Interactive medical guidance method and system

Abstract

A navigable directed graph interface representing a medical guide, where the medical guide includes a decision tree that includes a plurality of clinical decisions and preconditions. A navigation interface presents a portion of a directed graph that is based on the recorded preconditions and / or the sequence of clinical decisions of the medical guide and a portion of the directed graph that diverges from the recorded preconditions and / or the sequence of clinical decisions. A divergent portion of the directed graph is graphically distinguished from the portion of the directed graph based on the recorded preconditions and / or clinical decisions. In response to receiving a selection of an alternative node from the divergent portion of the directed graph, a graphical representation of the directed graph displays one or more child nodes of the selected alternative node.

Description

Background Technology

[0001] Medical guidelines are generally documents designed to guide decision-making and standards regarding diagnosis, management, and treatment in specific areas of healthcare. They provide up-to-date data on prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, including drug dosages, risks / benefits, and cost-effectiveness for specific diseases. Guidelines can also identify available / decision-making / treatment options and their outcomes at specific stages of disease or treatment, and can identify different options / outcomes at each stage of disease / treatment. Based on a patient's current medical condition, clinicians can refer to guidelines to obtain different treatment options and possible outcomes, and can determine treatment options for the patient.

[0002] Given that medical guidelines identify numerous available decision / treatment options and their outcomes at different stages of disease / treatment, they are typically large documents with hundreds (if not thousands) of pages. For example, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN) Clinical Practice Guidelines for Breast Cancer Oncology have more than 200 pages. It can be challenging for clinicians to effectively navigate such large documents and identify, compare, and / or choose from different treatment options / outcomes for a given medical condition and patient. Summary of the Invention

[0003] This document discloses techniques for providing an interactive medical guideline engine. The interactive medical guideline engine includes a navigation interface to provide a graphical representation of the medical guideline to users such as healthcare providers (e.g., clinicians, clinician staff, etc.). The medical guideline may include a decision tree comprising a set of clinical decisions (such as treatment, diagnosis, etc.) and one or more preconditions guiding the clinical decisions within the decision tree. Some methods for implementing interactive medical guidelines are described in U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2022 / 0230763 A1, entitled “Method and System for Providing Interactive Medical Guideline,” the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0004] In some embodiments, a patient's medical records, including previous medical decisions and / or preconditions from the patient's records, are mapped to nodes in an interactive medical guide. The interactive guide may initially include a display of the patient-mapped nodes and alternative branches relative to those nodes. Selecting an alternative branch node (e.g., by hovering the pointer over the node) expands the guide from the selected node, thus displaying and distinguishing the expanded alternative path of the guide from the patient's currently recorded path. In some embodiments, deselecting an alternative node (e.g., by stopping hovering over the node) collapses the expanded alternative path.

[0005] In some embodiments, data from electronic medical records can be dynamically accessed, parsed / identified, and extracted to correlate the data with nodes and paths within the guideline. Parsing and extraction can be achieved through scanning the records (e.g., using optical character recognition) and natural language processing (NLP), after which the processed data is correlated with the patient's clinical decisions, tests, diagnoses, and prerequisites, as well as their relationships to each other, according to the guideline. In some embodiments, machine learning models are developed to process medical records and correlate data with elements of the guideline.

[0006] In some embodiments, when the corresponding medical guidelines and patient records are opened for display in the interface, the sequence of mapped or selected nodes and alternative nodes can be associated with / stored together with the patient's medical records and displayed / distinguished accordingly as the primary selected nodes and alternative nodes. The sequence of clinical decisions selected / added for the patient can be presented as part of the patient's treatment history.

[0007] The navigation interface can provide different graphical representations of medical guidelines in various operating modes, such as tree mode and step mode. To provide an interactive experience, the navigation interface can also offer different ways to navigate within the medical guide and select clinical decisions in different operating modes. The interactive medical guide engine can also allow users to store sequences of clinical decisions selected for patients and add custom treatment / diagnostic test procedures that are not part of the medical guide to these sequences.

