Apparatus, method and computer-readable storage mediums for clustering and ranking a list of multimedia objects

1. An apparatus comprising a processor and a memory storing executable instructions that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to at least:

direct presentation of a list that identifies a plurality of patient exams for a plurality of patients, and that presents information regarding one or more elements of the respective patient exams, and wherein the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the list of patient exams;

apply a keyword filter to identify a subset of the plurality of patient exams that match the keyword filter, and to rank the respective patient exams by relevance to the keyword filter, wherein the apparatus being caused to apply a keyword filter includes being caused to apply a keyword filter to identify an ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S={O 1 , O 2 , . . . , O k , . . . O n ; R k ≧R k+1 }, in which O k represents an exam of a single patient, R k represents the rank of exam O k , and given two patient exams O k and O j , O k is more relevant that O j if and only if R k >R j ; and

direct presentation of a filtered list of patient exams that identifies the subset of the plurality of patient exams and presents information regarding the respective exams, wherein the subset of the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the filtered list of patient exams, wherein for each patient having one or more patient exams in the subset of the plurality of patient exams, the respective one or more patient exams are in ranked order in the filtered list of patient exams according to the keyword filter,

wherein the apparatus being caused to direct presentation of a filtered list of patient exams includes being caused to transform the ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S to a clustered and ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S c ={C 1 , C 2 , . . . C x , . . . C m ; RC k ≧RC k+1 }, in which C x resents an ordered set of patient exams {O p . . . O q . . . O r } belonging to patient P x in a set of patients P={P 1 . . . P m }, R q ≧R q+1 , and RC k represents a ranking of C k , and

wherein the filtered list of patient exams identifies the clustered and ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S c and presents information regarding the respective exams.

2. An apparatus comprising a processor and a memory storing executable instructions that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to at least:

direct presentation of a list that identifies a plurality of patient exams for a plurality of patients, and that presents information regarding one or more elements of the respective patient exams, and wherein the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the list of patient exams;

apply a keyword filter to identify a subset of the plurality of patient exams that match the keyword filter, and to rank the respective patient exams by relevance to the keyword filter; and

direct presentation of a filtered list of patient exams that identifies the subset of the plurality of patient exams and presents information regarding the respective exams, wherein the subset of the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the filtered list of patient exams, wherein for each patient having one or more patient exams in the subset of the plurality of patient exams, the respective one or more patient exams are in ranked order in the filtered list of patient exams according to the keyword filter,

wherein the apparatus being caused to direct presentation of a list includes being caused to direct presentation of a user interface having the list, wherein one or more of the plurality of patient exams is designated as being of higher priority than others of the plurality of patient exams, and for each higher-priority patient exam, the information presented by the list of patient exams includes selectable information indicating the patient exam's designation as being higher priority, and

wherein the memory stores further executable instructions that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to further:

receive an indication of user acknowledgment of receipt of a higher-priority patient exam or information regarding the higher-priority patient exam, including in order:

receive an indication of user long selection of the information indicating the respective patient exam's designation as being higher priority;

direct presentation of a dialog that includes a selectable user interface element for the acknowledgment;

receive an indication of user selection of the selectable user interface element; and

receive an indication of user selection of the information indicating the respective patient exam's designation as being higher priority, without first receiving an indication of user interaction with any other area of the user interface.

3. A method comprising:

directing presentation of a list that identifies a plurality of patient exams for a plurality of patients, and that presents information regarding one or more elements of the respective patient exams, and wherein the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the list of patient exams;

applying a keyword filter to identify a subset of the plurality of patient exams that match the keyword filter, and to rank the respective patient exams by relevance to the keyword filter, wherein applying a keyword filter includes applying a keyword filter to identify an ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S={O 1 , O 2 , . . . O k , . . . O n ; R k ≧R k+1 }, in which O k represents an exam of a single patient, R k represents the rank of exam O k , and given two patient exams O k and O j , O k is more relevant than O j if and only if R k >R j ; and

