Patent Application
20120131440
The invention relates to a method for the context-sensitive provision of patient-related information on a graphical user interface in a data processing system, to a data processing system and to a computer program product.
Medical information systems document diverse, patient-related, administrative and medical data, inter alia. On the basis of continually growing medical knowledge and the complexity of the patent-related medical data collected by the doctor, modern medical information systems require the provision of by context-sensitive medical supporting systems, “Decision Support Systems” below, which support medical personnel in their daily work. In this connection, context-sensitive means that a doctor, while documenting the medically relevant data for a patient, is referred to particular circumstances or ranges of information which fit the context of the current medical treatment of the patient on the basis of administrative data, such as age, sex or diagnoses, findings, therapies, prescriptions, etc. Thus, such a system can provide reinforcing ranges of literature, most recent medical study results or other information, for example, or may refer to particular circumstances, such as possible intolerances for prescriptions or risks which fit the current pathological or treatment situation of the patient. Furthermore, general information, appropriate to the health situation of the patient, such as health or diet advice, can be provided. This therefore results in firstly the doctor being continuously supported by specialist advice whilst treating his patients, secondly, this has the advantage that the doctor does not need to perform an additional manual search in appropriate databases or relevant literature. This means that there is no waste of valuable system resources from medical information systems as a result of complex and generalized database searches, which significantly relieves the load on medical information systems, in particular, for example in hospitals having a multiplicity of computer terminals and access points.
US 2005/246314 A1 discloses a method and system for developing a personalized medical service for individual people or a group of people which can support the operation, adaptation and coordination of computer systems, software, products, services, data and much more.
By contrast, the object is based on providing an improved method for the context-sensitive provision of patient-related information on a graphical user interface in a data processing system, an improved data processing systems and an improved computer program product.
The objects on which the invention is based are each achieved by means of the features of the independent patent claims. Preferred embodiments of the invention are specified in the dependent patent claims.
The invention provides a method for the context-sensitive provision of patient-related information on a graphical user interface in a data processing system. In this case, the method comprises the step of receiving data from an application program, wherein the application program comprises a first display window on the graphical user interface, wherein the data contain patient data. In a further step, a first database is accessed, wherein the first database contains medical information objects, wherein the medical information objects are linked to query conditions for the received data, wherein the first database is contained in the data processing system. In a further step, the check is finally performed to determine whether at least one of the query conditions is satisfied, and a popup is produced on the graphical user interface if at least one of the query conditions is satisfied. In this case, the popup has the information objects which satisfy the query conditions, wherein a window focus is maintained on the first display window and wherein the popup is displayed on the graphical user interface such that further input of data in the first display window is not impaired. Subsequently, patient data are understood to mean data about the patient and about the treating doctor, the medical practice, etc.
In addition, ‘Medical Information Objects’ are subsequently understood to mean any kind of medical data, such as reinforcing ranges of literature, medical study results, possible intolerances, for prescriptions, risks which fit a particular pathological or treatment situation for a patient, hyperlinks to additional information on the internet or other medical databases, and also medicament information. Medical information objects may contain not only medical text information but also medical image information, such as exemplary X-ray images, photographic shots of visible pathological symptoms or else graphical representations of diagnosis methods and pathological profiles.
The method according to the invention has the advantage that the workflow of a user is not interrupted when using the application program, and the user is nevertheless referred to the information objects in targeted fashion. Furthermore, the method according to the invention has the advantage that medical information systems can remain unchanged in terms of their basic structure, i.e. in respect of the application program, with the first display window of said application program, while only query conditions and the first database are regularly updated with most recent information. This means that a program update in the classical sense is no longer necessary, and a database update is merely sufficient, the result of which is a significant reduction in the technical complexity both for users of the data processing systems in the form of medical information systems and for those service providers which provide compilations of ranges of information and information objects. It is therefore possible to tie new links and data contents to the connected application programs at arbitrary times without modifying the application programs themselves-one-off provision of an interface for the application programs to the decision support system is sufficient here.