[0008] These and other embodiments of the invention are described in detail below. For example, other embodiments relate to systems, apparatuses, and computer-readable media associated with the methods described herein.

[0009] The nature and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention can be better understood by referring to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings. Attached Figure Description

[0010] Detailed explanation is provided with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0011] Figure 1A illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface of an interactive guide that displays a sequence of selected nodes and alternative nodes according to some embodiments.

[0012] Figure 1B shows an exemplary graphical user interface in response to the selection of an alternative node in Figure 1A.

[0013] Figure 2 illustrates a system for providing interactive medical guidelines according to some embodiments.

[0014] Figure 3 illustrates the medical guideline data structure according to some embodiments.

[0015] Figure 4A illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface of an interactive guide operating in step mode according to some embodiments.

[0016] Figure 4B illustrates the graphical user interface of Figure 4A according to some embodiments for displaying alternative guide nodes.

[0017] Figure 5A illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface for selecting an interactive guide according to some embodiments.

[0018] Figure 5B illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface for an interactive guide selected from the interface of Figure 5A, according to some embodiments.

[0019] Figure 5C shows an exemplary graphical user interface of Figure 5B representing a selected sequence of nodes according to some embodiments.

[0020] Figures 6A and 6B illustrate exemplary graphical user interfaces for creating custom nodes for interactive guides according to some embodiments.

[0021] Figure 7 is an exemplary flowchart of a graphical user interface with interactive guides, according to some embodiments.

[0022] Figure 8 illustrates an exemplary computer system that can be used to implement the techniques disclosed herein. Detailed Implementation

[0023] This article discloses techniques for providing an interactive medical guide engine that can address at least some of the problems mentioned above.

[0024] Figure 1A, as disclosed, illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface of an interactive guide 100 displaying a sequence of selected nodes and alternative nodes according to some embodiments. Figure 1B illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface in response to the selection of alternative nodes in Figure 1A. Medical guidelines typically represent a decision tree with multiple nodes (e.g., representing clinical decisions and prerequisites) connected by edges representing dependencies among the nodes (e.g., recommended clinical decisions leading from earlier clinical decisions / prerequisites). Node 110A represents a patient's diagnosis (e.g., a specific type of cancer), and node 110B represents recommended and selected diagnostic steps for the patient based on the diagnosis. Node 110C represents a further diagnosis for the patient (e.g., performance / functional status). Node 110D represents a further diagnosis (e.g., the level of cancer spread / metastasis) that may be based on the results of the diagnostic steps taken at node 110B (e.g., a PET / CT scan). Based on the patient’s medical records, and / or otherwise selected / identified by the operator of the interface, node 110E represents the anatomical location of a disease (e.g., brain cancer), and node 110F represents a treatment recommended based on one or more guidelines.

[0025] Nodes 110A, 110B, and 110C can be selected by an operator via an interactive interface and / or can be dynamically selected based on the patient's existing medical records, as further described below. User interface 100 is programmed to detect user input from selection pointer 125 corresponding to alternative node 120A. In response to hovering pointer 125 over node 120A, a pop-up display at 930 in Figure 1B expands the alternative node within the guide, radiating from the selected or recorded node sequence. In some embodiments, deselecting or stopping the hover can remove the display of one or more additional child nodes from the interface (e.g., by collapsing).

[0026] Nodes 120A, 120B, and 120C represent alternative branches of the guide from those selected / identified as representing patient history. In some embodiments, the direct child alternative nodes of the selected node are initially displayed. Alternative nodes may be rendered separately and visually distinguished / contrasted (e.g., grayed out) from other nodes in different areas of the display frame. Alternative node 120A may represent a different diagnosis from node 110D, which is identified as part of the patient history. For example, an alternative diagnosis may represent advanced or metastatic cancer, rather than a localized level cancer as represented by node 110D. Selecting alternative node 130 (e.g., by hovering the pointer over the node) expands the corresponding portion of the guide at 130 and makes it visible to the operator. The expanded portion of the guide may be presented in a separate window, such as shown in Figure 1B, or otherwise highlighted / distinguished relative to those currently selected / identified portions with patient history.