directing presentation of a filtered list of patient exams that identifies the subset of the plurality of patient exams and presents information regarding the respective exams, wherein the subset of the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the filtered list of patient exams, and wherein for each patient having one or more patient exams in the subset of the plurality of patient exams, the respective one or more patient exams are in ranked order in the filtered list of patient exams according to the keyword filter,

wherein directing presentation of a filtered list of patient exams includes transforming the ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S to a clustered and ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S c ={C 1 , . . . C 2 , . . . C x , . . . C m ; RC k ≧RC k+1 }, in which C x represents an ordered set of patient exams {O p . . . O q . . . O r } belonging to patient P x in a set of patients P={P 1 . . . P m }, R q ≧R q+1 , and RC k represents a ranking of C k ,

wherein the filtered list of patient exams identifies the clustered and ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S c and presents information regarding the respective exams, and

wherein directing presentation of a list, applying a keyword filter and directing presentation of a filtered list of patient exams are performed by an apparatus including a processor and a memory storing executable instructions that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to at least direct presentation of the list of patient exams, apply the keyword filter and direct presentation of the filtered list of patient exams.

4. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein that in response to execution by a processor cause an apparatus to at least:

direct presentation of a list that identifies a plurality of patient exams for a plurality of patients, and that presents information regarding one or more elements of the respective patient exams, and wherein the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the list of patient exams;

apply a keyword filter to identify a subset of the plurality of patient exams that match the keyword filter, and to rank the respective patient exams by relevance to the keyword filter, wherein the apparatus being caused to apply a keyword filter includes being caused to apply a keyword filter to identify an ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S={O 1 , O 2 , . . . O k , . . . O n ; R k ≧R k+1 }, in which O k represents an exam of a single patient, R k represents the rank of exam O k , and given two patient exams O k and O j , O k is more relevant than O j if and only if R k ≧R j ; and

direct presentation of a filtered list of patient exams that identifies the subset of the plurality of patient exams and presents information regarding the respective exams, wherein the subset of the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the filtered list of patient exams, and wherein for each patient having one or more patient exams in the subset of the plurality of patient exams, the respective one or more patient exams are in ranked order in the filtered list of patient exams according to the keyword filter,

wherein the apparatus being caused to direct presentation of a filtered list of patient exams includes being caused to transform the ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S to a clustered and ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S c ={C 1 , C 2 , . . . C x , . . . C m ; RC k ≧RC k+1 }, in which C x represents an ordered set of patients exams {O p . . . O q . . . O r } belonging to patient P x in a set of patients P={P 1 . . . P m }, R q ≧R q+1 , and RC k represents of a ranking of C k , and

wherein the filtered list of patient exams identifies the clustered and ordered subset of the plurality of patient exams S c and presents information regarding the respective exams.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the subset of the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the filtered list of patient exams, and the clusters of patient exams are ordered in the filtered list by a rank of at least one of the patient exams of each of the clusters.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the ranking of C k , RC k , is set as the rank of the first ordered patient exam of C k .

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the ranking of C k , RC k , is set as a weighted average of the ranks of the patient exams of C k .

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus being caused to direct presentation of a list includes being caused to direct presentation of a user interface including a region presenting the list, wherein the region is sized such that the presented information regarding at least some but not all of the patient exams of the list of patient exams is viewable at a time, wherein one or more of the plurality of patient exams is designated as being of higher priority than others of the plurality of patient exams, and

wherein the memory stores further executable instructions that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to further:

identify an instance in which the presented information viewable in the region does not include information regarding at least one of the higher-priority patient exams; and in response thereto,

direct presentation of an alert to notify a user of an availability of information for a higher-priority patient exam.

9. The method of claim 3 , wherein the subset of the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the filtered list of patient exams, and the clusters of patient exams are ordered in the filtered list by a rank of at least one of the patient exams of each of the clusters.

10. The method of claim 3 , wherein the ranking of C k , RC k , is set as the rank of the first ordered patient exam of C k .

11. The method of claim 3 , wherein the ranking of C k , RC k , is set as a weighted average of the ranks of the patient exams of C k .

