Abstract:
The aspects disclosed herein provide various systems for aggregating and communicating health care records, and combinations thereof. The aspects disclosed herein included methods and techniques for receiving health care information, organizing the health care information, and communicating the health care information to relevant stakeholders. Thus, employing the aspects disclosed herein, health care is efficiently and optimally provided to the various parties associated with the responsibility of health care provision.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    Traditionally, health services have been provided by a single provider to a recipient, such as a patient. Thus, a patient would go to a clinic or hospital in which the patient is a member of, and obtain health-related services. 
         [0002]    More recently, health care has been provided by networks. The networks allow a patient to go to various locations, such as pharmacies, clinics, hospitals and the like, and receive various health needs. 
         [0003]    The networks may be geographically isolated, for example, in a city or county. Some health care networks may be national, or serve a larger scope. In either case, patients are likely to go to a variety of labs, clinics, and hospitals to satisfy a variety of health care needs. Further, patients are likely to attend a variety of locations and regions. For example, a patient may visit health care providers in multiple cities, counties, or states. 
         [0004]    Conventionally, a patient would go to a single health care provider, and receive health care services from that single provider. As such, the single health care provider would contain a lion share of the information associated with a doctor or another professional associated with health care provision. 
         [0005]    Due to the numerous locations and/or providers, obtaining a whole history of a patient now may be difficult. A single patient may be associated with more than one health care provider, and thus, the single patient may be required to provide the present health care provider with all the information associated with previous visits. 
         [0006]    Further, even if the single patient is able to provide the health care provider with all the information associated with previous visits, the health care provider is responsible with retrieving all the information, as well as parsing through all the information to determine important information associated with patient care. 
         [0007]    In recent times, new data standards associated with recording health care visits have been proposed. One such example is the admit-discharge-transmit (ADT) system. The ADT system is a record associated with each visit to a health care provider. The health care provider may be a clinic, a hospital, a pharmacy, or some other affiliated service associated with the provision of health care services to a patient. 
         [0008]    In many health care systems and networks, any time a service associated with health care is provided, an ADT data file may be generated. However, as mentioned above, an ADT data file may be generated for a routine service or for a service associated with critical information (i.e. information that may be necessary or helpful for future health care providers). 
       SUMMARY 
       [0009]    Systems and methods for providing, aggregating, receiving and communicating health records are provided herein. The systems and methods allow health care organizations and providers to effectively improve the dissemination and communication of health information. As this sort of systems and methods currently are not known, the aspects disclosed herein provide a new methodology for the dissemination of health care records, while allowing multiple health care networks to effectively work together. 
     
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0010]    The detailed description refers to the following drawings, in which like numerals refer to like items, and in which: 
           [0011]      FIG. 1  illustrates an example of a chart according to an overall concept disclosed herein. 
           [0012]      FIG. 2  illustrates an example of a system for receiving health care records according to the aspects disclosed herein. 
           [0013]      FIG. 3  illustrates an example of a method describing the system in  FIG. 2 . 
           [0014]      FIG. 4  illustrates an example of a sample health care record employable with the aspects disclosed herein. 
           [0015]      FIG. 5  illustrates an example implementation of system for processing received information from the system in  FIG. 2 . 
           [0016]      FIG. 6  illustrates a method describing the system of  FIG. 5 . 
           [0017]      FIG. 7  illustrates an example of a lookup table being employed with the systems disclosed herein. 
           [0018]      FIG. 8  illustrates an example of a system for communicating the processed information of  FIG. 5 . 
           [0019]      FIG. 9  illustrates a method describing the system of  FIG. 8 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0020]    The invention is described more fully hereinafter with references to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments are provided so that this disclosure is thorough, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. It will be understood that for the purposes of this disclosure, “at least one of each” will be interpreted to mean any combination the enumerated elements following the respective language, including combination of multiples of the enumerated elements. For example, “at least one of X, Y, and Z” will be construed to mean X only, Y only, Z only, or any combination of two or more items X, Y, and Z (e.g. XYZ, XZ, YZ, X). Throughout the drawings and the detailed description, unless otherwise described, the same drawing reference numerals are understood to refer to the same elements, features, and structures. The relative size and depiction of these elements may be exaggerated for clarity, illustration, and convenience. 
         [0021]    Being cognizant of a patient&#39;s history with a number of health care providers greatly improves the quality of service received, as well reduces costs. If a whole history is known by, for example, a doctor or other health care provider, the health care provider is able to provide better, cheaper, and more efficient health services. 