[0027] According to various embodiments as further described herein, nodes in the pop-up display 130 can be displayed, selected, modified, and / or recorded. In some embodiments, input is received that associates the selection of an alternative node with and includes it together with the patient's medical records. Notes / annotations from the user can be recorded with reference to the selected alternative node.

[0028] In some embodiments, the interactive medical guide is not initially used to display alternative nodes. In response to receiving specific input (e.g., hovering the cursor over an already selected node), alternative nodes that were not previously selected and shown are displayed and visually differentiated. In response to further input (e.g., stopping the hover), the branches of the alternative nodes are collapsed and / or may be selected / stored as part of the patient's medical record.

[0029] Figure 2 illustrates a system for providing interactive medical guidelines according to some embodiments. System 200 includes an interactive medical guide engine 202, a guide database 224, and a medical record database 204 connected via a network 220 (e.g., the Internet or a LAN). Database 224 stores data representing multiple directed graphs 206 (hereinafter referred to as "directed graphs 206") of medical guidelines that can be generated from multiple medical guide files. The directed graphs may be associated with different publication sources (e.g., NCCN), diseases (e.g., breast cancer, lung cancer, etc.), and versions. Database 204 includes patients' medical records, including those relating to their condition and treatment in relation to the guidelines within database 224. The interactive medical guide engine 202 may include software instructions that can be executed by one or more hardware processors to perform the various functions described herein.

[0030] The interactive medical guide engine 202 can utilize the navigation module 210 to generate a navigation interface to provide a graphical representation of the directed graph 206, such as that shown and described relative to Figures 1A and 1B. The navigation module 210 can provide different forms of graphical representation of the directed graph 206 under different operating modes, such as tree mode and step mode (e.g., as shown in Figures 4A and 4B). The navigation module 210 is configured to allow users to navigate within the medical guide to select / compile a set of clinical decisions.

[0031] A medical guide engine 202 is programmed and configured to access a patient medical record database 204, including the patient's electronic medical record 226. In some embodiments, a guide mapping engine 150 dynamically maps the patient's medical record 226, received (and / or transcribed) through the patient medical history module 212, to selected nodes of guides from database 204, such as nodes 110A, 110B, and 110C as shown in Figure 1A. This process can be implemented by scanning the records (e.g., using optical character recognition) and using a natural language processor (NLP), after which the processed data is correlated with the patient's clinical decisions, tests, diagnoses, and prerequisites, and the relationships between them, according to the sequence of guides. For example, methods for parsing and constructing unstructured medical records are described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2022 / 0301670 A1, entitled "Automated Information Extraction and Enrichment in Pathology Report using Natural Language Processing," the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. In some embodiments, machine learning models are developed to process medical records and correlate the data with elements of guidelines.

[0032] The interactive medical guide engine is configured to record the sequence (or path) of nodes selected in the decision tree of the medical guide. The selected historical nodes and alternative nodes (paths) can be part of the patient's medical record and are integrated with the patient record in the database 224 using the data export module 214. Therefore, the recorded sequence can be stored in a file that forms part of the patient's medical record (e.g., the patient's report, meeting presentation, etc.).

[0033] In addition to the tree mode shown in Figures 1A and 1B, the navigation interface can also operate in the step mode shown in Figures 4A and 4B. In step mode, the navigation interface can display the contents of the currently selected node in the directed graph (e.g., clinical decision, prerequisites, etc.) and the contents of all direct child nodes of the currently selected node. In step mode, nodes can be represented as boxes, and edges between nodes are not displayed. Direct child nodes can represent, for example, all possible options for the next clinical decision, all possible treatment responses / diagnoses, etc. Step mode allows the user to traverse the directed graph one node at a time. Similar to the tree mode, the interactive medical guide engine can also track and record the sequence of node selections made by the user in step mode. In some embodiments, the interactive medical guide engine can cause the navigation interface to display alternative child nodes in response to a further selection of an already selected parent node (e.g., by hovering the pointer over the node).

