System and method for preemptive determination of the potential for an atypical clincial event related to the administering of medication

Abstract

Systems and methods provide for the preemptive determination of the potential of atypical clinical event occurrence related to administering of medications to a person. One method involves receiving a list of possible medications that may be administered to the person during a medical procedure. Subsequently, the medication list is compared to information in the person's medical record. Based on this comparison, a determination is made as to whether one or more matches exist between any of the medications included in the list and the medical record information, the match relating to the potential of an atypical clinical event occurring if the associated medication were to be administered to the person. If a match in fact exists, a response is outputted relating to each match.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method in a computing system for preemptive determination of a potential for atypical clinical event occurrence related to administering of at least one medication to a person having an electronic medical record (EMR), the method comprising the steps of:
 receiving a selection of the person;   comparing a medical procedure scheduled for the selected person against one or more pre-built medication-procedure tables;   based on the comparison, accessing a list of possible medications, and dosages thereof, that are to be administered to the person for the medical procedure;   evaluating information in the person's electronic medical record (EMR) with respect to the medication list, wherein the EMR maintains dosage amounts of the medications the person is taking, foods the person is consuming, and allergies to medications the person is known to have;   determining that at least one match exists between any of the medications included in the medication list and the EMR information, wherein the match indicates the potential of an atypical clinical event occurring upon the associated medication being administered to the person, wherein the atypical clinical event includes the potential of drug-allergy reactions; and   outputting a response relating to each match, respectively, wherein the response indicates at least one of a specific medication involved in the match, a category of the specific medication, a type of match, or a severity of an associated atypical clinical event.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the type of match is comprises at least one of drug-drug, drug-allergy, or drug-food. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving a selection of the person comprises receiving a selection of the person from a list of patients displayed at a user interface window, wherein the list of patients is extracted from patient-procedure entries stored in a unified healthcare network, and wherein the patient-procedure entries associate the person with the medical procedure. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the atypical clinical event is one selected from the group consisting of a drug-drug interaction, drug-food interaction, a drug-allergy interaction, and a drug-gene interaction. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the medical procedure includes any medical procedure requiring the use of anesthesia. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the list of possible medications includes medications used in a medical procedure involving anesthesia. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the list of possible medications includes medications used in a radiologic medical procedure. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the list of possible medications includes medications used in an oncologic medical procedure. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the response includes a listing of the match and the associated atypical clinical event. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the list of possible medications includes the dosage amount for each medication in the medication list, and wherein the response further includes an indication of the predicted severity of the atypical clinical event. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising displaying information about at least one medication of the medication list that is involved in the match upon selection of the medication at the response. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 selecting the person from the list of patients scheduled for a medical procedure; and   accessing the person's EMR prior to comparing the medication list to information in the person's EMR.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of determining whether at least one match exists comprises:
 querying a data structure containing information selected from one of the groups consisting of drug-drug interactions and drug-food interactions; and   determining that at least one match correlates with one of the drug-drug interactions and drug-food interactions.   
     
     
         14 . A method in a computing system for preemptive determination of the potential for atypical clinical event occurrence related to the administering of at least one medication to a person having an electronic medical record (EMR), the method comprising the steps of:
 receiving a selection of the person;   comparing a medical procedure scheduled for the selected person against one or more pre-built medication-procedure tables;   based on the comparison, accessing a list of possible medications, and dosages thereof, that are to be administered to the person for the medical procedure;   evaluating information in the person's electronic medical record (EMR) with respect to the medication list;   determining that at least one match exists between any of the medications included in the medication list and the EMR information, wherein the match indicates the potential of an atypical clinical event occurring upon the associated medication being administered to the person, wherein the atypical clinical event includes the potential of drug-allergy reactions; and   outputting a response relating to each match, respectively.   
     
     
         15 . Computer storage media containing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method for controlling a computing system for preemptive determination of the potential for atypical clinical event occurrence related to the administering of at least one medication to a person having an electronic medical record (EMR), the method comprising the steps of:
 receiving a selection of the person;   comparing a medical procedure scheduled for the selected person against one or more pre-built medication-procedure tables;   based on the comparison, accessing a list of possible medications, and dosages thereof, that are to be administered to the person for the medical procedure;   evaluating information in the person's electronic medical record (EMR) with respect to the medication list, wherein the EMR maintains dosage amounts of the medications the person is taking, foods the person is consuming, and allergies to medications the person is known to have;   determining that at least one match exists between any of the medications included in the medication list and the EMR information, wherein the match indicates the potential of an atypical clinical event occurring upon the associated medication being administered to the person, wherein the atypical clinical event includes the potential of drug-allergy reactions; and   outputting a response relating to each match, respectively.