Structured Trial Criteria Encoding for Patient Recruitment Matching

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Clinical trials face challenges in patient recruitment, including difficulty in finding eligible participants and high dropout rates, which consume significant time and resources, impacting the accuracy and efficiency of drug development.

Innovation Solution

A network-based software platform that identifies potential clinical trial candidates by analyzing patient data and matching them with suitable trials through a system that encodes and formats unstructured criteria data, facilitating recruitment and enrollment.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If traditional manual patient recruitment methods are used, then clinical trials can be conducted with basic oversight, but patient recruitment consumes excessive time and resources

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepatient recruitment efficiencyVSAvoidtime consumed by patient recruitment

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables automated self-service by having the platform automatically retrieve patient data from healthcare providers, process unstructured criteria, match patients with suitable trials, and notify relevant parties without requiring manual intervention for each step

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces manual mechanical processes (manual screening, manual data entry, manual matching) with an automated electronic system that uses computing devices, data processing algorithms, and network communications to perform patient recruitment tasks

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Adaptability or versatility

If unstructured criteria data is used for clinical trial matching, then the system can handle diverse and flexible patient criteria, but the data cannot be efficiently processed or matched

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveflexibility in patient criteriaVSAvoiddata processing efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system changes the state of data from unstructured to structured by applying encoding rules that transform diverse criteria into a standardized format, enabling efficient processing while maintaining the flexibility to handle various patient criteria types

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary encoding/standardization layer that acts as a mediator between the diverse unstructured criteria input and the structured data processing requirements, allowing the system to accept flexible criteria while processing them efficiently through standardized representations

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Measurement precision

If patients are recruited through traditional methods, then the recruitment process is simple to implement, but dropout rates remain high and recruitment accuracy is low

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepatient selection accuracyVSAvoidcomplexity of recruitment system

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the complex patient recruitment process into distinct functional modules: data retrieval from healthcare providers, unstructured criteria processing, patient-trial matching logic, and notification systems, making the overall complex task manageable and accurate through specialized processing steps

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS20260018261A1Methods and systems for converting unstructured data into an encoded, structured representation

Publication Date: 2026.01.15 MCKESSON CORPORATION

AI summary

Methods, systems, and apparatuses are described for computationally converting unstructured data into an encoded, structured representation. Methods, systems, and apparatuses are described for patient recruitment for clinical trials.