[0034] Furthermore, the interactive medical guide engine can detect updates to the medical guide (e.g., from an online source of the guide) via the reset module 216 and can provide notifications to the user via a navigation interface. Notifications may prompt the user, for example, to remove a node sequence selected from an older medical guide for a patient, or to navigate to a new medical guide to create a new node sequence for the patient, to ensure that clinicians make clinical decisions based on the updated medical guide. In some embodiments, in response to an update, a node sequence is dynamically selected from the updated guide based on patient records with or without user input.

[0035] Using the disclosed embodiments, the navigation interface allows users to access different sections of a medical guide based on simple selection commands (e.g., click, zoom in, zoom out, drag, etc.), and provides a graphical representation of a directed graph including at least a portion of nodes mapped to the selected area, wherein at least a portion of the preconditions or clinical decisions represented by the nodes is visually represented by the nodes (e.g., text / graphics). This can greatly simplify user access to the medical guide. By tracking and displaying the sequence of user selections of nodes in the decision tree of the medical guide, users (e.g., clinicians) can track the medical journey of different patients based on the medical guide, allowing clinicians to consult relevant sections of the medical guide for different patients to determine their treatment.

[0036] Compared to the situation where clinicians must navigate through numerous guideline documents to search for relevant sections of medical guidelines for different patients, as well as alternative diagnoses and treatments, and separately record the guideline steps taken by patients and their alternatives, the disclosed embodiments provide a unified interface for navigating and searching medical guidelines and recording the steps selected for different patients. All of this improves the ease with which patients can access relevant medical treatment information from medical guidelines, which in turn can improve the quality of medical treatment provided to these patients.

[0037] Figure 3 illustrates a medical guideline data structure according to some embodiments. Instances of the structure may initially be obtained from, for example, a guideline database 224. Root node 305 represents a patient-specific prerequisite. Node 320 represents a diagnostic test recommended for the patient based on the prerequisite represented by node 305. Node 322 represents a custom clinical decision node inserted into the medical guideline for the patient (e.g., distinct from the original guideline structure). Edge 310 represents a path identified / selected for a specific patient, while edge 315 represents an alternative path within the guideline.

[0038] Node 340 represents the tumor characteristics attributed to the patient based on the tumor type extracted from the anatomy (during the treatment represented by node 330). Nodes 340A and 340B represent alternative tumor characteristics of the removed tumor slices. Node 350 represents the treatment steps recommended and selected for the patient based on the tumor attributes represented by node 340. Nodes 350A and 350B represent alternative treatment nodes that distinguish the selected treatment from the alternative tumor characteristics associated with node 350, respectively.

[0039] Figure 4A illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface of an interactive guide operating in step mode according to some embodiments. Figure 4B illustrates the operation of the graphical user interface of Figure 4A for displaying alternative guide nodes according to some embodiments. In step mode, which can be activated in response to a user's command from switching input 402 (e.g., from the interface of Figure 1A), navigation interface 420 displays a specific node 404 (e.g., the patient's path / history) and child nodes 406 that have also been selected as part of the patient's history. In some embodiments, nodes other than those that are part of the selected patient path are not initially displayed, or are visually distinguished from history nodes.

[0040] As shown in Figure 4B, by hovering the cursor 405 over node 404 (or via another selection mechanism), the remaining child nodes of node 406 (nodes 406A and 406B) are displayed and visually distinguished from node 406 to show all child nodes of node 404. In response to stopping the cursor 405 hovering over node 404 (or via another deselection mechanism), the other child nodes, except for patient path node 406, are hidden from view. The patient path within the guide can be modified in step mode by deselecting the currently active / selected node of the patient path and selecting a new node (e.g., node 406A), which then becomes the active / selected node of the patient path.

[0041] Figure 5A illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface for selecting an interactive guide according to some embodiments. Interface 500 provides menus 502, 504, and 506 for selecting different medical guidelines to achieve interactive interface implementation, as further described herein. Guide compilations can be obtained from a database (e.g., database 224), such as a database stored in a regularly updated remote repository. Menus 502, 504, and 506 can be drop-down menus providing categories and subcategories of various guidelines from which to select. Once selected, the guide can be dynamically compared to a patient record, with the guide's nodes selected based on that patient record, as further described herein. Using interface 100, such as that of Figures 1A and 1B, the selected / related nodes and alternative nodes can be viewed, modified, and incorporated into the patient's medical record.