In this case, particular consideration should be given to the fact that minimization of technical complexity is of particular relevance because the number of possible link components for medical information elements is extraordinarily high and subject to permanent change, since the range of information is increasing continually and more and more quickly.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the popup also has a link to additional information, wherein user activation of the link involves the additional information being read from an information source and the read additional information being output in a second display window on the graphical user interface. In this case, the information source is the first database or a data source which is external to the data processing system, such as the internet and/or a further second database.
This means that a user is unrestricted in the decision to accept the range of information which appears in the popup, and hence to retrieve additional information upon request, by virtue of user activation of the link. In this case, the advantage of using an external data source, such as the internet and/or a further database, is that up-to-the-minute information can be provided in the second display window in the graphical user interface. By way of example, it is thus possible to update the first database only quarterly, which reduces the complexity for a user of the data processing system in terms of time and technical involvement. By contrast, the use of the external data source nevertheless ensures that, by way of example, up-to-date price information relating to medicaments, current clinical case studies, current recommendations, for example regarding inoculations for travel in particular countries, etc., can be provided.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the popup is removed from the graphical user interface after a prescribed first time interval.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, the additional information is stored in the database in the form of HTML or XML documents. In this case, the second display window is preferably a window in a web browser. The use of a window in a web browser as the second display window has the advantage that the method according to the invention for the context-sensitive provision of patient-related information can be implemented complementarily on almost any desired data processing system, since data processing systems nowadays have web browsers as standard. Hence, the application program merely needs to provide an interface which a decision support system running in the background uses to receive the data from the application program in order to subsequently provide the popups or additional information using the web browser.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the data received from the first display window contain information about the user of the graphical user interface. In this case, the information about the user comprises practice master data and/or a medical specialist group and/or a user identifier.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, the method also comprises the step of querying complementary patient data associated with the patient from a third database, wherein the third database is part of the data processing system or is an external database, wherein the medical information objects are additionally linked to query conditions for the queried complementary patient data.
The use of a third database for automatically querying complementary patient data associated with the patient has the advantage that the decision-making for the display content of the popups can also incorporate information which comes not just exclusively from the data processing system on which the application program is currently running. By way of example, a conceivable scenario is that a patient was previously in a medical practice and was then referred to a clinic which uses the method for the context-sensitive provision of patient-related information. In this case, when patient data are input by a doctor, for example, said complementary patient data associated with the patient are queried from the referring medical practice in the background in order to obtain a complete picture of the state of health, previous medication, medical history data, therapies, etc.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the query conditions comprise personalized user query conditions and/or personalized patient query conditions, wherein the user query conditions and patient query conditions are complemented dynamically in the first database. This means that, by way of example, query conditions are used which are tailored in a quite specific manner to a treating doctor, for example in respect of his field of work (medical specialist group).
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the popup also has at least one display option which can be selected by the user, wherein selection of the display option involves the personalized user query condition and/or patient query condition being produced, wherein the personalized user query condition and/or patient query condition incorporate(s) the display option selected by the user. In a practical example, the display option is the immediate hiding and renewed showing of the popup after a prescribed selectable second time interval and/or is the immediate hiding of the popup without renewed showing of the popup. Thus, by way of example, the personalized user query condition can incorporate the fact that a piece of information shown by means of the popup is no longer used even for future data inputs by this specific doctor after the display option “immediate hiding without renewed showing” has been selected three times, for example, since in this case it can be assumed that the treating doctor is not at all interested in such information. The same can also be performed in a similar manner specifically for a particular patient, in which case a patient query condition is dynamically updated when the treating doctor selects that a particular proposal, for example regarding the administration of medicaments or therapy, is unsuitable for this patient.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, the received data have data objects, wherein reception of the data involves the data objects being stored in a first stack, next, from a first table for the data objects stored in the first stack, identifiers associated with these data objects in the first table are read, wherein each identifier has an associated one of the medical information objects. In a further step, a second stack is used to store, for each identifier, the number of data objects stored in the first stack which are associated with this identifier in the first table. Finally, the query condition is deemed to be satisfied if the number of received data objects stored for an identifier in the second stack corresponds to the number of data objects which are associated with the identifier in the second table.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a received data object is stored in the first stack only if the data object is not yet stored in the first stack.
