Clinical decision support systems, apparatus, and methods

1. A method for facilitating the real-time provision of data relating to health care information,

(I) the method involving a processor-based clinical decision support system (CDS System) comprising:

(a) a CDS manager, loaded on one or more electronic devices, comprising a centralized repository for tracking rule content and managing subscriptions to rule content by organizations and providers utilizing the CDS system;

(b) a CDS server, loaded on one or more electronic devices, comprising a rule-evaluation server, wherein clients utilizing the CDS system communicate with the CDS server to request rule-evaluation for specific patients, and wherein the CDS server communicates with the CDS manager to determine which content needs to be evaluated and to retrieve the actual content to be used;

(c) a CDS rule engine, loaded on one or more electronic devices, comprising an engine responsible for performing the evaluation, wherein the content, patient data, and rule evaluation parameters are provided to the engine, and the engine returns recommendation data triggered by the evaluation, if any;

(d) a CDS client, loaded on one or more electronic devices, comprising a client component responsible for coordinating communication between the consuming rule engine, and the CDS server; and

(e) wherein at least some rule content is parameterized in that rule content corresponding to one or more specific rules contains parameters associated with default or user specified values;

(II) the method comprising the steps of:

(a) electronically receiving, at the CDS server from an electronic health records application used by a healthcare provider, a call to evaluate rules associated with the provision of data relating to health care information;

(b) determining, by the CDS server utilizing the CDS manager, a list of rules subscribed to by the healthcare provider;

(c) automatically determining specific healthcare information necessary to evaluate the rules from the list of rules, all of the determined specific healthcare information being necessary to evaluate one or more of the rules such that the determined specific healthcare information is a minimum possible set of specific healthcare information necessary to evaluate the rules;

(d) electronically communicating, from the CDS server to the CDS rule engine, a rule evaluation call including the list of rules and the determined specific healthcare information;

(e) evaluating, at the CDS rule engine, the electronically communicated rules from the list of rules utilizing the electronically communicated specific healthcare information to produce one or more results based on the evaluation of the rules, the one or more results comprising recommendation data;

(f) electronically communicating, from the CDS rule engine to the CDS server, the one or more results; and

(g) electronically communicating, from the CDS server to the electronic health records application, the recommendation data and displaying, to a user at an electronic display via the electronic health records application, text corresponding to at least one of the recommendation data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further includes a step of receiving, via the electronic health records application, a disposition to apply to a displayed recommendation.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further includes a step of modifying, by a healthcare provider, one or more subscriptions to one or more rules via an interface of a console.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said step of modifying one or more subscriptions comprises subscribing to a rule.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein said step of modifying one or more subscriptions comprises unsubscribing to a rule.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein said step of modifying one or more subscriptions comprises subscribing to a particular version of a rule.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein said step of modifying one or more subscriptions comprises indicating a desire for a subscription to automatically be updated to the most current version of a rule.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more results include one or more suggestions.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein each of the one or more suggestions is associated with a recommendation.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the one or more suggestions include a missing data suggestion.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the one or more suggestions include an out-of-range suggestion.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of determining a list of rules subscribed to by a healthcare provider comprises accessing a cached list of rules subscribed to by a healthcare provider.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the method further includes a step of receiving update information regarding a list of rules subscribed to by a healthcare provider, and updating the cached list of rules.

14. A method for facilitating the real-time provision of data relating to health care information,

(I) the method involving a processor-based clinical decision support system (CDS System) comprising:

(a) a CDS manager, loaded on one or more electronic devices, comprising a centralized repository for tracking rule content and managing subscriptions to rule content by organizations and providers utilizing the CDS system;

(b) a CDS server, loaded on one or more electronic devices, comprising a rule-evaluation server, wherein clients utilizing the CDS system communicate with the CDS server to request rule-evaluation for specific patients, and wherein the CDS server communicates with the CDS manager to determine which content needs to be evaluated and to retrieve the actual content to be used;

(c) a CDS rule engine, loaded on one or more electronic devices, comprising an engine responsible for performing the evaluation, wherein the content, patient data, and rule evaluation parameters are provided to the engine, and the engine returns recommendation data triggered by the evaluation, if any; and

(d) a CDS client, loaded on one or more electronic devices, comprising a client component responsible for coordinating communication between the consuming rule engine, and the CDS server;

(II) the method comprising the steps of:

(a) electronically receiving, at the CDS server from an electronic health records application used by a healthcare provider, a call to evaluate rules associated with healthcare provision;

(b) determining, by the CDS server utilizing the CDS manager, a list of rules subscribed to by the healthcare provider;

(c) automatically determining specific healthcare information necessary to evaluate the rules from the list of rules, all of the determined specific healthcare information being necessary to evaluate one or more of the rules such that the determined specific healthcare information is a minimum possible set of specific healthcare information necessary to evaluate the rules;

(d) electronically communicating, from the CDS server to the CDS rule engine, a rule evaluation call including the list of rules and the determined specific healthcare information;

(e) evaluating, at the CDS rule engine, the electronically communicated rules from the list of rules utilizing the electronically communicated specific healthcare information;

(f) electronically communicating, from the CDS rule engine to the CDS server, one or more results based on the evaluation of the rules, the one or more results comprising recommendation data; and

(g) electronically communicating, from the CDS server to the electronic health records application, the recommendation data and displaying, to a user at an electronic display via the electronic health records application, text corresponding to at least one of the recommendation data.