[0042] Guideline 510 includes a node 505 indicating a specific procedure performed on a patient, a node 515 indicating a specific condition for patient identification (e.g., based on test results), and a node 525 indicating recommended clinical options for the patient, which are related to each other via link 516.

[0043] Figure 5B illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface 510 for an interactive guide selected from the interface of Figure 5A, according to some embodiments. The interface includes a head node 515 representing guide-specific conditions, and child nodes 525 representing clinical actions (e.g., tests, surgeries), additional conditions, and / or diagnoses that lead to other child nodes.

[0044] Figure 5C illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface of Figure 5B representing a selected sequence of nodes according to some embodiments. As described above, the sequence of nodes in the guide can be dynamically selected based on the patient's medical records and / or through user interaction. Interface 510 shows the selected nodes 530 across the selected path connection 535, which are visually distinguishable from unselected or alternative nodes such as 505 and 515. As further described with respect to Figures 1A and 1B, the user can select alternative nodes and display expanded portions of the guide for these channel nodes, and select the expanded portions to be part of the patient's history for comparison with the patient's (selected) history.

[0045] Figures 6A and 6B illustrate exemplary graphical user interfaces for creating custom nodes in interactive guidelines according to some embodiments. Interface 600 provides an interactive interface for guidelines with selected nodes 615A, 620A, and 630. In some cases, patient histories do not fully conform to the guidelines. Interface 600 allows the user to generate custom nodes 640 (e.g., in response to a right-click pointer on node 630). Once prompted / requested for a custom node, interface 600B asks the user for details of the custom node. The user can add details to the custom node, including node type (e.g., prerequisite, clinical decision - diagnosis, treatment) and description (e.g., specific diagnosis, prerequisite, or treatment). The interface may also prompt the user for the reason for creating the custom node (e.g., the patient wishes to undergo an experimental treatment not part of the guidelines).

[0046] In some embodiments, custom nodes can be dynamically created based on data / information collected from patient medical records (or updates to those records), and the user can then be notified that the node creation deviates from the original guidelines. The user may be prompted to confirm / change details such as those that can be entered in interface 600B.

[0047] Figure 7 is an exemplary flowchart of a graphical user interface for generating and operating interactive guidelines according to some embodiments. At block 710, the interactive guide system / engine obtains a directed graph of medical guidelines (e.g., Figure 300 of Figure 3 from database 224 of Figure 2). This graph may represent standardized care guidelines and is obtained in digital form (e.g., electronic database records).

[0048] At box 720, the patient's medical record is compared to the medical guide and associated with the path (nodes and edges) of the guide, as further described herein. For example, the system may utilize machine learning models to associate portions of the medical record with medical conditions and clinical decisions representing the path of the guide. Users of the interactive guide can access the interactive guide to change or add selected nodes. In some embodiments, the user is prompted to verify or complete associated and / or new nodes.

[0049] At box 730, a limited set of alternative nodes / paths for the guide are displayed together with nodes identified / selected as part of the patient's history, as shown in Figures 1A and 1B. In some embodiments, only the selected nodes as part of the patient's medical history (e.g., as an initial view) and the guide path representing the patient's possible future paths are shown. In some embodiments, direct alternative child nodes of the selected path are displayed. Deviations / alternative portions of the guide can be visually distinguished from the nodes representing the patient's history, such as for comparison (e.g., comparing different contrasts, colors, fonts, sizes, etc.).

[0050] At box 740, input from the user indicating the selection of an alternative node is received (e.g., hovering the cursor over the node for a predetermined amount of time). At box 750, in response to receiving input from the user, one or more child nodes of the selected alternative path are further displayed (as shown in Figure 1B).

