user from performing redundant actions when opening the same folder) based on monitoring of the user's interactions with the task list interface.
At action 802, the task list may be provided to a user as described above. At action 804, a task reassignment operation is detected. At the time of the task reassignment, a notification may be sent to a user interaction monitoring module such as described above with respect to
At action 902, the task list (e.g., a list of tasks including at least one of the problem study type) is provided. At action 904, completion metrics for the tasks in the task list are monitored. These completion metrics may be monitored by noting the amount of time taken by the user from when the task is added to the user's task list until when the task is marked “complete” by the user, or by the amount of time the user spends reviewing the task in an application associated with the task (e.g., an imaging application). At action 906, a determination is made as to whether the user's task completion time exceeds a threshold time (e.g., the time specified by a service level agreement related to the task). In some embodiments, the threshold may be programmatically determined based on a data value associated with a particular service level agreement, a particular task type, or the like. In some embodiments, the determination may be made based on exceeding the threshold at a certain frequency (e.g., at least 25%, 50%, or 90% of a particular study type exceeding the threshold) to ensure that a single anomalous time does not necessarily trigger a configuration change. If the criterion is met at action 906, the method proceeds to action 908 to recommend a remedial measure to improve the metric, such as highlighting tasks of the problem type to the user to assist with faster identification, or reassigning tasks of the problem type to another user who is able to meet the required completion metrics. If the criterion is not met, the method returns to action 902 to continue providing the task list. In this manner, the process 900 provides for automatic reconfiguration of a task list to improve efficiency and ensure that certain task metrics are met.
At action 1002, a task list is provided as described above. At action 1004, a consultation request is received for a particular task. For example, the user may select a “consultation request” interface control associated with the task. This interface control may trigger the task to be reassigned to another practitioner with a similar profile to the user. At action 71006, another user with a similar profile is identified. In some embodiments, the other user may be identified as a “best fit” based on all users who are available. The process 1000 may automatically determine the optimal user for the consultation based on parameters established by the requesting user when the consultation is requested. For example, the requesting user may specify a particular specialty, sub-specialty, rotation, or the like for the consultation. For example, a practitioner specializing in internal medicine may request a consultation from a cardiologist regarding a patient electrocardiograph study. At action 91008, the task may be reassigned to the user identified for the consultation, or a new “consultation” task may be generated and assigned to the user identified for the consultation, thus appearing on the identified user's task list.
At action 1102, task list interactions from users are monitored. These task list interactions may be monitored across multiple users and aggregated for review by an analytics module, such as described above with respect to
In some embodiments, the analytics may be used to provide information to other users with similar profiles. Configuration changes may be suggested to other users based on the profiles of users with matching roles or other biographical information to allow users to benefit from configuration settings determined by other similar users. For example, a first user may have previously established a set of configuration settings to manage their personal tasks, and when a new user with the same specialty and rotation schedule registers with the system, the new user may be presented with the option to copy the settings from the first user.
As a particular example of this process, User A may be a radiologist that has a rotation schedule in the ER department, User B may be a resident that has a rotation schedule in the ER department, User C may be a radiologist that does not have a rotation schedule in the emergency room (ER) department, and User D may be a radiologist that has a rotation schedule in the ER department.
Users A-D may have task lists with the following entries: User A has a task defined for “ER MSK”. User B has a task defined for “Studies Of Interest”. User C has a task defined for “Consults”. User D has a task for “ER Research”.
Based on the information known about User A, User A might be associated with a profile for a radiologist (their medical specialty), a profile for an ER department rotation (their current rotation), or a combined profile for radiologists that are undergoing an ER department rotation. Profiles that match User A would thus include User B, who is a radiologist, User C, who is also on an ER rotation, and User D, who is both a radiologist and rotated to the ER.
Since User B is a resident as opposed to a radiologist, there is not a perfect overlap in the responsibilities and tasks for User B and User A. As such, since the disparity in profiles relates to a feature that is associated with the tasks and workflow (which will likely differ between a radiologist and a resident), configuration settings derived from User B may not be suggested to User A. As a result of analyzing the different profile matches, configuration setting changes may be proposed to User A such that User C's “Consults” configuration settings may be proposed to User A due to a match in the “Radiologist” specialty, and User D's “ER Research” configuration settings may be proposed to User A due to a match in both the “Radiologist” specialty and the “ER department” rotation.
It will be understood that each element of the flowcharts, and combinations of elements in the flowcharts, may be implemented by various means, such as hardware, firmware, processor, circuitry, and/or other devices associated with execution of software including one or more computer program instructions. For example, one or more of the procedures described above may be embodied by computer program instructions. In this regard, the computer program instructions which embody the procedures described above may be stored by a memory 104 of an apparatus employing an embodiment of the present invention and executed by a processor 102 of the apparatus. As will be appreciated, any such computer program instructions may be loaded onto a computer or other programmable apparatus (e.g., hardware) to produce a machine, such that the resulting computer or other programmable apparatus implements the functions specified in the flowchart blocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture the execution of which implements the function specified in the flowchart blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable apparatus to cause a series of operations to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide operations for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart blocks.
Accordingly, blocks of the flowcharts support combinations of means for performing the specified functions and combinations of operations for performing the specified functions for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that one or more blocks of the flowcharts, and combinations of blocks in the flowcharts, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform the specified functions, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
In some embodiments, certain ones of the operations above may be modified or further amplified. Furthermore, in some embodiments, additional optional operations may be included. Modifications, additions, or amplifications to the operations above may be performed in any order and in any combination.
Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these inventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, although the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings describe example embodiments in the context of certain example combinations of elements and/or functions, it should be appreciated that different combinations of elements and/or functions may be provided by alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In this regard, for example, different combinations of elements and/or functions than those explicitly described above are also contemplated as may be set forth in some of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
