Systems and methods for health information messages archiving

Abstract

Messages having patient healthcare information are exchanged between various healthcare IT systems. The messages are formatted according to various specific healthcare communication standards. The standards enable communication of the patient healthcare information among the healthcare IT systems. The messages are collected into a repository. Data mining is performed on the collected messages in order to make health-related findings.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of analyzing healthcare communication messages transmitted over a network comprising:
 receiving from the network a plurality of messages, the plurality of messages comprising patient healthcare information formatted according to a healthcare communication standard;   archiving the plurality of received messages in a database associated with the healthcare communication standard, wherein each of the plurality of received messages is archived in an unmodified form;   automatically classifying the plurality of messages according to a stored set of classification rules, wherein the classifying is based on a plurality of different orthogonal axes;   obtaining the patient healthcare information by parsing the plurality of received messages based on the healthcare communication standard to extract from the plurality of received messages field values as defined by the healthcare communication standard which comprise the patient healthcare information;   collecting, in a repository which is separate from the database associated with the healthcare communication standard, the patient healthcare information by copying the field values of the obtained patient healthcare information into the repository;   analyzing the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make health-related findings by identifying a plurality of messages associated with a particular patient, analyzing, for the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of messages associated with the particular patient, ones of the field values corresponding to a selected characteristic of the particular patient, and making the health-related findings based on the analyzed field values; and   communicating the health-related findings to a user via a communication interface.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein communicating the health-related findings to the user comprises, in response to making the health-related findings, transmitting a notification to at least one of the particular patient and a doctor of the particular patient. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein analyzing the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make the health-related findings comprises monitoring changes to the particular patient indicated by the plurality of messages associated with the particular patient and routing the plurality of messages associated with the particular patient through a workflow which is configured to take actions based on a corresponding set of rules. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of different orthogonal axes include two or more of: patient identifiers in the messages; ailments recorded in the messages; medications recorded in the messages; and symptoms recorded in the messages. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein analyzing the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make the health-related findings comprises collecting a plurality of messages associated with a particular patient over a period of time, analyzing the collected plurality of messages associated with the particular patient, and generating a prediction of the particular patient's prognosis. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein analyzing the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make the health-related findings comprises:
 monitoring the plurality of messages;   identifying indications of a particular disease in the plurality of messages;   determining whether the indications of the particular disease in the plurality of messages meet a threshold condition;   in response to determining that the indications of the particular disease in the plurality of messages meet the threshold condition, generating an alert indicative of an outbreak of the particular disease.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the threshold condition comprises detecting a threshold number of the indications of the particular disease within a selected time period. 
     
     
         8 . A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having a computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by one or more processors to implement a method comprising:
 receiving from a network a plurality of messages, the plurality of messages comprising patient healthcare information formatted according to a healthcare communication standard;   archiving the plurality of received messages in a database associated with the healthcare communication standard, wherein each of the plurality of received messages is archived in an unmodified form;   automatically classifying the plurality of messages according to a stored set of classification rules, wherein the classifying is based on a plurality of different orthogonal axes;   obtaining the patient healthcare information by parsing the plurality of received messages based on the healthcare communication standard to extract from the plurality of received messages field values as defined by the healthcare communication standard which comprise the patient healthcare information;   collecting, in a repository which is separate from the database associated with the healthcare communication standard, the patient healthcare information by copying the field values of the obtained patient healthcare information into the repository;   analyzing the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make health-related findings by identifying a plurality of messages associated with a particular patient, analyzing, for the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of messages associated with the particular patient, ones of the field values corresponding to a selected characteristic of the particular patient, and making the health-related findings based on the analyzed field values; and   communicating the health-related findings to a user via a communication interface.   
     
     
         9 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein communicating the health-related findings to the user comprises, in response to making the health-related findings, transmitting a notification to at least one of the particular patient and a doctor of the particular patient. 
     
     
         10 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein analyzing the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make the health-related findings comprises monitoring changes to the particular patient indicated by the plurality of messages associated with the particular patient and routing the plurality of messages associated with the particular patient through a workflow which is configured to take actions based on a corresponding set of rules. 
     
     
         11 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein the plurality of different orthogonal axes includes two or more of: patient identifiers in the messages; ailments recorded in the messages; medications recorded in the messages; and symptoms recorded in the messages. 
     
     
         12 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein analyzing the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make the health-related findings comprises collecting a plurality of messages associated with a particular patient over a period of time, analyzing the collected plurality of messages associated with the particular patient, and generating a prediction of the particular patient's prognosis. 
     
     
         13 . The computer program product of  claim 8 , wherein analyzing the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make the health-related findings comprises:
 monitoring the plurality of messages;   identifying indications of a particular disease in the plurality of messages;   determining whether the indications of the particular disease in the plurality of messages meet a threshold condition;   in response to determining that the indications of the particular disease in the plurality of messages meet the threshold condition, generating an alert indicative of an outbreak of the particular disease.   
     
     
         14 . A system for analyzing healthcare communication messages, the system comprising:
 a processor-based database management system executed on a computer system and configured to:   receive from a network a plurality of messages, the plurality of messages comprising patient healthcare information formatted according to a healthcare communication standard;   archive the plurality of received messages in a database associated with the healthcare communication standard, wherein each of the plurality of received messages is archived in an unmodified form;   automatically classify the plurality of messages according to a stored set of classification rules, wherein the classifying is based on a plurality of different orthogonal axes;   obtain the patient healthcare information by parsing the plurality of received messages based on the healthcare communication standard to extract from the plurality of received messages field values as defined by the healthcare communication standard which comprise the patient healthcare information;   collect, in a repository which is separate from the database associated with the healthcare communication standard, the patient healthcare information by copying the field values of the obtained patient healthcare information into the repository;   analyze the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make health-related findings by identifying a plurality of messages associated with a particular patient, analyzing, for the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of messages associated with the particular patient, ones of the field values corresponding to a selected characteristic of the particular patient, and making the health-related findings based on the analyzed field values; and   communicate the health-related findings to a user via a communication interface.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the processor-based database management system is configured to communicate the health-related findings to the user by, in response to making the health-related findings, transmitting a notification to at least one of the particular patient and a doctor of the particular patient. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the processor-based database management system is configured to analyze the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make the health-related findings by monitoring changes to the particular patient indicated by the plurality of messages associated with the particular patient and routing the plurality of messages associated with the particular patient through a workflow which is configured to take actions based on a corresponding set of rules. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the plurality of different orthogonal axes include two or more of: patient identifiers in the messages; ailments recorded in the messages; medications recorded in the messages; and symptoms recorded in the messages. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the processor-based database management system is configured to analyze the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make the health-related findings by collecting a plurality of messages associated with a particular patient over a period of time, analyzing the collected plurality of messages associated with the particular patient, and generating a prediction of the particular patient's prognosis. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the processor-based database management system is configured to analyze the field values of the collected patient healthcare information extracted from the plurality of received messages to make the health-related findings by:
 monitoring the plurality of messages;   identifying indications of a particular disease in the plurality of messages;   determining whether the indications of the particular disease in the plurality of messages meet a threshold condition;   in response to determining that the indications of the particular disease in the plurality of messages meet the threshold condition, generating an alert indicative of an outbreak of the particular disease.