Abstract:
A system and method for collecting, storing, processing, and referencing information in a personal digital assistant system configured as an electronic physician assistant is provided. The system comprises a personal digital assistant having an electronic physician data module therein, a scanning device coupled to the electronic physician assistant, and an automated data collection module for electronically storing scanned data, the automated data collection module being associated with the electronic physician data module. The method scans a patient identification and associates the identified patient with a patient record. Furthermore, the method records medical data as an electronic file of information and assigns a readable code to the information. Then, when the code is accessed, the method associates the information with a patient record.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]    This patent application is a continuation is related to, and claims priority from, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/416,564, by Moreton, et al., entitled “PHYSICIAN INFORMATION SYSTEM AND SOFTWARE WITH AUTOMATED DATA CAPTURE FEATURE” filed on Oct. 12, 1999 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     
       TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0002]    The invention relates generally to physician information systems, and more particularly, in a personal digital assistant system configured as an electronic physician assistant, a system, software program and method for collecting, storing, processing, or referencing information used by a physician with an automated data collection feature.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    Physicians are bombarded daily with the need to access and provide vast quantities of information quickly and accurately. Physicians may receive pages, calls, faxes, email, or other requests for information in or outside of their offices. To cope with their information needs, physicians carry papers, index cards, reference books, and dictation devices, among other things, to collect and reference information—particularly when outside of the office. However, the use of cards, papers and other paper materials for referencing information is inefficient, often impracticable due to the weight or bulk of the materials, and may provide less than the most current information.  
           [0004]    To assist physicians with these information needs, many hospitals provide information services for their physicians. For example, hospitals provide patient charts for collecting and referencing patient information. As another example, integrated health systems provide additional services, such as billing and collection systems, for their physicians. In addition, hospitals frequently provide dictation services whereby a physician will dictate a patient summary into a dictation device after a patient encounter and the hospital will then type the dictation and associate it with that patient&#39;s record. This service is typically used for encounters that occur while the patient is being treated or evaluated in the hospital. Services that are provided outside of the hospital must be documented, utilizing some other information management service.  
           [0005]    Unfortunately, if a physician is not employed or directly managed by an integrated health system, then he is responsible for documenting his services, billing and collecting for his services, interfacing with multiple third party payers, scheduling patient encounters, providing medical services, and many other tasks. All of these responsibilities require the use of multiple information services. To cope with these tasks, many physicians are turning to physician information systems.  
           [0006]    Modern physician information systems manage physician office information, and are often implemented as computer software programs. For example, some physician information systems provide information regarding drug interactions. Other physician information systems handle billing or insurance claims. Though representing a major stride forward for the physician and his staff, currently available physician information systems suffer from several drawbacks.  
           [0007]    Unfortunately, since most residency training programs are part of integrated health systems. most physicians who enter private practice after completing residency training are poorly prepared for the responsibility of integrating the multiple information services that are required to perform all of the tasks required of them. This is just one disadvantage of prior art physician information systems.  
           [0008]    Another disadvantage of prior art physician information systems is that they do not provide an integrated solution (this is due to the fact that typically physician information systems are vendor specific). For example, a drug company may provide a system which manages drug interactions. Likewise, an insurance provider could provide the insurance information system. Furthermore, a third party vendor may provide a program for managing diagnosis and treatment. In addition, the physician may use a completely separate calendar program for managing his schedule and patient interactions. These systems provide specific services but often they do not have any method of integration. This leaves the physician responsible for integrating information systems from various sources and programs, often relying only on his memory to accomplish the task of integration.  
           [0009]    Another problem associated with physician information systems is that they typically run on an IBM compatible or Macintosh platform. This means that they must run on a computer (PC) at least the size of a laptop. For physicians seeing multiple patients in multiple locations, carrying even a laptop can be a cumbersome and tedious process. Accordingly, the physician is less likely to cant&#39;, and thus, less likely to have access to, the needed information. Furthermore, even when the physician information systems run on the same platform type, they are separate and must be accessed on an individual basis—in other words, they provide a nonintegrated solution.  
           [0010]    Therefore, what is needed is a system, software program, and method for providing an integrated platform to the various modules of physician information systems. In addition, it is desirable for the platform to run on an easily portable device. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to have the ability to quickly record data, and then process and associate this with a patient. The present invention provides such a system, software program, and method.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    The present invention provides a physician or his staff with the ability to collect and access information quickly in or out of the office  5  through an integrated physician information system package. Furthermore, the present invention provides a system for automating the association of data identified by a scanned code with patient records.  