12. The method of claim 3 , wherein directing presentation of a list includes directing presentation of a user interface including a region presenting the list, wherein the region is sized such that the presented information regarding at least some but not all of the patient exams of the list of patient exams is viewable at a time, wherein one or more of the plurality of patient exams is designated as being of higher priority than others of the plurality of patient exams, and wherein the method further comprises:

identifying an instance in which the presented information viewable in the region does not include information regarding at least one of the higher-priority patient exams; and in response thereto,

directing presentation of an alert to notify a user of an availability of information for a higher-priority patient exam.

13. The method of claim 3 , wherein directing presentation of a list includes directing presentation of a user interface having the list, wherein one or more of the plurality of patient exams is designated as being of higher priority than others of the plurality of patient exams, and for each higher-priority patient exam, the information presented by the list of patient exams includes selectable information indicating the patient exam's designation as being higher priority, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an indication of user acknowledgment of receipt of a higher-priority patient exam or information regarding the higher-priority patient exam, including in order:

receiving an indication of user long selection of the information indicating the respective patient exam's designation as being higher priority;

directing presentation of a dialog that includes a selectable user interface element for the acknowledgment;

receiving an indication of user selection of the selectable user interface element; and

receiving an indication of user selection of the information indicating the respective patient exam's designation as being higher priority, without first receiving an indication of user interaction with any other area of the user interface.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 , wherein the subset of the plurality of patient exams is clustered by patient in the filtered list of patient exams, and the clusters of patient exams are ordered in the filtered list by a rank of at least one of the patient exams of each of the clusters.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 , wherein the ranking of C k , RC k , is set as the rank of the first ordered patient exam of C k .

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 , wherein the ranking of C k , RC k , is set as a weighted average of the ranks of the patient exams of C k .

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 , wherein the apparatus being caused to direct presentation of a list includes being caused to direct presentation of a user interface including a region presenting the list, wherein the region is sized such that the presented information regarding at least some but not all of the patient exams of the list of patient exams is viewable at a time, wherein one or more of the plurality of patient exams is designated as being of higher priority than others of the plurality of patient exams, and

wherein the computer-readable storage medium has further computer-readable program code portions stored therein that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to further:

identify an instance in which the presented information viewable in the region does not include information regarding at least one of the higher-priority patient exams; and in response thereto,

direct presentation of an alert to notify a user of an availability of information for a higher-priority patient exam.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 , wherein the apparatus being caused to direct presentation of a list includes being caused to direct presentation of a user interface having the list, wherein one or more of the plurality of patient exams is designated as being of higher priority than others of the plurality of patient exams, and for each higher-priority patient exam, the information presented by the list of patient exams includes selectable information indicating the patient exam's designation as being higher priority, and

wherein the computer-readable storage medium has further computer-readable program code portions stored therein that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to further:

receive an indication of user acknowledgment of receipt of a higher-priority patient exam or information regarding the higher-priority patient exam, including in order:

receive an indication of user long selection of the information indicating the respective patient exam's designation as being higher priority;

direct presentation of a dialog that includes a selectable user interface element for the acknowledgment;

receive an indication of user selection of the selectable user interface element; and

receive an indication of user selection of the information indicating the respective patient exam's designation as being higher priority, without first receiving an indication of user interaction with any other area of the user interface.

19. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the clusters of patient exams are ordered in the filtered list by the highest rank of the patient exams of each of the clusters.

20. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the clusters of patient exams are ordered in the filtered list by a weighted average of the ranks of the patient exams of each of the clusters.

21. The method of claim 9 , wherein the clusters of patient exams are ordered in the filtered list by the highest rank of the patient exams of each of the clusters.

22. The method of claim 9 , wherein the clusters of patient exams are ordered in the filtered list by a weighted average of the ranks of the patient exams of each of the clusters.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the clusters of patient exams are ordered in the filtered list by the highest rank of the patient exams of each of the clusters.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the clusters of patient exams are ordered in the filtered list by a weighted average of the ranks of the patient exams of each of the clusters.