System and method for managing form-generated data

Abstract

A system and method for managing form-generated data related to a patient encounter involves translating location information related to a user writing on a form into a contextualized data element that includes contextual information. The contextual information helps to explain and/or give meaning to the user writing. Contextual information may include a descriptive name, an identification of data type, healthcare classification information, taxonomic information, an indication of the patient, an indication of the person that wrote on the form, and/or an indication of the date and time at which the writing occurred. The contextual information is then used by an Electronic Medical Record (EMR)/Electronic Health Record (EHR) application to perform a function such as patient/insurance billing, case management, or order fulfillment.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a system for managing form-generated data related to a patient encounter.

FIG. 2 depicts a form that is intended to be written on by a user such as a front-line healthcare worker.

FIG. 3 illustrates designated information fields within the form of FIG. 2 along with their associated labels.

FIG. 4 depicts a mapping data set that corresponds to the labeled designated information fields depicted in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 depicts exemplary user writings on the form depicted in FIGS. 2 and 3, which are translated to contextualized data elements as described below.

FIG. 6 depicts an example of the contextualized data elements that result from the user writings depicted in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 illustrates publish and subscribe operations between a middleware application and an EMR/EHR application as described above.

FIG. 8 illustrates a subscription request for all information in sub-regions “patient_name”, “tmt”, and “lab_test” of the form described above with reference to FIGS. 3-6.

FIG. 9 illustrates the distribution (publishing) of contextualized data elements to different EMR EHR applications.

FIG. 10 depicts a method for managing form-generated data related to a patient encounter in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

Claims

1. A system for managing form-generated data related to a patient encounter, the system comprising: a form having designated information fields at different locations on the form;an electronic writing system configured to generate location information that identifies the location of a user writing on the form;a contextualizer configured to translate location information related to the user writing to a contextualized data element, wherein the contextualized data element comprises contextual information that is associated with the user writing; andan application that utilizes the contextual information in the contextualized data element to perform a function that is related to the user writing on the form.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the location information comprises a pen stroke data set that represents the user writing on the form.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the contextualized data element comprises root information and contextual information, wherein the contextual information explains or gives meaning to the root information.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the root information is one of a medical code and an image file that is representative of at least a portion of the user writing on the form.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the contextualizer includes location translations which associate location information with contextual information.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the contextual information includes a label that is associated with a corresponding designated information field.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the label corresponds to accepted medical terms.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the label conveys medical taxonomy.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein the label comprises a standardized medical code.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein the label comprises one of an International Classification of Disease (ICD) and a Current Procedure Terminology (CPT) code.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the contextualizer is configured such that the location translations are changeable in response to changes in the locations of the designated information fields on the form.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the contextual information comprises temporal information.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the contextualized data element comprises a label that is associated with the designated information field in which the user writing is made.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the contextualized data element comprises a region label, an area label, and an area type indicator.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the contextual information includes taxonomic information.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the contextual information includes standardized medical terms.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the application is an Electronic Medical Record (EMR)/Electronic Health Record (EHR) application.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the performed function includes one of patient/insurance billing for services rendered related to the patient encounter, case management related to the patient encounter, and order fulfillment related to the patient encounter.

19. A method for managing form-generated data related to a patient encounter, the method comprising: receiving location information related to a form that has designated information fields in different locations on the form, wherein the location information is generated in response to a user writing on the form in one of the designated information fields;translating the location information to a contextualized data element, wherein the contextualized data element comprises contextual information that is associated with the user writing; andutilizing the contextual information in the contextualized data element to perform a function related to the user writing on the form.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the location information comprises a pen stroke data set that represents the user writing on the form.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the contextualized data element comprises root information and contextual information, wherein the contextual information explains or gives meaning to the root information.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the root information is one of a medical code and an image file that is representative of at least a portion of the user writing on the form.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein the contextualized data elements are distributed via a publish/subscribe protocol.

24. The method of claim 19 further comprising generating an encounter data set comprising multiple contextualized data elements, which together characterize a patient encounter.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the encounter data set comprises: an indication of the patient associated with the patient encounter;an indication of the substance of the patient encounter; andan indication of the time of the patient encounter.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the encounter data set comprises an indication of the user that made the user writing on the form.

27. The method of claim 19 further comprising establishing location translations which associate location information with contextual information.

28. The method of claim 27 further comprising changing the location translations in response to changes in the locations of the designated information fields on the forms.

29. The method of claim 19 wherein the function is performed by a software application.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the software application is an electronic health record (EHR) application.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein the software application is an electronic medical record (EMR) application.

32. The method of claim 19 wherein utilizing the contextual information in the contextualized data element to perform a function patient/insurance billing for services rendered related to the patient encounter, case management related to the patient encounter, and order fulfillment related to the patient encounter.

33. Processor-accessible storage media comprising processor-executable instructions, that when executed, direct a computer system to perform the method as recited in claim 19.