Personalized health records with associative relationships

1. A computer-implemented method for processing a personal health record (PHR) in a first database that includes a plurality of events each having a time stamp, the method comprising:

creating, in a computer system, a plurality of event-concept pairs by mapping each of the plurality of events in the PHR to a corresponding health concept from a plurality of health concepts stored in a second database;

assigning, in the computer system, to each of the plurality of event-concept pairs the time stamp of the event corresponding to the event-concept pair;

accessing the second database, in the computer system, the second database having stored information specifying concept associations between at least some of the plurality of health concepts;

identifying, in the computer system, event associations between at least some of the plurality of event-concept pairs wherein an event association is identified between a first event-concept pair and a second event-concept pair when the second database of stored information specifies a concept association between the health concept in the first event-concept pair and the health concept in the second event-concept pair;

identifying, in the computer system an associative subset of event-concept pairs among the plurality of event-concept pairs, wherein identifying the associative subset includes:

identifying all the event-concept pairs in the PHR that have a health concept that has a concept association with a header concept to form the associative subset, and

adding to the associative subset all the event-concept pairs in the PHR that have an identified event association with another event-concept pair within the associative subset of event-concept pairs; and

linking, in the computer system, at least some of the event-concept pairs in the associative subset of event-concept pairs to form a thread, wherein the thread presents a relationship among the plurality of event-concept pairs of the associative subset of event-concept pairs.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the linking includes:

forming, in the computer system, one or more sub-threads by:

selecting each event-concept pair in the associative subset, and

linking the selected event-concept pair to another event-concept pair in the associative subset when the selected event-concept pair has an identified event association with the another event-concept pair; and

linking, in the computer system, the one or more sub-threads chronologically based on the time stamps of the event-concept pairs in each sub-thread.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of health concepts are categorized into a plurality of categories, and wherein at least some of the specified concept associations in the second database are between health concepts that are in different categories in the plurality of categories.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of health categories include at least one of medical tests, diseases, symptoms, medications, and treatments.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PHR is one of a plurality of PHRs, further comprising:

identifying, for each PHR in the plurality of PHRs, a desired event-concept pair in the associative subset for the corresponding PHR, and

finding, in the computer system, an aggregate result based on the plurality of desired event-concept pairs corresponding to the plurality of PHRs.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein processing each PHR in the plurality of PHRs further includes identifying, in the computer system, a second event-concept pair that has an identified event association with the desired event-concept pair, and finding a second relationship between the desired event-concept pair and the second event-concept pair, and wherein finding the aggregate result is based on the plurality of second relationships corresponding to the plurality of PHRs.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the second relationship is a difference between the time stamp of the desired event-concept pair and the time stamp of the second event-concept pair.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the second relationship is a determination of whether the second event-concept pair satisfies a medical criteria.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the aggregate result is one of an average of a value corresponding to each desired event-concept pair, a total number of the desired event-concept pairs, and a relative number of the desired event-concept pairs.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium for processing a personal health record (PHR) in a first database that includes a plurality of events each having a time stamp, the computer-readable medium comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

create a plurality of event-concept pairs by mapping each of the plurality of events in the PHR to a corresponding health concept among a plurality of health concepts stored in a second database;

assign to each of the plurality of event-concept pairs the time stamp of the event corresponding to the event-concept pair;

access the second database, the second database having stored information specifying concept associations between at least some of the plurality of health concepts;

automatically identify event associations between at least some of the plurality of event-concept pairs wherein an event association is identified between a first event-concept pair and a second event-concept pair when the second database of stored information specifies a concept association between the health concept in the first event-concept pair and the health concept in the second event-concept pair;

identify an associative subset of event-concept pairs among the plurality of event-concept pairs, including:

identify all the event-concept pairs in the PHR that have a health concept that has a concept association with a header concept to form the associative subset, and

add to the associative subset all the event-concept pairs in the PHR that have an identified event association with another event-concept pair within the associative subset of event-concept pairs; and

link at least some of the event-concept pairs in the associative subset to form a thread, wherein the thread presents a relationship among the plurality of event-concept pairs of the associative subset of event-concept pairs.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the computer executable instructions are configured to cause the computer to link the at least some of the event-concept pairs by:

forming one or more sub-threads by:

selecting each event-concept pair in the associative subset, and

linking the selected event-concept pair to another event-concept pair in the associative subset when the selected event-concept pair has an identified event association with the another event-concept pair; and

