Patent ID: 8306831

Claim:
A method for facilitating collaborative exchange of healthcare data using a computer network of processor-based Subscriber and Publisher participants, comprising: generating, in an electronic collaborative data sharing system, an electronic catalog of clinical data topics, wherein the clinical data topics are representative of participating Publishers' repositories of clinical data; presenting the electronic catalog of clinical data topics to participating Subscribers; receiving in the electronic collaborative data sharing system, a participating Subscriber's request for publication of a clinical data topic, wherein the Subscriber's request is selected from the electronic catalog of clinical data topics; determining, by the system, which of the participating Publishers store clinical data relevant to the selected data topic, in their respective clinical data repositories; forwarding the Subscriber request from the system to each of the Publishers determined by the system to store clinical data relevant to the selected clinical data topic; determining in the system whether respective Publishers approve the Subscriber request to publish their clinical data relevant to the selected clinical data topic to the Subscriber; establishing a Subscriber-specific authorized topic subscription for each Publisher approving the Subscriber request; and electronically forwarding from the system to the requesting Subscriber clinical data responsive to the Subscriber request from those participating Publishers that approve the publication of their clinical data relevant to the selected clinical data topic to the requesting Subscriber.