           [0012]    In one embodiment the present invention provides a system for collecting, storing, processing, and referencing information. This system is implemented in a personal digital assistant system configured as an electronic physician assistant. The system comprises a personal digital assistant that has an electronic physician data module, and an automated data collection module that utilizes an information transmission device coupled to the personal digital assistant.  
           [0013]    To provide communication capability to an outside communication channel, the system comes with a connectivity device, such as a wireless modem. The connectivity device provides access to a web page or email for updating a module. Furthermore, the system has an input/output port for transmitting and receiving information. Preferably, the information transmission device is a laser configured to read bar codes, but could also be an infra-red beam, an alpha-numeric scanner, magnetic strip reader, or a radio frequency transceiver.  
           [0014]    An embodiment of the present invention configured as a software program operates in a personal digital assistant configured as an electronic physician assistant. The software program has an electronic physician data module, and an automated data collection module for electronically recording data (the automated data collection module is electronically associated with the electronic physician data module in software). The data is associated with a patient record or medical information.  
           [0015]    In another aspect, the present invention is a method for associating a patient record with a patient identified by a patient identifier. The method stores a patient record in a PDA, reads a patient identifier with an information transmission device, and associates the patient identifier with a patient record. The method may also recall a patient list, or reference a module, such as the pharmacy module, rounds module, paging module, imaging module, or voice-to-text module. The method also provides for the association of medical information with a patient record. A medical identifier that can be accessed in a manner similar to the patient identifier identifies medical information, such as procedure and diagnostic codes. Typically, the medical identifier is a bar code. The patient record may then be transferred to another computing platform, such as a PC or another PDA.  
           [0016]    The technical advantages of the present invention are numerous and include providing the physician and his staff access to integrated information, thus streamlining operations both in and out of the office. Furthermore, the present invention provides easy access to physician information, such as drug interactions, diagnosis, treatment, and patient information, easing the burden on the physician&#39;s memory. In addition, the present invention provides efficient means for capturing data, such as patient bar codes, procedure bar codes, diagnosis bar codes, and data entry options. These advantages are provided on a reliable, portable, and easy to use platform. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]    The above features of the present invention will be more clearly understood from consideration of the following detailed description taken in connection with accompanying drawings in which:  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention implemented on a personal digital assistant;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 2 shows one configuration of the software for the present invention;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing an algorithm for accessing and editing modules according to the present invention;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 4 shows a process flow diagram of an algorithm for editing information according to the present invention;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 5 is a detailed process flow diagram of one embodiment of an automated data collection algorithm, which may be implemented in software as an automated data collection module;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 6 illustrates one view of a screen displaying the automated data collection module; and  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 7 displays the front page of the electronic physician assistant. 
     
    
       [0025]    Corresponding numerals and symbols in the figures refer to corresponding parts in the detailed description unless otherwise indicated.  
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0026]    The present invention provides a physician or a physician assistant with the ability to collect, access, and manipulate information quickly in or out of the office through an integrated physician information system. Information may relate to patient profiles, physician rounds, prescription information, dictations, schedules, insurance, images, or any other information needed by a physician to run his or her (hereinafter, his) office. Furthermore, the present invention provides a system for automated data collection with other information types, such as patient information, in a physician information system. A personal digital assistant (PDA) provides access to the physician information system on a platform which is portable and upgradable.  
         [0027]    PDAs are becoming popular platforms for many software systems. Like desktop personal computers (PCs), PDAs such as the Palm series (SPC1500, SPC1700), available from Symbol, Inc., provide icon-driven word processing and data processing capabilities on a handheld platform with a built in bar code reader. Furthermore, PDAs are inexpensive and widely available from computer vendors such as Comp USA, Best Buy, Radio Shack, and Office Max, just to name a few. Because the use of PDAs is proliferating, manufacturers are providing many peripheral devices and customized software systems to fully exploit the advantages offered by PDAs.  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of the system of the present invention as implemented in a PDA  100 . The PDA  100  comprises a graphical user interface (GUI)  20  flat panel display device, such as a liquid crystal display, a PDA compatible processor  10 , such as the Dragonball, available from Motorola, memory  30 , and a data entry device  40 , which could be a keyboard, for example. Similar to a PC processor, the PDA processor  10 , along with memory  30 , functions as the “brain” of the PDA  100  by directing the operations of the PDA  100 , including the processing of physician assistant software, input/output (I/O) functions, data entry, as well as the functioning of peripheral devices, for example. Memory  30  can be any type of PDA compatible memory, such as RAM or compact flash cards, and is used to store the physician assistant software. The data entry device  40 , such as a keyboard, button, stylus, voice control, or other device, provides a user the ability to control the functions of the PDA  100 , as well as the ability to enter data into the PDA  100 .  
