Medical Alert Rule Generation for Post-Operative Re-admission Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current healthcare systems face challenges in effectively reducing hospital re-admissions, particularly for patients who have undergone surgeries like hip-replacement, as they lack efficient mechanisms to monitor post-operative complications and alert medical service providers in a timely manner.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that generates medical alerts by processing patient responses to assessment questionnaires, detecting triggering events, and notifying medical service providers through a graphical user interface, thereby facilitating timely intervention and reducing re-admission risks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a medical patient answers a question in a medical assessment questionnaire with an unacceptable answer, then the medical service provider needs to be notified, but this increases the complexity of processing questionnaire responses
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the questionnaire processing into distinct components: individual question evaluation, triggering event detection, and alert generation. Each question is processed independently against predefined rules, and only questions with unacceptable answers generate alerts. This segmentation reduces overall processing complexity by handling one question at a time rather than evaluating the entire questionnaire as a single unit.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary triggering event detection mechanism that acts as a mediator between questionnaire responses and provider notifications. The system uses predefined triggering events and rules as intermediaries to automatically evaluate answers and determine when alerts should be generated, eliminating the need for complex manual evaluation logic and simplifying the overall processing architecture.
2Measurement precision
If the system generates alerts for all unacceptable answers, then detection accuracy improves, but the quantity of alerts increases leading to information overload
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allowing different questions to have different triggering event criteria and alert generation rules. Each question can be configured with specific unacceptable answers that trigger alerts, while other questions may have different thresholds or no alerts at all. This selective approach ensures alerts are generated only when truly necessary, maintaining detection accuracy while preventing information overload.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements partial action by generating alerts for only certain unacceptable answers rather than all unacceptable answers across the questionnaire. The triggering event detection mechanism selectively identifies which unacceptable answers warrant alert generation based on predefined rules, avoiding excessive alert generation while maintaining precision for critical issues.
3Loss of time
If the medical service provider is notified immediately upon unacceptable answer, then response time improves, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-defining triggering events and rules before questionnaire administration. The system is pre-configured with unacceptable answers and alert generation criteria, allowing immediate alert generation when conditions are met without requiring complex real-time decision logic. This preliminary configuration reduces both notification time and system complexity during actual operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-service through automated triggering event detection and alert generation. The predefined rules automatically evaluate questionnaire responses and generate alerts without requiring manual intervention or complex processing logic. This automation achieves immediate provider notification while keeping the system relatively simple by relying on straightforward rule-based evaluation.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method includes accessing information indicative of a question to be answered by a medical patient, with the question being included in a medical assessment questionnaire of a medical service provider; receiving information indicative of a selection of one or more triggering events for answers to the question; and generating, for the question, a medical alert rule, with the medical alert rule comprising instructions to perform operations comprising: receiving an answer of the medical patient to the question; detecting, based on contents of the received answer, the triggering event for the question; and generating a medical questionnaire alert to notify the medical service provider that the medical patient has answered the question with the answer that is defined as being unacceptable.