The association of the identifiers with data objects in the first table in combination with the described use of the first and second stacks, and also the second table, has the advantage that a large number of query conditions can be checked in an extremely short time: instead of querying an entire database which stores various links and conditions together with appropriate information objects, it is merely necessary to access a single table and the two stacks in order to check received data objects for the query conditions. This allows the query conditions to be evaluated in real time, even when there is an extraordinarily large number of link possibilities for data objects and identifiers, as is the case for medical ranges of information. The use of a simple database query would use up enormous system resources, which can be avoided through the inventive use of the tables and stacks.
In a further aspect, the invention relates to a data processing system for the context-sensitive provision of patient-related information on a graphical user interface in the data processing system. In yet a further aspect, the invention relates to a computer program product having instructions which can be executed by a processor for the purpose of performing the method according to the invention for the context-sensitive provision of patient-related information on a graphical user interface in a data processing system.
Embodiments of the invention are explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings, in which:
Subsequently, elements which are similar to one another are denoted by the same reference symbols.
Also connected to the data processing system 100 are an internet database 128, an external database 126 and, by way of example, a medical appliance 124. In addition, the data processing system 100 has a display apparatus 130 in the form of a screen which, as shown in
During the input of the patient data, these patient data are now forwarded from the application program 108 to the interface 114 of the decision support system 110 by means of the interface 112. Using the program modules 118 and 120, which are shown only schematically in
The decision support system 110 can also use its modules 118 and 120 to query additional data, for example from the external database 126, apart from the data which have been received from the first display window 132, said external database being the database of an external medical practice, a care service or the like, for example. In this case, in one embodiment, complementary patient data associated with the patient are retrieved from this external database 126. Furthermore, it is also possible, particularly in hospitals, in which the application program 108 is a hospital information system, to retrieve additional medical data for the patient directly from a medical engineering appliance 124, such as an X-ray appliance, an MRI scanner, etc. In this case, the popup 134 can also be used, by way of example, to make the doctor aware of an available X-ray picture, wherein the popup contains, for the doctor, a link to the X-ray pictures which are associated with the patient. In this case, X-ray image data, for example, are transmitted only when a treating doctor explicitly so requires after he has been made aware of the presence of such image data. This is highly relevant particularly in the case of hospital information systems, since this avoids an excessively high volume of data as a result of data transmissions on different client computers in the data processing system 100. This significantly reduces the overall system utilization level for such a hospital information system.
By way of example, the internet database 128 is used to provide a user, in the popup 134, with a link which, following activation, takes the user to an appropriate internet page with additional information.
An important factor in
If the ranges of information which are presented to the user in the form of the popup 134 are not used by the treating doctor, these ranges or the popup automatically disappear after a configurable period of time.
Since links to the medical data objects, the hits to be triggered when the relevant combination arises and the ranges of information, including the information linked thereto itself, may all be held in the database 122 or alternatively in the internet database 128, for example, these context-sensitive links and information, including ranges of information, can be updated, modified and complemented by virtue of simple interchange of the relevant databases 122 or updates on the internet. Changes need to be made neither to the primary system in the form of the application program 108 nor to the decision support system in the form of the application program 110.
The popup 134 has an information object 202, for example additional information relating to the medicaments prescribed in a prescription in the form of side effects. When the popup 134 is displayed, the treating doctor now has various options. The simplest option is to operate the button 208, so that the popup 134 immediately disappears from the graphical user interface 200.
Alternatively, it is possible for the doctor to use one of the selection items with which he is provided by means of the dropdown menu 204. By way of example, such a selection option may be the option to no longer display the displayed information in future just specifically for this patient. This would correspond to what is known as a personalized patient query condition which, following selection of such an item in the dropdown menu, is dynamically complemented in the first database 122, as shown in
In addition, the popup 134 has a link 206, wherein selection of the link 206 involves a second display window appearing on the graphical user interface 200, which display window displays additional information relating to the information objects 202.
