System and method for transferring data with electronic messages

Abstract

The invention relates to sharing patient care information through electronic messaging. Systems for managing electronic health records may comprise extensive patient information, e.g., names, addresses, insurance coverage and/or other financial arrangements, health conditions, allergies, procedures undergone, and/or tests performed. The invention involves transfer of such information between users. Embodiments of the invention may pass such information by adding to electronic messages pointers that uniquely refer to one or more patient records. Some embodiments may thereby send health information electronically while preserving metadata and/or other meaning associated with the data.

1 . A method for duplicating data associated with semantic data, comprising:
 receiving an electronic message that comprises at least one reference that uniquely specifies a set of data, wherein the set of data comprises one or more original data items that are associated with semantic data;   presenting the electronic message to a recipient at a first computer system;   in response to input to the first computer system, presenting at the first computer system some or all of the data comprised by the set of data; and   in response to further input to the first computer system, creating a persistent copy of some or all of the data comprised by the set of data;   wherein creating a persistent copy comprises creating a persistent copy of at least one of the one or more original data items that are associated with semantic data, such that each copy of a data item is associated with the same semantic data that the corresponding original data item is associated with.