Dynamic Regrouping and Presentation of Electronic Patient Records

Abstract

A computerized system manages health documents in a computer database. Each document in the database is associated with an author, which is in turn associated with group. When documents for a patient are listed for a user, the computerized system uses the user's own group assignment within the database to organize and present the patient documents. Rules associated with the user's group create ad hoc categories of documents that are of special interest to the user.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computerized method comprising:
 a) at a computerized server, receiving a list of identified patients for a timeframe, the list of the identified patients including a particular patient;   b) at the computerized server and before the timeframe, requesting medical data for the identified patients from a plurality of medical records source computers;   c) at the computerized server, receiving the medical data for the identified patients from the plurality of medical records source computers,   d) at the computerized server and before the timeframe, storing the received medical data in a database;   e) at the computerized server and within the timeframe, receiving a medical data a request for the particular patient;   f) at the computerized server, identifying, as identified data, the medical data stored in the database for the particular patient including data that had been received from the plurality of medical records source computers; and   g) at the computerized server, presenting, through a user interface, content from the identified data.   
     
     
         2 . The computerized method of  claim 1 , further comprising grouping the identified data into a plurality of sub-categories based on rules, and presenting the content by dividing the content into the plurality of sub-categories. 
     
     
         3 . The computerized method of  claim 2 , wherein the request is associated with a particular provider, and further wherein the rules vary based on an identify of the particular provider. 
     
     
         4 . The computerized method of  claim 1 , wherein the received medical data is translated into a common format before the received medical data is stored in the database. 
     
     
         5 . The computerized method of  claim 1 , wherein the computerized server comprises a plurality of physical computer systems. 
     
     
         6 . A computerized method for providing an improved user interface comprising:
 a) at a computerized server, accessing a database comprising:
 i) user records, 
 ii) data records associated with the user records, and 
 iii) group records associated with the user records; 
   b) at the computerized server, in response to receiving a data request from a viewing user:
 i) identifying desired data records responsive to the data request, 
 ii) identifying one of the user records as a viewing user record for the viewing user, 
 iii) identifying one of the group records as a viewing group record for the viewing user record, and 
 iv) identifying a set of user records associated with the viewing group record; 
   c) at the computerized server, identifying a first subset of the desired data records associated with the viewing user record;   d) at the computerized server, identifying a second subset of the desired data records that are not in the first subset and are associated with at least one of the set of user records;   e) at the computerized server, identifying a rule having requirements that is associated with the viewing user record and applying the rule to identify a third subset of the desired data records that meet the requirements of the rule and are not in either of the first and second subsets; and   f) at the computerized server, presenting over a graphical user interface a list of the desired data records divided into at least:
 i) a first category listing the first subset of the desired data records, 
 ii) a second category listing the second subset of the desired data records, and 
 iii) a third category listing the third subset of the desired data records. 
   
     
     
         7 . The computerized method of  claim 6 , wherein the rule is applicable to all user records in the set of user records. 
     
     
         8 . The computerized method of  claim 6 , wherein the rule applies only to the viewing user 
     
     
         9 . The computerized method of  claim 6 , wherein the database further comprises user type records, wherein each user record is associated with a single user type record, and further wherein the viewing user record is associated with a viewing type record. 
     
     
         10 . The computerized method of  claim 9 , wherein the rule applies only to the user records associated with both the viewing type record and the viewing group record. 
     
     
         11 . The computerized method of  claim 6 , further comprising a step of providing through the graphical user interface a mechanism to separately show and hide the first category, the second category, and the third category. 
     
     
         12 . The computerized method of  claim 6 , wherein the data records are medical data records, the user records identify medical health care providers, and the desired data records comprise the medical data records for a patient. 
     
     
         13 . The computerized method of  claim 12 , further comprising presenting, over the graphical user interface, summary information derived from services described in the desired data records. 
     
     
         14 . The computerized method of  claim 13 , wherein the summary information indicates when the patient was last seen by a viewing medical health care provider identified by the viewing user record, and further indicates when the patient was last seen by any medical health care provider identified by the set of user records. 
     
     
         15 . The computerized method of  claim 14 , wherein the medical data records describe data relating to medical orders, diagnostic studies and lab reports, and prescriptions. 
     
     
         16 . The computerized method of  claim 6 , wherein the graphical user interface includes an element to select a new point-of-view group that changes the viewing group record associated with the viewing user record.