Clinical Guidelines Engine

Abstract

A medical guideline integration engine is presented. The engine imports medical guideline information from disparate sources based on various guideline standards into a knowledge base. The knowledge base houses the information in a database. Upon request, the engine retrieves the information from the knowledge base and converts the information into a desired guideline format.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of integrating medical guidelines, comprising:
 providing access to a knowledge database configured to store a plurality of different sets of guideline standards;   providing access to a guideline integration engine communicatively coupled with the knowledge database;   importing, by the guideline integration engine, (i) a first guideline that uses a first set of standards and (ii) a second guideline that uses a second set of standards that is at least partially incompatible with the first set of standards at least with respect to decision variables;   mapping, by the guideline integration engine, each of the first and second guidelines into a common set of standards where the incompatible decision variables are mapped into integrated decision variables;   mapping, by the guideline integration engine, from the common set of standards, including the integrated decision variables, to an automatically recommended guideline standard from the plurality of other sets of guideline standards; and   presenting at a display device and automatically recommended guideline according to the recommended guideline standard.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) configured to capture a patient identifier and an encounter identifier. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising mapping, by the guideline integration engine, values and decision variables of each of the first and second guidelines into the integrated decision variables. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising evaluating the incompatible decision variables and recommending the guideline standard. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving data related to whether a practitioner has followed the first guideline when treating a patient. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising comparing an outcome of a first group of patients who received treatments that were deviated from the first guideline against outcome of a second group of patients who received treatments according to the first guideline. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that allows a user to define the first guideline or the second guideline.