linking the one or more sub-threads chronologically based on the time stamps of the eventconcept pairs in each sub-thread.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of health concepts are categorized into a plurality of categories, and wherein at least some of the specified concept associations in the second database are between health concepts that are in different categories in the plurality of categories.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of health categories include at least one of medical tests, diseases, symptoms, medications, and treatments.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the PHR is one of a plurality of PHRs, and wherein the computer executable instructions are further configured to cause the computer to:

identify, for each PHR in the plurality of PHRs, a desired event-concept pair in the associative subset for the corresponding PHR, and

find an aggregate result based on the plurality of desired event-concept pairs corresponding to the plurality of PHRs.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the computer executable instructions are further configured to cause the computer to:

identify, for each PHR in the plurality of PHRs, a second event-concept pair that has an identified event association with the desired event-concept pair, and find a second relationship between the desired event-concept pair and the second event-concept pair, and

find the aggregate result based on the plurality of second relationships corresponding to the plurality of PHRs.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the second relationship is a difference between the time stamp of the desired event-concept pair and the time stamp of the second event-concept pair.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the second relationship is a determination of whether the second event-concept pair satisfies a medical criteria.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the aggregate result is one of an average of a value corresponding to each desired event-concept pair, a total number of the desired event-concept pairs, and a relative number of the desired event-concept pairs.

19. A system for processing a personal health record (PHR) in a first database that includes a plurality of events each having a time stamp, the system comprising:

a mapper configured to:

create a plurality of event-concept pairs by mapping each of the plurality of events in the PHR to a corresponding health concept among a plurality of health concepts stored in a second database,

assign to each of the plurality of event-concept pairs the time stamp of the event corresponding to the event-concept pair,

access the second database, the second database having stored information specifying concept associations between at least some of the plurality of health concepts, and

automatically identify event associations between at least some of the plurality of event-concept pairs wherein an event association is identified between a first event-concept pair and a second event-concept pair when the second database of stored information specifies a concept association between the health concept in the first event-concept pair and the health concept in the second event-concept pair; and

a threader configured to:

identify an associative subset of event-concept pairs among the plurality of event-concept pairs, including:

identify all the event-concept pairs in the PHR that have a health concept that has a concept association with a header concept to form the associative subset, and

add to the associative subset all the event-concept pairs in the PHR that have an identified event association with another event-concept pair within the associative subset of event-concept pairs; and

link at least some of the event-concept pairs in the associative subset to form a thread, wherein the thread presents a relationship among the plurality of event-concept pairs of the associative subset of event-concept pairs,

wherein the mapper and the threader are implemented by a computer system having at least one processor.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the threader is configured to link the at least some of the event-concept pairs in the associative subset to form the thread by:

forming one or more sub-threads by:

selecting each event-concept pair in the associative subset, and

linking the selected event-concept pair to another event-concept pair in the associative subset when the selected event-concept pair has an identified event association with the another event-concept pair; and

linking the one or more sub-threads chronologically based on the time stamps of the eventconcept pairs in each sub-thread.

21. The system of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of health concepts are categorized into a plurality of categories, and wherein at least some of the specified concept associations in the second database are between health concepts that are in different categories in the plurality of categories.

22. The system of claim 21 , wherein the plurality of health categories include at least one of medical tests, diseases, symptoms, medications, and treatments.

23. The system of claim 19 , wherein the PHR is one of a plurality of PHRs, further comprising:

an aggregator configured to:

identify, for each PHR in the plurality of PHRs, a desired event-concept pair in the associative subset of the corresponding PHR, and

find an aggregate result based on the plurality of desired event-concept pairs corresponding to the plurality of PHRs.

24. The system of claim 23 , wherein the aggregator is further configured to:

identify, for each PHR in the plurality of PHRs, a second event-concept pair that has an identified event association with the desired event-concept pair;

find a second relationship between the desired event-concept pair and the second event-concept pair; and

find the aggregate result based on the plurality of second relationships corresponding to the plurality of PHRs.

25. The system of claim 24 , wherein the second relationship is a difference between the time stamp of the desired event-concept pair and the time stamp of the second event-concept pair.

26. The system of claim 24 , wherein the second relationship is a determination of whether the second event-concept pair satisfies a medical criteria.

27. The system of claim 23 , wherein the aggregate result is one of an average of a value corresponding to each desired event-concept pair, a total number of the desired event-concept pairs, and a relative number of the desired event-concept pairs.