Cross-Enterprise Clinical Workflow Manager
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Solution Overview
Problem
Healthcare practitioners face challenges in accessing up-to-date medical information across disparate systems, leading to inefficient workflows due to the need to manually log into multiple information systems, resulting in the review of stale data, and the impracticality of building unified systems that require large databases and complex data transformation.
Innovation Solution
The integration of radiology information systems (RIS) and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) using a single data schema, enabling cross-enterprise content sharing through a workflow manager and image services manager, which abstracts domain-specific entities into updatable database views, allowing for immediate use of existing data without synchronization and reducing ETL processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If healthcare practitioners manually log into multiple information systems to access medical information, then they can access data from different systems, but workflow efficiency deteriorates due to time-consuming manual operations and review of stale data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a unified access interface that serves multiple information systems (HIS, RIS, PACS, LIS, EMR) through a single system. This universal interface allows practitioners to access data from disparate systems without manual logins, resolving the contradiction by making the system versatile across multiple data sources while maintaining efficient workflow through automated data retrieval.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer (unified access interface and data synchronization mechanism) between practitioners and multiple information systems. This mediator automatically retrieves and presents up-to-date data from various systems, eliminating the need for practitioners to manually navigate multiple systems while ensuring data freshness, thus improving both accessibility and workflow efficiency.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a unified system is built to integrate all medical information, then data accessibility improves, but system complexity and implementation cost worsen due to large database requirements and complex data transformation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the integration approach by maintaining separate information systems (HIS, RIS, PACS, LIS, EMR) while implementing a unified access interface layer. This segmentation avoids the complexity of merging all data into a single large database, as each system retains its independence while the interface layer provides unified access, thus reducing system complexity while maintaining data accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements data synchronization mechanisms that create updated copies of data from various systems through automated ETL processes. Instead of requiring a single centralized database containing all data, the system creates and maintains synchronized copies across distributed systems, reducing the complexity of data management while ensuring data accessibility and consistency.
3Adaptability or versatility
If extensive ETL processes and data migration are implemented to unify data, then data integration improves, but installation and service costs worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary data synchronization mechanisms that automatically prepare and synchronize data from various systems before unified access is needed. By performing ETL processes in advance and maintaining synchronized data copies, the system reduces the need for extensive real-time data migration and transformation, thereby improving data integration while reducing installation and ongoing service costs.
Data Source
AI summary
Example systems, methods and storage media to provide a cross-enterprise workflow among clinical systems are disclosed. An example cross-enterprise enabled clinical information system includes a workflow manager to coordinate user workflows with respect to the system and associated content. The system includes an image services manager configured to manage images and associated services for the system and associated content. The workflow manager and image services manager are configured for cross-enterprise content sharing such that the system is to locally authenticate a user at the system and the system is to locally authorize a remote request for access to content at the system from a remote user that has been authenticated remotely. The system is arranged to provide content in response to the remote request after the remote authentication has been received and the system has verified the remote user's authorization for access.