In one embodiment of the invention, it is also possible for the popups to be linked in connection with internet web services such that the popup proposes the use of a particular web service which is called in the second display window following confirmation of an appropriate button in the popup. By way of example, such a web service may be a service which writes a letter containing an appropriately worded personal salutation and instructions relating to the taking of medicaments using the patient's master data which are input in the first display window, such as surname, first name, address, age, insured person data, etc., and also using the medicaments prescribed by the doctor likewise in the first display window 132. In this case, the doctor no longer needs to write such an instructional letter himself, which firstly means less work for the doctor and secondly results in less system strain for the data processing system on which the doctor information system and the decision support system are being operated. A further example of the use of web services is, by way of example, the option, when referring a patient to hospital, of providing the doctor with the opportunity to use the web service to provide the patient with suitable directions to this hospital, including an outline of the approach, etc. Such data are usually not available on a doctor's computer on account of the complexity and scope of such map data, which means that in this case too the use of a web service actually allows an appropriate implementation in the first place.
A further example of the use of web services is that the referral diagnosis for in-patient treatment and the patient's place of residence (e.g. zipcode in the patient's master data) are taken as a basis for searching for a hospital which is suitable or specialized for the necessary treatment nearby. This information is then transmitted from the web service to the treating doctor.
The second table 402 records, for each identifier (ID), the number of data objects for which the relevant identifier is respectively associated with different data objects in the first table 400. By way of example, in the first table 400, the identifier 1 is associated with three different data objects, namely the PZN 4711, PZN 4711 and D 10.3. In this case, PZN stands for the central pharmaceutical number of a medicament and D stands for a diagnosis. Hence, the identifier 1 is provided with the value 3 in the second table 402. In the same way, the respective number of data objects is calculated for the exemplary identifiers 2, 3 and 4 from the first table 400, this being the value 2 in all cases for ID=2, 3, 4.
The third table 404 now has, for each identifier, an appropriate action which needs to be presented to a user as an information object in the form of an appearing popup.
The use of the first and second stacks 408 and 406 which are shown in
Thus, in step 500, a data object is input in a first display window of the application program, for example of a doctor information system. Next, in step 402, a check is performed to determine whether this data object is already present in the first stack 408. If the data object is not yet present, an appropriate entry is made in the first stack 408 in step 504 and, in step 506, a check is then performed in the first table to determine whether it contains the data object associated with an identifier. If step 510 reveals that the data object is in fact already associated with one or more identifiers (IDs), the relevant IDs are read from the first table 400 in step 512.
A check is now performed in step 514 to determine whether entries relating to these identifiers already exist in the second stack 406. If this is not the case, the identifiers which are read from the first table in step 512 are successively stored in the second stack 406 and, moreover, for each identifier, the number of data objects which are stored in the first stack 408 and which are associated with this identifier in the first table 400 is added. In this case, this determination of the number of data objects stored in the first stack which are associated with this identifier in the first table corresponds to step 518 in
Since the data object D=10.3 was now additionally input previously in steps 500 to 512, step 514 determines that the ID=1 with the number of hits=2 exists in the second stack 406. Since the data object D=10.3 is present both in the first stack 408 and in the first table 400, the number of hits for the identifier ID=1 is now increased by 1 in step 518. Next, in step 520, a check is now performed to determine whether the number of hits, now for the identifier ID=1 with hits=3, corresponds to the maximum number of data objects which are associated with this identifier ID=1 in the first table 400. A counting operation for the number of data objects which correspond to ID=1 in the first table is superfluous, since this value (max. parameters) can be read directly from the second table 402. If the result, as explained in the present example, is now that for the identifier ID=1 both the number of hits=3 also corresponds in the second table 402 to the identifier ID=1 with max. parameters=3, a corresponding action in the form of production of a popup is then triggered in step 522. If the result in step 520 is that the number does not correspond to the value max. parameters, the method ends in step 508.
Termination of the method likewise ends in step 508 if it has previously been determined in step 502 that an appropriate value which was input in the doctor information system in step 500 is already present in the first stack 408. In this case, the reason is that double counting of data objects which have already been input into the doctor information system is intended to be prevented in this way. Similarly, the method ends in step 508 if it is determined in step 510 that an appropriate data object which has been input into the doctor information system in step 500 does not exist in the first table 400 and hence is also not associated with an identifier.
It should also be pointed out that the second table 402 can also be produced by the first table 400 completely independently in respect of the maximum number of data objects which need to have a shared identifier ID.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2008/066138 | 11/25/2008 | WO | 00 | 12/1/2011 |
