Systems and methods for intelligent radiology work allocation

Abstract

An example system to distribute a medical exam to an examiner includes a first interface to display a medical exam identifier associated with a medical exam stored in a patient record database and an examiner availability indicator to be displayed via the first interface. The examiner availability indicator is to be updated via a second interface. The example system includes an exam allocator to automatically allocate the medical exam to the examiner and an assignment tool to be displayed to a user via the first interface and to facilitate assignment of the allocated exam to the examiner. At least one of the exam allocator or the assignment tool is to be communicatively associated with the examiner availability indicator. Upon assignment of the medical exam to the examiner, the medical exam identifier is displayed in an examiner work queue via the first interface, the second interface, and a third interface.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001][Not Applicable]FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT[0002][Not Applicable]MICROFICHE / COPYRIGHT REFERENCE[0003][Not Applicable]BACKGROUND[0004]Healthcare environments, such as hospitals or clinics, include information systems, such as hospital information systems (HIS), radiology information systems (RIS), clinical information systems (CIS), and cardiovascular information systems (CVIS), and storage systems, such as picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), library information systems (LIS), and electronic medical records (EMR). Information stored may include patient medication orders, medical histories, imaging data, test results, diagnosis information, management information, and / or scheduling information, for example.[0005]Medical exam results stored in, for example, the radiology information system, require review by an examining radiologist. Distribution of the exams for review by the radiologist involves consideration of various factor...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]Certain examples provide a machine readable storage device or storage disc storing instruction thereon, which, when read, cause a machine to at least retrieve a medical exam identifier associated with a medical exam stored in a patient record database. The example instructions cause the machine to at least process an examiner availability indicator. The examiner availability indicator is updated via a first interface. The example instructions cause the machine to at least display the medical exam identifier and the examiner availability indicator via a second interface. The example instructions also cause the machine to at least allocate the medical exam to the examiner. The example instructions cause the machine to at least facilitate assignment of the allocated medical exam to the examiner via the second interface. At least one of the allocation or the assignment is based on the examiner availability indicator. The example instructions also cause the machine to at least display the medical exam identifier in an examiner work queue upon assignment via the first interface, the second interface, and a third interface. The third interface to be viewed by a second examiner.

Problems solved by technology

Efforts to balance radiologist workloads and availability with exams requiring review and institutional work flow goals are time-consuming, inefficient, and result in inequities in distribution of the medical exams for review.

Further, radiologists lack efficient tools for managing workflows in view of radiologist availability, specialty, and / or the workloads and availability of other radiologists within a network.

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