Patent ID: 7702526

Claim:
An episode classification system comprising: a. a multitude of diagnosis records, each of said diagnosis records including: i. diagnosis information; ii. time of said diagnosis information; and iii. patient information; b. a patient grouper for generating at least one patient group by grouping patient records having similar said patient information; c. a diagnosis grouper for generating at least one diagnosis group by grouping diagnosis records with similar said diagnosis information from said patient group; d. an episode analyzer including: i. a probability analyzer for performing probability calculations that are capable of generating a value that is proportional to a probability that shows whether at least two of said multitude of diagnosis records being used as input entries belong to a single episode, wherein said episode is a group of diagnoses on the same patient that describes the course of a given illness, and wherein a single probability calculation: a. operates on a pair of said diagnosis records; b. is a function of: i. a similarity value, said similarity value representing the similarity between said pair of said diagnosis records; and ii. a time between diagnosis value, said time between diagnosis value representing the time between said pair of said diagnosis records; and c. includes a probability numerator divided by a probability denominator, said probability numerator set to said similarity value times a first constant, and said probability denominator set to the quantity of a second constant times said time between diagnosis value plus one; ii. an episode grouper for grouping said diagnosis records determined to belong to said single episode; and iii. a severity analyzer for performing episode severity calculations, said episode severity calculations capable of generating an episode severity value.