System for communication of health care data
An apparatus for communicating health care data from a sender to a receiver is provided. The apparatus has a first computer system ( 10 ), a second computer system, and a rules engine. The first computer system ( 10 ) has health care data stored therein. The second computer system is in operable communication with, and is configured to extract the health care data from the first computer system ( 10 ). The rules engine normalizes the extracted health care data to a predefined format. The rules engine defines a plurality of health care data fields in the predefined format, as well as a plurality of relationships between fields of normalized data.
1. A computer system to process health care data from one or more health care records from one or more sources related to a patient in order to communicate that health care data to a participant, the computer system comprising:
a computer configured to communicate with one or more payor databases that stores one or more health care records containing a plurality of health care data related to the patient;
wherein the computer is configured to communicate with the plurality of health care data related to the patient of a type where each of the health care data is displayed in a separate field;
wherein any of the plurality of health care data related to the patient which are intended to have the same meaning, are expressed in either different formats, or have not previously been subject to a normalized format;
wherein the normalized format is of a type that displays health care data from one or more sources associated with a single patient such that any health care data associated with that patient having the same meaning is expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting;
a rules engine that establishes the normalized format for health care data associated with the patient and predetermines how each of the plurality of selected health care data is to appear in its respective field to send to the participant;
wherein fields in the normalized format that correspond to the fields containing the health care data for the patient not expressed as predetermined by the normalized format is remodeled to be expressed as predetermined by the normalized format becoming normalized data; and
wherein the computer is configured to transfer the normalized data over a data network to a participant computer system.
2. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the rules engine determines how the normalized data can be used.
3. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the rules engine applies the normalized data to respond to a request of the participant computer system.
4. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the rules engine determines whether the participant computer system is authorized to receive the normalized data.
5. The computer system of claim 1 , further comprising a medical administration system including a process of executing a medical test referral that includes transmitting a determination of the referral to the participant computer system which is a health care provider, patient, employer, or payor.
6. The computer system of claim 5 , wherein a result of the medical test is transmitted to at least one receiver selected from the group consisting of the one or more payors, the health care provider, another health care provider, a patient, and an employer.
7. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the normalized data is applied to respond to the request of a patient computer system.
8. The computer system of claim 1 , further comprising a medical administration system wherein the rules engine refers a specialist and configured to transmit a referral to the participant computer system which is a health care provider, patient, employer, or the one or more payors.
9. The computer system of claim 1 , further comprising a medical administration system including a process of executing a medical procedure referral that includes transmitting a determination of the referral to the participant computer system which is a health care provider, patient, employer, or payor.
10. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein a medical health record can be generated from normalized data.
11. A computer system that processes health care data from two or more health care records related to a patient from one or more sources in order to communicate that health care data to a participant, the computer system comprising:
a computer configured to communicate with one or more payor databases that stores two or more health care records containing a plurality of health care data related to the patient;
wherein the plurality of health care data related to the patient is subject to a normalized format of a type that displays health care data from one or more sources associated with a single patient such that any health care data associated with that patient having the same meaning is expressed in the same format despite any prior formatting;
a rules engine that normalizes the data so any health care data related to the patient having the same meaning is expressed in the same format as normalized data; and
wherein the computer is configured to transfer the normalized data over a data network to a participant computer.