[0051] Any computer system mentioned herein, such as one used for hosting systems and implementing the processes described herein, can utilize any suitable number of subsystems. Examples of such subsystems are shown in Figure 8 in computer system 10. In some embodiments, the computer system includes a single computer device, where a subsystem may be a component of the computer device. In other embodiments, the computer system may include multiple computer devices, each being a subsystem with its own internal components. The computer system may include desktop and portable computers, tablets, mobile phones, and other mobile devices. In some embodiments, cloud infrastructure (e.g., Amazon Web Services), graphics processing units (GPUs), etc., may be used to implement the disclosed technologies.

[0052] The subsystems shown in Figure 8 are interconnected via system bus 75. Additional subsystems are shown, such as printer 74, keyboard 78, storage device 79, monitor 76 (which is connected to display adapter 82), etc. Peripheral devices and input / output (I / O) devices connected to I / O controller 71 can be connected via any number of components known in the art, such as input / output (I / O) ports 77 (e.g., USB, FireWire). ® The system is connected to the computer system. For example, I / O port 77 or external interface 81 (e.g., Ethernet, Wi-Fi, etc.) can be used to connect computer system 10 to a wide area network, such as the Internet, a mouse input device, or a scanner. Interconnection via system bus 75 allows central processing unit 73 to communicate with each subsystem and control the execution of multiple instructions from system memory 72 or storage device 79 (e.g., a fixed disk, such as a hard disk drive, or optical disk), as well as the exchange of information between subsystems. System memory 72 and / or storage device 79 may contain computer-readable media. Another subsystem is a data collection device 85, such as a camera, microphone, accelerometer, etc. Any data mentioned herein can be output from one component to another and can be output to the user.

[0053] A computer system may include multiple identical components or subsystems, connected together, for example, via an external interface 81 or an internal interface. In some embodiments, the computer system, subsystem, or device may communicate via a network. In this case, one computer may be considered a client and another computer may be considered a server, with each computer being considered part of the same computer system. The client and server may each include multiple systems, subsystems, or components.

[0054] Various aspects of the embodiments may be implemented in a modular or integrated manner using hardware (e.g., application-specific integrated circuits or field-programmable gate arrays) and / or computer software having a generally programmable processor, in the form of control logic. As used herein, processors include single-core processors, multi-core processors on the same integrated chip, or multiple processing units on a single circuit board or networked. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, those skilled in the art will know and understand other ways and / or methods of implementing the embodiments of the present invention using hardware and combinations of hardware and software.

[0055] Any suitable computer language, such as Java, C, C++, C#, Objective-C, Swift, or scripting languages ​​such as Perl or Python, can be used, employing, for example, conventional or object-oriented techniques, to implement any software component or function described in this application as software code executable by a processor. The software code can be stored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer-readable medium for storage and / or transmission. Suitable non-transitory computer-readable media may include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), magnetic media (such as hard disk drives or floppy disks), or optical media (such as optical discs (CDs) or DVDs (Digital Universal Disk), flash memory, etc.). The computer-readable medium can be any combination of such storage or transmission means.

[0056] Such programs can also be encoded and transmitted using carrier signals adapted for transmission over wired, optical, and / or wireless networks conforming to various protocols, including the Internet. Thus, computer-readable media can be created using data signals encoded with such programs. Computer-readable media encoded with program code can be packaged with compatible devices or provided separately from other devices (e.g., for download via the Internet). Any such computer-readable media can reside on or within a single computer product (e.g., a hard drive, CD, or an entire computer system) and can exist on or within different computer products within a system or network. The computer system may include monitors, printers, or other suitable displays for providing users with any of the results mentioned herein.

[0057] Any method described herein can be performed wholly or partially by a computer system including one or more processors, which can be configured to perform the steps. Therefore, embodiments may be directed to a computer system configured to perform the steps of any method described herein, and may have different components for performing corresponding steps or groups of corresponding steps. Although the steps are presented as numbered, the steps of the methods herein may be performed simultaneously or in different orders. Furthermore, some steps may be used in conjunction with some steps from other methods. Additionally, all or some steps may be optional. Furthermore, any step of any method may be performed using a module, unit, circuit, or other means for performing those steps.