         [0022]    In order to provide this information, a general database would have to be implemented. However, these generalized databases are not possible due to privacy concerns, format compatibility issues, and the mere fact that the information provided would be unusable. 
         [0023]    For example, if all information associated with a patient were available from a generalized database, the information may not be usable by a health care provider due to the mere fact that much of the information would be useless. 
         [0024]    Disclosed herein are methods and systems for aggregating and communicating medical records. Because existing systems do not deal with real-world issues associated with how medical services are provided, existing systems and methods are deficient for handling the needs and desires of health care providers. 
         [0025]    The aspects disclosed herein provide methods and systems that create new ways of allowing health care to be efficiently disseminated. Thus, health care providers, patients, and other stakeholders are given a more efficient way of interacting with the available resources associated with a health care provision. 
         [0026]      FIG. 1  illustrates an example of a chart  100  according to the overall concept disclosed herein. The chart  100  depicts a sample implementation of how information is propagated employing the aspects disclosed herein. The systems shown herein may be modified by the implementater of a health care network, health information exchange (HIE), or the like. 
         [0027]    In response to a beginning operation  101  (either through a manual, automatic, or period time based instruction), a health record is received in operation  102 . The health record may be any known health records employed by one of ordinary skill in the art, for example, the ADT-type described above. 
         [0028]    In operation  103 , information is extracted. Often times, the health record is anonymized to remove information associated with personal identification. In certain cases, the health records are anonymized based on various jurisdictional requirements, such as HIPAA and the like. At operation  103 , for example, information associated with the health record may be extracted, such as: the demographics, service type, patient class, and the like. 
         [0029]    In operation  104 , a determination is made as to whether the patient exists based on the extracted information. If the extracted information indicates that the patient exists, the method shown in  FIG. 1  proceeds to operation  106 . If no, the patient is added to a list of patients ( 105 ). 
         [0030]    In operation  106 , the records associated with the identified patient ( 104 ), or the newly added patient ( 105 ), are iterated by one. Thus, the type of service the patient is associated with (i.e., the type of visit, test, operation, provider seen) is added by one. 
         [0031]    In operation  107 , the patient identified or added in operation  106  is matched to a subscription list associated with that patient. This list indicates what sources, health care providers, and the like are authorized to receive information about this patient. This matching can further be demarcated by selecting classes or categories of services that the sources/health care providers are authorized to receive information about. 
         [0032]    In operation  108 , a notification of the information generation in operation  107  is made available to the various sources/health care providers. In some cases, the notification may be automatically transmitted to the sources/health care providers. In other cases, the notification may be made available in response to a request for information. As such, the process in  FIG. 1  ends ( 109 ), and may be employed to aggregate and communicate further information based on received health records. 
         [0033]      FIG. 2  illustrates an example of a system  200  for receiving health care records according to an aspect disclosed herein, and  FIG. 3  illustrates a method  300  explaining how the system  200  operates. The system  200  may interface with the other systems shown and discussed herein. The system  200  is likely to be placed in a health care provider or other client-side point associated with health care provision. In other situations, the system  200  may be implemented in an intermediary location or environment, i.e., a location not responsible for direct care for a patient. 
         [0034]    The system  200  includes a health record retriever  210 , a personal identification information (PII) scrubber  220 , and a health record communicator  230 . The system  200  may be implemented in a computing device, or alternatively, through some sort of system to process health records. 
         [0035]    The system  200  receives a health record  201  via the health record retriever  210  (via operation  310 ). The health record  201  represents a single provision of health care services associated with a patient. This can vary from the admit process, the discharge process, or other events associated with the provision of health care. The health record  201  includes the name of the patient, other identifying information (for example, age, address, race, etc), the service being provided, and the like. The health record  201  may be automatically generated at a location in which the system  200  is implemented, or manually entered by an agent associated with the provision of health care. 
         [0036]    The Health record parser  220  (in operation  320 ), is configured to parse the health record information  201  to obtain the relevant information employable by the other systems disclosed herein. Thus, the name and other specifics that would allow another party to identify the patient are retrieved. For example, as shown in  FIG. 4 , a sample record is shown. In the record shown, the relevant information may be predefined, for example, the ‘PATIENT IDENTIFICATION’, ‘the PATIENT VISIT’, and other demographic information, such as age, cities, and other identifying or usable characteristics. 