         [0029]    To provide the PDA  100  the ability to communicate with other electronic devices, the PDA  100  has input/output (I/O) port. I/O ports, such as an infrared (I R) I/O port  50 , bar code reader  55 , an I/O port  60 , a magnetic strip reader  65 , or a modern  70 , for example, provide the PDA access to outside devices and networks. The IR I/O port  50  provides IR communication and data transfers with devices such as keyboards, mouses, another PDA, or a PC. The bar code port  55  provides bar code reading capabilities for inputting data from bar code labels. Likewise, the I/O port  60  could be any I/O port, such as a parallel port for providing a 5 cable connection to a printer or a PC. The magnetic strip reader  65  provides the ability to read information from a magnetic strip, such as a strip found on a drivers license, health insurance card, or a credit card, for example. The modern  70  provides access to an Ethernet, the Internet, or any other modem-based device or network with a physical connection or wireless connection.  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 2 shows one configuration of the electronic physician assistant software of the present invention. The electronic physician assistant software comprises a physician information system  200  for providing an integrated front page for a user, such as that shown in FIG. 6 (which is a copy of the screen display of a physician information system of the present invention). A patient list module  210  provides a database of a physician&#39;s patients, as well as access to general information regarding their demographics, insurance plan, health, allergies, etc. Using the patient list module  210 , the physician or other user, in only a few seconds, may access and report a patients records, the patients allergies, preexisting conditions, etc. while in or remote to the office. This can be critical if for example, the patient is awaiting treatment for an injury sustained in a car accident.  
         [0031]    A rounds module  220  provides the physician with information concerning his rounds for the day-including patient information, patient complaints, and the date of the last visit, for example. The rounds module  220 , can be updated each day to incorporate the physician&#39;s appointments module  230  so that the patient records will appear in the order of the day&#39;s appointments. Furthermore, the appointments module  230  can manage the physician&#39;s time outside as well as inside the office so that the physician can have a “one-stop” personal time management tool that integrates personal and office management. The appointments module  230  can include reminders for physicians to search for and review information such as lab test, billing records, operating room schedules, and on-call schedules.  
         [0032]    It is often challenging for physicians to recall the many codes used by hospitals, insurance companies, and other health care organizations. A medical coding module  240  provides a database of medical codes such as the Physicians&#39; Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD) commonly used in hospitals that identify patient diagnosis, procedure, treatment management programs, and billing. Medical codes can also be scanned in using a quick list of bar codes representing CPT and ICD codes. Furthermore, it is practically impossible for anyone to rely on memory to track all possible drug uses, dosages and interactions. A pharmacy module  250  carries common prescription and over-the-counter drug information, such as treatments, preferred dosages, as well as information regarding interactions. Furthermore, the pharmacy module  250  provides the ability to prescribe drugs for a patient by printing a prescription or otherwise sending prescribing instructions to a pharmacy.  
         [0033]    Physicians often receive telecommunication pages while in remote places. Numeric pages (pages where only a telephone number is left) require a physician to return the page without knowing the identity of the 5 number. This means that the physician can neither prioritize numeric pages or have needed information immediately at hand when the call is returned. Furthermore, the page often requires the physician to perform an activity once he reaches the office or hospital, and a numeric page does not provide the physician with information regarding these activities. A paging module  290  allows the physician to associate a page with the patient information by using caller identification (ID) functions. Thus, when a page is received by the physician assistant, an association is made by the paging module  290  between the calling number (using caller ID), or the telephone number left with a numeric page, with patient information. After the association is made, the physician assistant software can provide the physician with quick access to the record of the patient.  
