Invented by Michael A. Ash, Will Van Norel, Thomas C. Gifford, Meagan Jacoby, Cerner Innovation Inc
The Cerner Innovation Inc invention works as follows
Methods and systems are provided to determine and generate content items, such as patient information or content from a third party content provider, that is relevant to the information associated with a healthcare application. Content items are displayed in an independent display space to the user interface of the healthcare application and they dynamically update and change in response changes made in the displayed information. The content items can also be acted upon by healthcare providers, allowing them to respond to alerts, view supporting documents, or take action.
Background for Dynamic Presentation of Actionable Content Items
A healthcare professional working in a patient health application on a computer device will often want to access additional content to help them better understand the information presented by the application. The provider might, for example, want to view a differential diagnoses list that is associated with a particular set of symptoms. In order to solve this problem, providers have traditionally had to select the patient’s symptoms from the application. The provider may be taken to a different application by selecting the symptoms. For example, the differential diagnosis list. To return to the healthcare application for patients, the provider must close this application. This navigation process interrupts the provider’s flow of thought, and requires that the provider refocus before proceeding.
The presentation of alerts and action items is another problem with most patient healthcare applications. Alerts such as those regarding drug interactions or medication refills are usually presented in pop-ups within the healthcare application. The provider must take action to dismiss these pop-ups. Pop-ups that alert providers to potential issues or actions items can also interrupt the provider’s flow of thought, and require the provider refocus their attention back on the application after the pop-up has been addressed and dismissed.
This Summary is intended to present a number of concepts that will be further explained in the detailed description. This summary is not meant to identify the key features or essential elements of the subject matter claimed, nor to serve as a guide to determine the scope of that subject matter. The claims define the present invention.
This disclosure, in a nutshell, describes methods, systems and computer-readable mediums for dynamically determining, presenting and enhancing information related to an open healthcare application. Content items can be presented in an unobtrusive way, like in a sidebar displayed in conjunction with the user interface of an application. Content items dynamically adapt and update to reflect changes in information displayed by the healthcare app. Content items can include alerts and patient-entered data, as well as content from content providers. The sidebar of an application that contains dynamic, actionable content allows the provider to act on content items as they see fit. This is in contrast to traditional alerts that are presented as pop-ups, or having to close and open other applications to get the information needed. Both of these can disrupt the provider’s flow of thought and hamper patient care.
The subject of the present invention has been described herein with sufficient specificity to satisfy statutory requirements.” The description is not meant to limit the scope. The inventors, however, have considered that the claimed subject may also be embodied differently, including different steps or combination of steps similar to those described in this document in conjunction with present or future technology. The terms “block” and/or “step” are not used in the claims. and/or ?block? “While the terms “block” and/or “block” may be used to denote different elements in the methods described here, they should not be understood as implying a particular order between or among the various steps disclosed herein unless the order is explicitly stated.
Embodiments” of the present invention relate to methods, systems and computer-readable mediums for determining, and presenting, actionable content that is contextually relevant to information about patients associated with a health application. Content items are generated from monitoring information related to the healthcare app, such as what information is being displayed at the moment by the application. Content providers are contacted to retrieve content related to monitored information. The information associated with the patient’s EMR is also accessed in order to identify any patient information that may be related to either the monitored information or the content retrieved by the content providers. “The patient information retrieved from EMR, and the content retrieved by the content providers is presented in a nondisruptive way as actionable items.
The content items can include alerts, patient inputted information, action items, or content from content providers, such as differential diagnose lists, decision support schemas, clinical tools, etc. The content items can be acted upon, as mentioned. Content items can be manipulated to initiate clinical orders, order sets, or add information into the patient’s EMR. They can also address alerts and more. Interaction with a particular content item may also affect the information presented by a healthcare application. Conversely, interactions with the application’s information can alter the content items. A provider, for example, can import a whole content item or parts of it, such as the patient’s review of systems, into a summary in the healthcare app. A provider could, for example, highlight or tag certain information within the healthcare application. This would then trigger the display of a content item that can be acted upon in the sidebar. The actionable item allows the provider to take an action in relation to the tagged data. The interaction between content items and information displayed in the healthcare application allows the provider to improve care for his or her patient. The content items also dynamically adapt and update to the new information displayed by the Healthcare Application and/or user actions.
Below is a description of an exemplary computing environment that can be used to implement embodiments in the present invention. FIG. FIG. 1 shows an example computing environment (e.g. medical-information computing system environment) in which embodiments of this invention can be implemented. The computing environment 100 is shown and designated in general as reference number 100. The computing environment 100 is only an example of a suitable computing environment, and does not suggest that the scope of functionality or use of the invention is limited. The computing environment 100 should not be interpreted to have any dependence or requirement on any component or combination thereof.
The present invention may be used with a variety of other computing systems, environments, or configurations. “The present invention may be used with a variety of other computing system environments or configurations.” Examples include: personal computers, servers computers, handheld devices or laptops, multiprocessors, microprocessors-based systems and set-top box, programmable consumer electronic devices, network PCs and minicomputers, mainframes computers, and distributed computing environments including any of the systems or devices mentioned above.
The present invention could be described as computer-executable instruction modules that are executed by a machine. Examples of program modules include routines, objects, components and data structures which perform specific tasks or implement certain abstract data types. The present invention can be used in distributed computing environments, where tasks are performed remotely by processing devices linked via a communications network. In a distributed computing system, program modules may be associated with local or remote computer storage media, such as memory storage devices.
