Patent ID: 8612259

Claim:
A method operable on a computer for managing distributed medical data, comprising the steps of: receiving, by a computer, a first metadata file containing attributes relating to a first remotely stored patient medical file, the first metadata file including attributes relating to the contents of the first patient medical file and a location of the first patient medical file in a first medical information system, the first metadata file being generated by a first agent associated with the location of the first patient medical file in the first medical information system; extracting the attributes from the first metadata file; processing selected attributes extracted from the first metadata file to standardize the attributes for content, the standardized attributes representing data having the same meaning across different medical information systems each medical information system having respective agents that generate metadata files for locally stored patient medical files; storing the selected standardized attributes in a database entry in a database relating to patients; receiving, by the computer, a second metadata file containing attributes relating to a second remotely stored patient medical file, the second metadata file including attributes relating to the contents of the second patient medical file and a location of the second patient medical file in a second medical information system, the second metadata file being generated by a second agent associated with the location of the second patient medical file in the second medical information system; extracting the attributes from the second metadata file; and comparing, by the computer, the attributes from the second metadata file to the attributes stored in the database entry to determine if the second metadata file matches the database entry.