Patent ID: 7523505

Claim:
A method operable on a computer for managing distributed medical data, comprising the steps of: identifying, by an agent computer, a patient medical file containing digital medical data relating to a patient; creating, by the agent computer, a metadata file containing attributes relating to the contents of the patient medical file and the location of the patient medical file; transmitting, by the agent computer, the metadata file to a central computer; the central computer determining if the metadata file matches any of a plurality of existing database entries in a database relating to patients, each of the existing database entries including attributes relating to a remotely located patient medical file including attributes relating to the contents of the remotely located patient medical file and attributes relating to the location of the remotely located patient medical file; and if the metadata file matches an existing database entry, the central computer storing data from the metadata file in the existing database entry; otherwise, the central computer creating a new database entry and storing data from the metadata file in the new database entry.