         [0037]    The health record communicator  230  (in operation  330 ), communicates the parsed health record  202  to a receiving party, such as the system  500  disclosed herein (which will be described in greater detail in  FIG. 5 ). 
         [0038]      FIG. 5  illustrates an example of a system  500  for processing received information, for example, parsed health care information  202  from system  200 .  FIG. 6  illustrates an example method  600  explaining the operation of system  500 . System  500  includes a health record retriever  510 , a patient retriever  520 , and a patient updater  530 . The system  500  communicates with a data store  505  (which may be any electronic or non-electronic device or technique to store information). 
         [0039]    The health record retriever  510  is configured to receive parsed health care records from a source (operation  610 ). For example, the source may be system  200  as described in  FIG. 2 , communicating the parsed health care record  202  to system  500 . 
         [0040]    The patient retriever  520  is configured to retrieve (or create) information about the patient associated with the parsed health care record  202 . As explained by operations  620  to  630 , patient information is selected to be updated, or alternatively, created. In operation  620 , a determination is made as to whether the patient exists. For example, the patient data store  505  may store patient information  501 . The patient information  501  may be retrieved from the patient data store  505 , and compared against to make the determination of operation  630 . 
         [0041]    If yes, the method  600  proceeds to operation  630 . If no, the method  600  proceeds to operation  625 , where a record associated with patient identified by parsed health care record  202  is identified. 
         [0042]    In an alternative implementation of system  500  and method  600 , the method  600  may proceed after operation  620  to operation  626 . In operation  626 , a determination is made as to whether the record and/or information associated with the record is to be stored. If yes, the method proceeds to operation  630 . If no, the method  600  is ended  640 . In this manner, the implementer of system  500  may elect to filter or determine which categories of records to store. 
         [0043]    The patient updater  530  is configured to update a record/data associated with the patient (operation  630 ). Accordingly, updated patient information  502  may be communicated to the patient data store  505 , and thus, be employed to update data about the patient associated with parsed health care record  202 . As shown in  FIG. 7 , lookup table  700  includes an example of information associated with the operations/system described herein. 
         [0044]    The lookup table  700  includes various fields  710 ,  720 ,  730  and  740 , each populated with sample data. The fields implemented are purely exemplary, and may be modified employing the core concepts and ideas disclosed herein. 
         [0045]      FIG. 8  illustrates an example of a system  800  for communicating the processed information of  FIG. 5 . The system  800  includes an instigate communicator  810 , a patient identifier  820 , a subscriber authenticator  830 , and a record communicator  840 . The system  800  may be implemented in a centralized location, and be in communication with a variety of health care providers. The system  800  is explained via  FIG. 9 , as illustrated via method  900 . 
         [0046]    In operation  910 , the instigate communicator  810  receives an indication  801  to start communicating information to a subscriber (for example, a health care provider or other party explained above). Additionally, the system  800  receives information about the patient  802  as well. 
         [0047]    As illustrated in  FIG. 9 , the instigation may occur in alternate manners. In operation  910 , instruction from a subscriber may be communicated to system  800 . Alternatively, the system  800  may be configured to automatically communicate the update health care records to a predetermined list of authorized subscribers ( 902 ). 
         [0048]    The patient identifier  820  is configured to determine whether the patient  802  is exists or has records associated with the patient ( 920 ). If no, the method  900  proceeds to operation  950 . If yes, the method  900  proceeds to operation  930 . 
         [0049]    As shown in  FIG. 8 , the patient identifier  820  communicates the patient  802  to the patient data store  505 . Accordingly, the lookup table  700  may be referred to determine whether the patient  802  is associated with previously created health records. 
         [0050]    The subscriber authenticator  830  (which is explained in operations  930  and  931 ), determines whether the subscriber associated with the patient  802  request is authorized. If no, the method  900  proceeds to end  950 . If yes, the method  900  proceeds to operation  940 , where the record communicator  840  is configured to communicate the retrieved health record  803  associated with the patient  802  to the requesting, or configured to be communicated to, subscriber. 
         [0051]    Alternatively shown is operation  931 , which provides a secondary set of authentication. Each subscriber may be selectively authenticated for some services associated with health care provision, and not be authenticated for other. In operation  931 , a determination is made as to whether information being communicated to the subscriber is allowed, and if not, this information is not permitted and blocked from being sent. As such, the authorized services (for example, as shown in field  730 ), may be communicated. 
         [0052]    It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variation can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.