Patent ID: 7539580

Claim:
A computer implemented method for analyzing clinical analysis data for detecting potentially artifactual results in analysis of samples from human patients, comprising: receiving chemical constituent data produced by a chemical analyzer during testing of a sample of a human substance taken from a patient, wherein the chemical constituent data represents chemical levels for a plurality of chemicals within the sample; accessing a plurality of expert rules which associate chemical ranges for a plurality of chemicals with a plurality of potential causes of artifactual results, wherein at least one of the potential causes corresponds with at least two chemical ranges; analyzing the chemical constituent data using the expert rules to identify misleading chemical constituent data, and to identify at least one corresponding potential cause indicating why the chemical constituent data is misleading; and if a misleading constituent data is determined based upon the analysis, indicating the presence of misleading data and the potential cause associated with misleading data, wherein the potential cause indicates an error in at least one of the collection, handling, storage, and testing of the sample.