Patient-centric healthcare information maintenance

Abstract

A system for facilitating patient centric healthcare information maintenance. For example, a health management software system may be operated to receive, organize, and use patient medical information. The health management software may comprise a database for storing, retrieving, organizing, displaying, and, generally, for managing a patient's health. In one exemplary embodiment, the health management software system is used in conjunction with a healthcare maintenance device, such as a blood glucose monitoring system. The blood glucose monitoring system may contain several database objects in the form of data records. Typically in a portable blood glucose monitor, each data record contains a time and a concentration data element, or a time-amount point. Similarly, an insulin pump, which is another exemplary embodiment of a healthcare maintenance device, may maintain data records with time and dosage information, or a time-dosage point.

1 . A machine readable medium having machine-executable instructions for integrating analytical medical data from a first memory of a medical device to a second memory of a computing device, the machine-executable instructions comprising:
 a plurality of transfer instructions to facilitate transfer to the second memory of analytical medical data and medical device identification data from a plurality of medical records stored in the first memory; and   a plurality of association instructions to associate the analytical medical data of each medical record with at least one of a plurality of patient databases stored in the second memory by comparing the medical device identification data of each medical record to an identification index which indicates the medical device identification data assigned to each of the plurality of patient databases.   
     
     
         2 . The machine readable medium of  claim 1 , further including a plurality of interface instructions configured to generate on a display of the computing device a representation of the analytical medical data of each medical record. 
     
     
         3 . The machine readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein the plurality of interface instructions is further configured to display an options guide page on the display, the options guide page including at least one of a first input field for defining a date range of analytical medical data to be transferred and a second input field for defining how analytical medical data will be integrated with an associated patient database. 
     
     
         4 . The machine readable medium of  claim 3 , wherein the second input field includes at least one of an option for merging the analytical medical data with existing analytical medical data in the associated patient database and an option for replacing the existing analytical medical data in the associated patient database. 
     
     
         5 . The machine readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein the plurality of interface instructions is further configured to display a first user selectable option and a second user selectable option on the display, activation of the first user selectable option causing assignment of the analytical medical data of each medical record to the associated patient database, activation of the second user selectable option causing display of a first additional selectable option and a second additional selectable option, activation of the first additional selectable option permitting selection of the transferred analytical medical data of each medical record for deletion, and activation of the second additional selectable option permitting selection of the analytical medical data of each medical record for association with a different patient database. 
     
     
         6 . The machine readable medium of  claim 5 , wherein the plurality of interface instructions is further configured to tag each of the transferred analytical medical data of each medical record as a new entry, and to remove the new entry tag from the analytical medical data upon one of activation of the first user selectable option, deletion of the analytical medical data, and association of the analytical medical data with a different patient database. 
     
     
         7 . The machine readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the analytical medical data is encrypted in a first format and the plurality of transfer instructions is further configured to decrypt the analytical medical data during transfer from the first memory to the second memory. 
     
     
         8 . The machine readable medium of  claim 7 , wherein the plurality of transfer instructions is further configured to encrypt the decrypted analytical medical data in a second format when the analytical medical data is associated with a patient database of the second memory. 
     
     
         9 . The machine readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of association instructions is further capable of determining if the analytical medical data of each medical record is one of unique analytical medical data, duplicate analytical medical data, and potentially duplicate analytical medical data in comparison to the analytical medical data within the associated patient database. 
     
     
         10 . The machine readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the plurality of association instructions determines if analytical medical data is one of unique analytical medical data, duplicate analytical medical data, and potentially duplicate analytical medical data by comparing a plurality of data fields within the analytical medical data of each medical record to a plurality of data fields within the analytical medical data within the associated patient database. 
     
     
         11 . The machine readable medium of  claim 10 , wherein the plurality of data fields within the analytical medical data of each medical record includes at least one item of data from the group consisting of a first name, a middle name, a last name, a suffix, a date of birth, and a unique medical system identification code. 
     
