Patient Activity Timeline View for Clinical Workflow Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Clinicians face challenges in managing patient activities due to increased workloads and existing computer-based solutions that overwhelm them with information, requiring time-consuming data searches and disrupting workflow continuity.
Innovation Solution
A patient activity list with a timeline view that organizes scheduled activities by patient and time, allowing clinicians to review and manage activities within context, with an activities navigator for easy completion and rescheduling, reducing information overload and managing interruptions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If current computer-based solutions present comprehensive patient information to clinicians, then complete information availability is improved, but information overload and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and displays only the most critical patient information and upcoming activities in the consolidated timeline view, separating essential data from comprehensive but non-essential information. This allows clinicians to quickly access vital information without being overwhelmed by complete patient data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments information display into different views and time periods, allowing clinicians to focus on specific time ranges or activity types. The timeline can be divided into hourly or daily segments, enabling selective information processing rather than presenting all information at once.
2Adaptability or versatility
If clinicians use multiple different applications to access patient information and manage activities, then comprehensive functionality is improved, but workflow continuity and context maintenance deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple functions (patient information display, activity scheduling, timeline management, and documentation) into a single integrated application interface. This consolidation allows clinicians to perform various tasks within one system while maintaining context and workflow continuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal interface that handles multiple clinical tasks through a common timeline-based framework. The same interface displays patient information, schedules activities, tracks completion, and allows rescheduling, eliminating the need to switch between specialized applications.
3Productivity
If clinicians are interrupted during workflow, then multitasking capability is improved, but workflow resumption efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by automatically saving the current workflow state, selected time period, and pending activities in the background before interruptions occur. When clinicians return, the system has already prepared the context, allowing immediate resumption without manual reconfiguration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent provides continuous feedback by maintaining a visible state indicator that shows the current workflow position, selected time period, and pending tasks. This feedback mechanism allows clinicians to quickly re-orient after interruptions by simply glancing at the displayed state rather than searching for workflow information.
Data Source
AI summary
Management of patient activities for a clinician is provided via a patient activity list. The patient activity list includes a timeline view comprising a two-dimensional representation in which a first dimension corresponds with one or more patients assigned to the clinician and a second dimension corresponds with time periods. The timeline view includes one or more scheduled clinical activities, each scheduled clinical activity being presented in the timeline view based on a scheduled time and a corresponding patient. In response to a user selection of a time period in the timeline view, details of scheduled clinical activities corresponding with the selected time period are provided within the timeline view.