MEDICAL VISUAL REFERRAL TOOL AND REMOTE PORTAL

1 . A method of providing patient/provider information to be used for a medical visual referral tool, the method being carried out by one or more servers, wherein the one or more servers comprises at least one database stored on a computer-readable memory, wherein each of the servers comprises a plurality of electronic computing machines, wherein the electronic computing machines each comprise a processor and a computer-readable memory, and wherein the method comprises:

(a) obtaining electronically encoded data from one or more data sources, wherein the electronically encoded data comprises information pertaining to a patient and/or a medical provider;

(b) preparing the data for standardized entry into one or more of the databases using the processor of at least one of the electronic computing machines;

(c) storing the standardized data into the one or more databases;

(d) receiving a client request for access to the medical visual referral tool from an electronic client computing machine via an inter-connected electronic data network;

(e) resolving the client request to a user;

(f) processing the client request by querying the at least one database for patient/provider information pertaining to the user, to a patient of the user, to a provider of the user, or to a potential provider of the user, using a visual selection referral application installed on one or more of the electronic computing machines; and

(g) sending a response to the electronic client computing machine over the inter-connected electronic data network, wherein the response provides the patient/provider information usable for the medical visual referral tool, and wherein at least some of the patient/provider information is to be visually represented at the client machine and displayed on an electronic geographical map.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining step further comprises locating the one or more data sources.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein one or more uniform resource locators (URLs) are used to locate the one or more data sources.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining step further comprises, subsequently after locating the one or more data sources, downloading the data from the one or more data sources.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein a download request is sent to the one or more located data sources and, in response to the download request, downloading the data from the one or more data sources.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the preparing step further comprises analyzing the obtained electronically encoded data to determine one or more performance metrics of one or more providers.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the patient/provider information comprises a quality score associated with a provider and a geographic location, wherein the quality score is reflected on the electronic geographic map at the geographic location.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the data sources comprise non-volatile computer-readable memory medium which may be locally connected to the one or more servers.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the data sources is co-located at the same geographic location as at least one of the servers.

10 . A medical visual referral system, comprising:

at least one database stored on a computer-readable memory; and

one or more servers, wherein the one or more servers each comprise:

a plurality of electronic computing machines, wherein the electronic computing machines each comprise:

a processor; and

a computer-readable memory accessible by the processor;

wherein the electronic computing machines are configured to:

(a) obtain electronically encoded data from one or more data sources, wherein the electronically encoded data comprises information pertaining to a patient and/or a medical provider;

(b) prepare the data for standardized entry into one or more of the databases using the processor of at least one of the electronic computing machines;

(c) store the standardized data into the one or more databases;

(d) receive a client request for access to the medical visual referral tool from an electronic client computing machine via an inter-connected electronic data network;

(e) resolve the client request to a user;

(f) process the client request by querying the at least one database for patient/provider information pertaining to the user, to a patient of the user, to a provider of the user, or to a potential provider of the user, using a visual selection referral application installed on one or more of the electronic computing machines; and

(g) send a response to the electronic client computing machine over the inter-connected electronic data network, wherein the response provides the patient/provider information usable for the medical visual referral tool, and wherein at least some of the patient/provider information is to be visually represented at the client machine and displayed on an electronic geographical map.

11 . The medical visual referral system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one database is stored on the computer-readable memory of one or more of the electronic computing machines.

12 . The medical visual referral system of claim 10 , wherein at least some of the servers are co-located at the same geographic location.

13 . The medical visual referral system of claim 10 , wherein at least one of the servers are co-located at the same geographic location as the at least one database.

14 . A method of providing patient/provider information to be used for a medical visual referral tool, the method being carried out by a medical visual referral system, the medical visual referral system comprising:

at least one database stored on a computer-readable memory; and

one or more servers, wherein each of the servers comprises a plurality of electronic computing machines, wherein the electronic computing machines each comprise a processor and a computer-readable memory that is accessible by the processor;

wherein the method comprises:

(a) obtaining electronically encoded data from one or more data sources via an inter-connected data network, wherein the electronically encoded data comprises information pertaining to a patient and/or a medical provider;

(b) standardizing the obtained electronically encoded data using the processor of at least one of the electronic computing machines;

(c) storing the standardized data into one or more of the databases;

(d) receiving a client request from the medical visual referral tool via an inter-connected electronic data network, wherein the medical visual referral tool is being carried out on an electronic client computing machine;

(e) resolving the client request to a user of the medical visual referral tool;

(f) retrieving patient/provider information pertaining to the user, to a patient of the user, to a provider of the user, or to a potential provider of the user, from any one or more of the databases using a visual selection referral application installed on one or more of the electronic computing machines; and

(g) sending a response to the electronic client computing machine over the inter-connected electronic data network, wherein the response provides the patient/provider information usable for the medical visual referral tool, and wherein at least some of the patient/provider information is displayed on an electronic geographical map at the electronic client computing machine.