         [0034]    Insurance companies inundate physicians with piles of paperwork, regulations, and often conflicting procedures. An insurance module  270  provides the physician with information regarding the policies and procedures of insurance carriers and managed care providers so that the physician can make decisions in line with the guidelines of the policies he honors. This will provide the patient with more cost effective care since the patient will be able to make informed “on the spot” decisions about what procedures he has available and what portion of the expense he will be expected to bear for each procedure. A dictation module  260  gives the user the ability to record, store, manipulate, and edit his dictations using the PDA. The dictation module  260  also provides the ability to associate the dictation with a patient record.  
         [0035]    A voice-to-text module  280  translates the voice file into a text file. This can be accomplished with proprietary software or commercially available programs such as Dragonspeak, of Simply Speaking, for example. An imaging module  295  allows the physician to associate a scanned image file, photograph file, or video image file to the patient file. Accordingly, it should be understood that an image can be photographed directly into the PDA  100  through a digital camera or the like which quickly attaches to the I/O port  60 , and then, the image can be associated with a patient record with the imaging file  295 . A scanner device may be attached in the same manner as the digital camera using the I/O port  60 .  
         [0036]    [0036]FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing a method (or algorithm) for accessing and, when available, editing modules according to the teachings of the present invention. A begin encounter step  310  executes when the user activates the electronic physician assistant, which may be accomplished by clicking on an icon displayed on the PDA operating system screen display. The begin encounter step  310  comprises the process of loading the electronic physician assistant into memory. Next, in a show front page step  320 , the PDA  100  displays the front page of the electronic physician assistant (illustrated as FIG. 7). In one embodiment, the front page provides the user, through the graphical user interface  20 , icon access to each of the modules of the electronic physician assistant. The front page module, once displayed, will remain displayed until the user selects another module or exits the electronic physician assistant software. The user selects a module as he would any other icon displayed on a PDA, for example, by placing a cursor on the icon representing the chosen module, and then pressing a button on the PDA or a mouse, in a select module step  330 . Likewise, the user may select to exit (turn-off) the electronic physician assistant by selecting the exit icon in an exit step  225 . When the user executes the exit step  225 , the PDA preferably returns to its operating system screen display.  
         [0037]    Once a module has been selected, the selected module displays a module screen in a display module step  340 . The physician will then read information from the PDA  100 , and may also use an interactive module display to call up information, such as information contained in a database for example, in an interaction step  350 . The user may also edit information in the interaction step  350 , as discussed below. Eventually, the user will want to exit the module and does so in an exit step  360  by selecting the exit module icon. The exit step  360  comprises the processes of “closing out” the module, and returning to the show module options step  320 .  
         [0038]    Sometimes, information may be edited as well as accessed from a module. FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram for implementing an edit function for the present invention. First, in a select edit step  41 . 0 , the user of the electronic physician assistant selects the edit mode. The edit mode should be accessible from the front page screen of the electronic physician assistant or from selected modules, such as the patient list, rounds, or appointments modules, for example. Then, after the select edit step  410 , the electronic physician assistant transitions into the edit mode and displays an edit screen in a display edit screen step  430 . The edit screen may be standardized for the entire physician assistant program, or customized, depending on the module the edit mode is accessed from. Next, the user may edit or manipulate the information in an edit information step  440 . Of course, any information may be serviced, such as patient records, treatments, or rounds information, for example. When the user has reached a point where he wishes to save the changes he has made (or to ignore the changes made), he should initiate the process of saving the changes in a select save step  450 . However, before the changes are actually saved to memory, the electronic physician assistant will display the altered information in the appropriate format in a display changes step  460 .  
         [0039]    Next, the user is prompted to review the changes and see if he approves of them in a save query  470  If the user approves of the changes, he will select to save the changes and the changes to the information will be saved to memory in a save changes step  480 . After the save changes step  480 , the electronic physician assistant returns to the mode and screen which was displayed prior to the edit mode being implemented in a return step  490 . For example, if the edit mode is initiated from the front page, then after the edits are saved the electronic physicians assistant returns to the front page. Likewise, if the edit mode is initiated from a module, then after the edits are saved the electronic physicians assistant returns to that module and its appropriate display. In the event the user chooses not to save the changes to the information in the save query  470 , the algorithm immediately proceeds to the return step  490 .  
