Patent ID: 7756724

Claim:
A method of providing worklist information in substantially real-time to users of a medical data management system, the method comprising: a) receiving a plurality of requests at a network server for patient studies to be performed, b) receiving at said network server, information associated with each requested patient study to be performed, the patient study information including at least: a patient ID, a referring physician, a start time and start date of a patient study to be performed, and a procedure type; c) storing the associated patient study information for each requested patient study in a data store coupled to the network server as a worklist item record; d) preparing by a patient procedure worklist module, a plurality of worklist items wherein each worklist item corresponds to one of the requested patient studies requested at said network server, wherein each of the prepared plurality of worklist items includes a set of data items comprising: (1) the associated patient study information received at said step (b), and (2) a workflow status indicator, and optionally (3) pointers to medical image data in an image store; wherein a plurality of workflow status indicators indicate the status of a worklist item included in a patient study worklist for a patient related activity to be performed or that has been performed on behalf of the patient, wherein said status indicators comprise indicia including at least one of: patient study ordered, patient study scheduled, patient study arrived, patient study cancelled, patient study imaged, patient study verified and patient study completed; and wherein the associated patient study information is selected for display on subscribing client computers based on a customizable set of display attributes; e) assembling by the patient procedure worklist module, at least two real-time worklists from the plurality of worklist items by employing a customizable set of scoping rules which include criteria to determine which worklist items are included in the at least two real-time worklists and to provide substantial overlapping information between worklists; f) providing the at least two real-time worklists to respective subscribing clients for display on subscribing client computers in substantially real-time, by pushing from a web-based real-time worklist service module at the network server, the at least two real-time worklists, in accordance with the HTTP(S) protocol, for display on said subscribing client computers, g) updating the at least two real-time worklists as events occur which change the state of at least one worklist item included within said at least two real-time worklists; and h) pushing the updated at least two real-time worklists, via the HTTP(S) protocol, to the subscribing clients for display on the subscribing client computers, in substantially real-time, in response to said change of state of at least one worklist item.