[0058] The specific details of a particular embodiment may be combined in any suitable manner without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present invention. However, other embodiments of the invention may be directed to specific embodiments relating to each individual aspect, or specific combinations of these individual aspects.

[0059] For purposes of illustration and description, exemplary embodiments of the invention have been described above. It is not intended to exhaustively describe the invention or limit it to the precise forms described, and many modifications and variations are possible in accordance with the above teachings.

[0060] Unless otherwise specified, references to “a,” “an,” or “the” are intended to mean “one or more.” Unless otherwise specified, the use of “or” is intended to mean “includes or,” not “excludes or.” Referring to a “first” component does not necessarily require the provision of a second component. Furthermore, unless explicitly stated otherwise, references to “first” or “second” components do not limit the referenced component to a specific location.

[0061] All patents, patent applications, publications, and specifications mentioned herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes. None of them are considered prior art.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing an interactive medical guide, the computer-implemented method comprising: Receive data representing a directed graph of medical guidelines, wherein the medical guidelines include a decision tree, the decision tree includes multiple clinical decisions and preconditions guiding at least some of the clinical decisions, and the directed graph includes multiple nodes representing the clinical decisions and the preconditions and edges connecting the multiple nodes to represent dependencies among the clinical decisions and the preconditions. A graphical representation of at least a portion of the sequence of recorded preconditions and / or clinical decisions is provided via a navigation interface; The navigation interface provides a graphical representation of the portion of the directed graph that diverges from the sequence of the recorded preconditions and / or clinical decisions, and graphically distinguishes the divergent portion of the directed graph from the portion of the directed graph based on the recorded preconditions and / or clinical decisions. The navigation interface receives the selection of alternative nodes from the portion of the directed graph that diverges from the sequence of the recorded clinical decisions and / or preconditions. Based on the selection of the alternative node, the graphical representation of the directed graph is updated to display one or more child nodes of the selected alternative node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection includes hovering the cursor over the alternative node for at least a predetermined time period.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein stopping the hover on the alternative node causes the graphical representation of the directed graph to be updated to stop displaying the one or more child nodes of the alternative node.

4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the sequence of recorded preconditions and / or clinical decisions is based on the patient’s electronic medical records.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: User input is received via the navigation interface; In response to the user input, the records of the substitute node and one or more child nodes of the substitute node are associated with and stored with the patient's medical records.

6. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the selected alternative nodes and one or more child nodes are rendered with different contrast levels or colors compared to the portion of the directed graph based on the recorded preconditions and / or clinical decisions.

7. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the selected alternative node and one or more child nodes are graphically distinguished by rendering the selected alternative node and one or more child nodes in a pop-up window.

8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: Map the multiple nodes and the updated graphical representation of the decision tree to different areas of the display frame; The navigation interface receives input for selecting the area to be displayed in the navigation interface of the display frame; as well as Based on the selected region and the mapping, a graphical representation of the directed graph, including at least a portion of the nodes mapped to the selected region, is provided via the navigation interface.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the input includes at least one of the following: a zoom-in command, a zoom-out command, or a drag action.

10. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein each node in the nodes is represented by text including the corresponding clinical decision or prerequisite.

11. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: Receive input from the graphical representation to select one or more child nodes of the selected alternative node in the directed graph; And based on the selection of the one or more child nodes, update the graphical representation of at least a portion of the directed graph to provide navigation results representing the selected alternative node and the selected one or more child nodes of the medical guide.

12. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: The navigation interface receives a request to insert a node representing a custom clinical decision not defined in the medical guidelines into the directed graph. In response to the request, a pop-up window is generated to collect information for the custom clinical decision. Generate custom nodes that include the collected information; as well as Based on the collected information, the custom node is inserted into the directed graph to generate a custom directed graph.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the information includes the custom clinical decision to be represented by the custom node and nodes of the directed graph to become direct children of the custom node.

14. A system having one or more processors configured and programmed to cause execution according to any one of the preceding claims.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions for causing one or more processors to perform any of the methods described in the preceding claims.

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