Patent ID: 8838637

Claim:
A computer implemented method of performing at least one document consumer query comprising: a) providing a first processor and a memory operatively coupled thereto; b) receiving at least one query for at least one clinical document in a first language from at least one document consumer at the first processor, the document consumer having a second processor configured to provide the at least one query to the first processor in the first language; c) prior to translating the at least one query into a second language, determining whether differences between the first language and the second language prevent at least a portion of the at least one query from being translated into the second language; d) in response to determining that differences between the first language and the second language prevent at least a portion of the at least one query from being translated into the second language, conducting, using the first processor, a best effort transformation to obtain, based on the at least one query, a translated query in the second language, the best effort transformation comprising one or more translations to resolve differences between the first language and the second language, and when the query in the first language comprises a first patient identifier containing at least one wildcard, the best effort transformation further comprises: performing at least one of searching the memory for an existing patient identifier that is uniquely linked to the first patient identifier and truncating the at least one wildcard from the first patient identifier, such that a second patient identifier without any wildcards is obtained; querying a cross-referencing engine using the second patient identifier to determine whether there is a unique match between the second patient identifier and a third patient identifier in the cross-referencing engine, the cross-referencing engine being adapted to identify and link different patient identifiers associated with a same individual patient; and if a unique match is found, including the third patient identifier when translating the query into the second language; e) conducting the translated query in at least one database configured to receive queries in the second language by the first processor to obtain a first result; and f) providing the obtained first result to the document consumer.