         [0040]    As discussed above, functionality is achieved in the electronic physician assistant through modular programming. The dictation module provides the physician, or another user, the ability to make an audio record and attach that audio record to a patient file. The audio record may be later downloaded to another computer, translated into text via a secretary or voice processing software, or maintained on the PDA for future use.  
         [0041]    Further utility can be provided to a physician by enabling the electronic physician assistant to automatically gather, store, and associate information with patient information. FIG. 5 is a detailed process flow diagram of one embodiment of an automated data collection algorithm, which may be implemented in software as an automated data collection module  55 . Although the following discussion is directed specifically to a bar-code-reading laser, the invention should not be interpreted to be so limited. For example, the electronic physician assistant and the automated data collection module  55  could be implemented to read information from a magnetic strip, an alpha-numeric scanner, infra-red beams, radio frequency transceiver, or any other data transmission device or system.  
         [0042]    First, in a start-up step  510 , the automated data collection module  55  is loaded into memory and an automated data collection module screen is displayed. FIG. 6 illustrates one possible configuration of the automated data collection module screen. The automated data collection module  55  provides the user with the ability to automatically gather, store, and associate information via a bar-code-reading laser. Each patient will be assigned a unique patient identifier, such as a bar code, magnetic strip identification, electronic code, or other patient identifier as needed by the selected data transmission device. Next, in one embodiment, the laser reads the bar code which is uniquely associated with the patent in a patient data step  520 . Accordingly, the bar code itself may then be saved in any format, in a storage step  530 . Next, in a transfer step  540 , the automated data collection module  55  transfers the patient record for the patient uniquely associated with the bar code to the memory  30  of the PDA  100 .  
         [0043]    A physician can be provided with a number of bar codes associated with various diagnosis, medical codes, treatments, insurance information, or other information. Accordingly, the physician may scan in a medical code and relate it to the patient record in an information scan step  550 . This information (the medical code in this case) is then associated with the patient record in a modify patient record step  560 .  
         [0044]    The patient record may be loaded into another computer, and makes the decision to do so in a load information query  570 . If the user wishes to load the patient record in a computer, then the patient record is transferred by physical connection, wireless connection, or other means, in a load information step  580 . Alternatively, the patient record may be stored to another hand held device for transferring at a later time in the load information step  580 . If the user does not wish to transfer the data, the automated data collection module  55  terminates in an end step  590 . Likewise, the automated data collection module  55  also terminates upon the completion of the load information step  580 , in the end step  590 .  
         [0045]    In an alternative method, a PDA with a bar code reader is used to identify the patient by reading a bar code from an office chart or a hospital chart. The PDA then automatically notes the date and time of the patient identification. The PDA contains a list of patient records that have been previously downloaded from the office practice management database. However, new patient records can be created by associating a bar code with a record that can be downloaded into the PDA. The appropriate patient record is retrieved within the PDA.  
         [0046]    The encounter is coded in the PDA using bar coding technology. Accordingly, a selection of bar codes of commonly used CPT and ICD codes is kept at the physician&#39;s workstation so that they may be scanned and associated with a patient record. Alternatively, the physician can use the pen based coding module that is contained in the PDA software to record codes for the encounter.  
         [0047]    The requesting physician&#39;s name can similarly be associated with the patient record by bar coding the requesting physician&#39;s name from a list of physicians&#39; names. Alternatively, the requesting physician&#39;s name could be entered into the PDA manually or from a list of previously entered requesting physicians&#39; names which is stored on the PDA.  
         [0048]    The information that is collected at the time of the encounter is transferred from the PDA to the receiving computer by radio transfer, hotsyncing, beaming, or other memory transfer device such as compact flash cards. Next, the resultant digital file (patient record and new information) is transferred to the billing office in the form of an email, internet, intranet, or transferred in another means of storage, such as a diskette, to the billing office. Accordingly, the transferred file would then be opened and reviewed for accuracy. Then, the file would be incorporated into the billing software program and collated with the additional information necessary to make a claim for payment from the appropriate insurance plan. Next, the transcription could be transferred, as an email or by other means, to a location with patient numbers so that the digital file can be electronically attached to the billing information. Furthermore, an electronic physician assistant could also do a random accuracy check on charts coming into the system.  
         [0049]    While the invention has been described with reference to illustrative embodiments, this description is not intended to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications in combinations of the illustrative embodiments, as well as other embodiments of the invention, will be apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference to the description.