Referring to FIG. The computing environment 100 consists of a computer device, in the form a control server. The control server 102 can be composed of a processor unit, an internal system memory and a system bus that is suitable for connecting various system components including the data store 104 to the control server. The system bus could be any one of several bus structures including a memory controller or bus, a peripheral, or a local, using any number of bus architectures. Architectures that are exemplary include the Industry Standard Architecture bus (ISA), Micro Channel Architecture bus (MCA), Enhanced ISA bus (EISA), Video Electronic Standards Association local bus (VESA), and Peripheral component interconnect (PCI), also known as mezzanine bus.
The control servers 102 usually include, or have access to, various non-transitory, computer-readable media. Computer-readable media include removable and non-removable media as well as volatile and nonvolatile. Computer-readable media can include, but are not limited to, computer storage media, communication media, etc. Computer storage media include volatile and nonvolatile mediums and removable and unremovable media that can be implemented in any technology or method for storing information, such as computer-readable instruction, data structures, programs modules, or data. Computer storage media include, but are not limited to: RAM, ROMs, EEPROMs, flash memory, optical disk storage (DVD), magnetic cassettes, magnetic taps, magnetic disks or other magnetic storage devices; or any other medium that can be used to save the desired data and can be accessed via control server 102. Communication media are typically computer-readable instructions or data structures or program modules in modulated data signals such as carrier waves or other transport mechanisms. This includes all information delivery media. The term “modulated data signals” is used. Signals that have had one or more characteristics changed or set in a way to encode data in them are called’modulated data signals. Communication media include wired media, such as wired networks or direct wired connections, as well as wireless media, such as infrared and RF. Computer-readable media should include combinations of all of the above.
The control servers 102 may operate within a computer network using logical connections with one or more remote computers. Remote computers 108 could be located in many different locations within a medical environment. These include clinical laboratories, hospitals, veterinary environments and ambulatory settings. They can also be found in medical billing and finance offices, hospital administration offices, home healthcare environments and clinicians’ office. Clinicians can include a treating doctor or doctors, specialists like surgeons, cardiologists, oncologists, and radiologists, emergency medical technicians, nurses, nurses’ aides, pharmacists, dieticians, microbiologists, laboratory experts, laboratory technologists, genetic counselors, researchers, veterinarians, students, and others. The remote computers could also be located in nontraditional environments for medical care so that all members of the healthcare community can be integrated on the network. The remote computers 108 could be personal computers or servers, network PCs or peer devices. They might also include some or all the elements described in relation to control server 102. These devices could be personal digital assistants, or similar devices.
Computer networks 106 include local area networks and/or wide-area networks. These networking environments are commonly found in offices, enterprise computer networks, intranets and the Internet. In a WAN network, the control servers 102 may include a modem, or some other communication device, like the Internet, to establish communications. In a network environment, modules of programs or portions thereof may be stored with the data store or remote computers. For example, different application programs could reside in the memory of any or all remote computers 108. The network connections shown in this example are only a sample and other methods of creating a communication link between computers (e.g. control server 102, and remote computers 108) could be used.
An organization could enter commands and data into the control servers 102, or send the commands and data to the control servers 102 through one or more remote computers 108 using input devices such as a keypad, a mic (e.g. voice inputs), touchscreen, a pointing tool (commonly called a mouse), trackball or touch pad. Satellite dishes, scanners and the like are also input devices. The control server 102 can also receive commands and information directly from remote healthcare devices. The control server 102 or remote computers 108 may also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers or a printer.
Although many other internal components are not shown in the figure, their existence and interconnection is well-known. As a result, no further details are disclosed in this document about the internal constructions of the control servers 102 and remote computers 108.
Turning to FIG. In FIG. 2, an example computing system environment is shown that can be used to implement embodiments of the invention. The computing environment 200 is only an example of a suitable computing environment, and it is not meant to limit the functionality or scope of use of embodiments. The computing system environment 200 should not be interpreted to have any dependency or requirement relating to any module/component, or combination thereof.
The computing system 200 comprises a content items services 210, data store 212 and a content provider, as well as an end-user computer device 216, all of which are in communication via a network 218, The network can include one or more local networks (LANs) and wide networks (WANs). These networks are very common and will not be described further here.
In some embodiments, one of more illustrated components/modules can be implemented as a stand-alone application. In other embodiments one or more illustrated components/modules can be integrated directly into operating system of content items service 210. The components/modules shown in FIG. The components/modules illustrated in FIG. Within the scope of the embodiments, any number of modules/components can be used to achieve desired functionality. Components/modules can be stored on any number servers. “As an example, the content items service may reside on a single server, a cluster, or a computer device that is remote from the other components.
The computing system 200 is only an example. Although the content item service 210 has been illustrated as a unit, the service is scalable. The content items service 210, for example, may include multiple computing devices that are in communication. The data store 212 or portions thereof may also be included in, for example, the content items services 210 as computer storage medium. The single-unit depictions are for clarity and not to limit any embodiments.
It should be noted that the examples given here are only intended to serve as an example. Other arrangements and components (e.g. machines, interfaces and functions, orders and groupings or functions) can be used. Other elements can be added or substituted for those shown. Some may even be removed. Many of the elements described in this document are functional entities which can be implemented in various ways, including as discrete components, distributed components, or modules in combination with other components/modules. Hardware, firmware and/or software may perform the functions described as being performed herein by one or multiple entities. “For example, a processor may carry out various functions by executing instructions in memory.