     
         12 . The machine readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the plurality of interface instructions is further configured to display a plurality of user selectable options when analytical medical data is determined to be one of duplicate analytical medical data and potentially duplicate analytical medical data, the plurality of user selectable options including at least one of an option for of skipping the analytical medical data, an option for associating the analytical medical data with a new database, an option for deleting the analytical medical data, an option for associating the analytical patient data with a different patient database, and an option for leaving the analytical medical data in the first memory. 
     
     
         13 . A machine readable medium having machine-executable instructions for facilitating the deletion of analytical medical data from a memory of a computing device, the machine-executable instructions comprising:
 instructions for displaying a selection indicator for facilitating user selection of the analytical medical data of each of a plurality of medical records on a display of the computing device;   instructions for displaying a first deletion option on the display, activation of the first deletion option tagging analytical medical data selected by the user via the selection indicator as deleted and assigning an identification code to the tagged analytical medical data indicating a first user who activated the first deletion option;   instructions for allowing a second user having a different identification code than the first user to review the analytical medical data tagged as deleted; and   instructions for displaying a plurality of option icons to the second user reviewing the analytical medical data tagged as deleted, including a delete from database option icon, an associate with a different patient database option icon, an assign to a new database option icon, and a reassign to the associated patient database option icon.   
     
     
         14 . The machine readable medium of  claim 13 , further including a plurality of instructions to transfer analytical medical data tagged as deleted by the first user to a to-be-reviewed database. 
     
     
         15 . The machine readable medium of  claim 13 , further including a plurality of instructions to facilitate transfer of the analytical medical data and medical device identification data from a plurality of medical records stored in a first memory on a medical device to a second memory on the computing device, the plurality of instructions further configured to associate the analytical medical data of each medical record with a patient database of the second memory by comparing the medical device identification data of each medical record to an identification index which indicates the medical device identification data assigned to each of the patient databases. 
     
     
         16 . The machine readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the medical device identification data of each medical record comprises one of a user generated identification key, a serial number of the medical device, and a unique identification code assigned to a patient. 
     
     
         17 . The machine readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the plurality of instructions to facilitate transfer is further configured to display a user transfer selectable option on the display of the computing device, the user transfer selectable option providing a first option and a second option, activation of the first option causing deletion of the analytical medical data of the medical record from the first memory after transferring the analytical medical data for the medical record to the second memory, activation of the second option causing retention of the analytical medical data of the medical record in the first memory after transferring a copy of the analytical medical data of the medical record to the second database. 
     
     
         18 . A method of deleting analytical medical data downloaded from a first memory of a medical device to a second memory of a computing device, the method comprising the steps of:
 displaying a selection indicator for the analytical medical data of each of a plurality of medical records in the second database on a display of the computing device, the step of displaying performed by using a processor of the computing device to execute a plurality of computer readable instructions stored in the second memory;   selecting a selection indicator for the analytical medical data of at least one of the plurality of medical records;   displaying a first deletion option on the display, activation of the first deletion option tagging the analytical medical data, selected in the step of selecting, as deleted and further assigning an identification code to the tagged analytical medical data indicating a first user who activated the first deletion option, the step of displaying performed by executing the plurality of computer readable instructions with the processor;   displaying the analytical medical data, tagged as deleted, to a second user having a different identification code than the first user; and   displaying a plurality of selection indicators to the second user, the plurality of selection indicators including a plurality of selection indicators selected from a first selection indicator for deletion of the analytical medical data tagged as deleted from the second database, a second selection indicator for associating the analytical medical data tagged as deleted with a different patient database, a third selection indicator for assigning the analytical medical data tagged as deleted to a new database, and a fourth selection indicator for reassigning the analytical medical data tagged as deleted to the associated patient database.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further including the step of transferring the analytical medical data tagged as deleted by the first user to a to-be-reviewed database. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the medical device is adapted to generate the analytical medical data of each medical record from a patient sample.