Effective collaboration in healthcare systems

Abstract

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a healthcare system receives a request to initiate a chat in relation to a patient, identifies healthcare providers having responsibility for the patient, and provides a chat session with the identified healthcare providers as participants. Upon receiving a command (requesting information on the patient) during the chat session, the healthcare system retrieves an electronic medical record (EMR) of the patient and sends the EMR to the participants of the chat session. In one embodiment, the command does not specify the identifier of the patient in the chat session. In another embodiment, when an external EMR system maintains EMRs of the patient, the healthcare system retrieves the EMR of the patient from the EMR system without requiring the participant to manually authenticate after specifying the command. Accordingly, the healthcare system is configured to facilitate collaboration among healthcare providers.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, via a healthcare system, a command during a chat session, the command requesting information on a patient along with a first authentication token;   forwarding the command requesting information on the patient to an integration system;   automatically determining, via the integration system, that the first authentication token is valid and requesting for a second authentication token when the first authentication token is expired;   retrieving, in response to receiving of the command via the healthcare system, an electronic medical record, EMR, of the patient when one of the first authentication token and the second authentication token is valid; and   sending, via the healthcare system, the electronic medical record to participants of the chat session in the response to receiving of the command in real time and when one of the first authentication token and the second authentication token is valid; and   wherein the healthcare system is configured to facilitate collaboration among healthcare providers via the healthcare system.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprises:
 forming, via the healthcare system, a visit summary by mapping doctor with patient, wherein doctor to patient mapping is updated automatically based on examination of data from external electronic medical record system;   receiving, via the healthcare system, a request to initiate the chat session in relation to the patient;   identifying, via the healthcare system, a plurality of healthcare providers having responsibility for the patient from the visit summary; and   providing, via the healthcare system, the chat session with the plurality of healthcare providers as the participants using corresponding client system.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the method is configured to form a consolidated electronic medical record of the patient from retrieved data of the electronic medical record. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprises performing predictive analytics using predictive algorithms on at least one of a chat, a collaboration history, a chat context, commands given by the participants during the chat session, and the consolidated electronic medical record of the patient to render treatment suggestions and insights to the participants. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein performing the predictive analytics using the predictive algorithms further comprises:
 searching for symptoms in at least one of the chat, and the collaboration history; and   arriving at the treatment suggestions and insights regarding at least one of a diagnosis and medications for the diagnosis, based on a message by the participants in the chat session.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the chat session is automatically integrated with identity number of the patient. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the command need not specify an identifier of the patient in the chat session. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the external electronic medical record system maintains the electronic medical record of the patient, the command being received from a first participant, the method further comprising retrieving, via the healthcare system, the electronic medical record of the patient from the external electronic medical record system without requiring the first participant to manually authenticate after specifying the command. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the sending, via the healthcare system, comprises including the electronic medical record of the patient as the message of the chat session; and wherein the electronic medical record of the patient is enabled to be stored as part of a chat history of the chat session in a non-volatile storage. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 receiving, via the healthcare system, an indication to save the chat session;   enabling, via the healthcare system, the participants to edit the message of the chat session to form an edited text; and   storing, via the healthcare system, the edited text in a non-volatile storage.   
     
     
         11 . A tangible non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions executable by one or more processors for implementing one or more operations in a healthcare system for facilitating collaboration among healthcare providers, the operations comprising:
 receiving, via the healthcare system, a command during a chat session, the command requesting information on a patient along with a first authentication token, retrieving information;   forwarding the command requesting information on the patient to an integration system;   automatically determining, via the integration system, that the first authentication token is valid and requesting for a second authentication token when the first authentication token is expired;   retrieving, in response to receiving of the command via the healthcare system, an electronic medical record, EMR, of the patient when one of the first authentication token and the second authentication token is valid;   sending, via the healthcare system, the electronic medical record to participants of the chat session in the response to receiving of the command in real time and when one of the first authentication token and the second authentication token is valid; and   wherein the healthcare system is configured to form a consolidated electronic medical record of the patient from retrieved data of the electronic medical record.   
     
     
         12 . The tangible non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 11 , further comprises instructions to perform operations comprising:
 forming, via the healthcare system, a visit summary by mapping doctor with patient, wherein doctor to patient mapping is updated automatically based on examination of data from external electronic medical record system;   receiving, via the healthcare system, a request to initiate the chat session in relation to the patient;   identifying, via the healthcare system, a plurality of healthcare providers having responsibility for the patient from the visit summary; and   providing, via the healthcare system, the chat session with the plurality of healthcare providers as the participants using corresponding client system.   
     
     
         13 . The tangible non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the external electronic medical record system maintains the electronic medical record of the patient, the command being received from a first participant, the operations further comprising retrieving, via the healthcare system, the electronic medical record of the patient from the external electronic medical record system without requiring the first participant to manually authenticate after specifying the command. 
     
     
         14 . The tangible non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the sending comprises including, via the healthcare system, the electronic medical record of the patient as a message of the chat session; and wherein the electronic medical record of the patient is enabled to be stored as part of a chat history of the chat session in a non-volatile storage. 
     
     
         15 . The tangible non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 12 , further comprises instructions to perform operations comprising performing predictive analytics using predictive algorithms on at least one of a chat, a collaboration history, a chat context, commands given by the participants during the chat session, and the consolidated electronic medical record of the patient to render treatment suggestions and insights to the participants. 
     
     
         16 . A digital processing system comprising:
 a memory to store instructions;   one or more processors to execute the instructions stored in the memory to cause the digital processing system to perform actions of:   receiving, via a healthcare system, a command during a chat session, the command requesting information on a patient along with a first authentication token, retrieving information;   forwarding the command requesting information on the patient to an integration system;   automatically determining, via the integration system, that the first authentication token is valid and requesting for a second authentication token when the first authentication token is expired;   retrieving, in response to receiving of the command via the healthcare system, an electronic medical record, EMR, of the patient when one of the first authentication token and the second authentication token is valid;   sending, via the healthcare system, the electronic medical record to participants of the chat session in the response to receiving of the command in real time and when one of the first authentication token and the second authentication token is valid; and   wherein the healthcare system is configured to form a consolidated electronic medical record of the patient from retrieved data of the electronic medical record.   
     
     
         17 . The digital processing system of  claim 16 , wherein the command is received from a first participant and does not specify an identifier of the patient in the chat session, wherein the electronic medical record is retrieved without requiring the first participant to manually authenticate after specifying the command. 
     
     
         18 . The digital processing system of  claim 16 , wherein the electronic medical record of the patient is displayed as part of the chat session for a pre-configured time period. 
     
     
         19 . The digital processing system of  claim 16 , wherein the digital processing system is an insurance server belonging to an insurance carrier, the insurance server maintaining information on patients having insurance coverage with the insurance carrier. 
     
     
         20 . The digital processing system of  claim 16 , wherein the digital processing system is an enterprise server belonging to a third-party enterprise.