Method, system, and computer program product for determining a patient radiation and diagnostic study score
A method for determining a patient radiation and diagnostic study score associated with past diagnostic radiologic tests. In light of the obvious benefits of diagnostic radiology, the risks inherent in its use are often overlooked. Ionizing radiation, which is a component of much, but not all, diagnostic radiology, carries with it a small risk of inducing cancer every time it is used. The present method for determining a patient radiation and diagnostic study score provides right time, right place, and right format radiology information to assist providers in their medical decision-making. With greater awareness of recent study history, and individually contextualized risk and benefit considerations, providers are more likely to decrease their overall usage of diagnostic radiology and better counsel their patients on future risk.
1. A method for determining a patient radiation and diagnostic study score associated with a series of past diagnostic radiologic tests associated with a patient, comprising the steps of:
a) accessing, by at least one score processor, a database and retrieving data indicative of a plurality of a patient's past radiologic tests during a scoring period, wherein the plurality of past radiologic tests includes at least two different past radiologic tests including at least one ionizing radiation radiological test and at least one non-ionizing radiation radiological test;
b) associating, by the at least one score processor, a measure of ionizing radiation with each of the patient's past ionizing radiation radiologic tests from the scoring period;
c) forming, by the at least one score processor, an ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total of each measure of ionizing radiation from the scoring period;
d) transforming, by the at least one score processor, the ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total into a scaled ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total by comparing the ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total with general population radiologic test data, wherein the scaled ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total indicates a measure of the ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total relative to the general population;
e) associating, by the at least one score processor, a resolution metric with at least each of the patient's past non-ionizing radiologic tests from the scoring period;
f) forming, by the at least one score processor, a resolution metric sum total of each resolution metric from the scoring period;
g) transforming, by the at least one score processor, the resolution metric sum total into a scaled resolution metric sum total by comparing the resolution metric sum total with general population radiologic test data, wherein the scaled resolution metric sum total indicates a measure of the resolution metric sum total relative to the general population;
h) associating, by the at least one score processor, a previous study factor for each radiologic test from the scoring period that has been performed 2 or more times during the scoring period;
i) forming, by the at least one score processor, a previous study factor sum total from the scoring period;
j) transforming, by the at least one score processor, the previous study factor sum total into a scaled previous study factor sum total by comparing the previous study factor sum total with general population radiologic test data, wherein the scaled previous study factor sum total indicates a measure of the previous study factor sum total relative to the general population;
k) associating, by the at least one score processor, an ionizing weighting factor to the scaled ionizing radiologic test sum total, a non-ionizing radiation weighting factor to the scaled resolution metric sum total, and a previous study weighting factor to the scaled previous study factor sum total;
l) creating, by the at least one score processor, the patient radiation and diagnostic study score from the sum of (i) the product of the scaled ionizing radiologic test sum total and an ionizing radiation weighting factor, (ii) the product of the scaled resolution metric sum total and a non-ionizing radiation weighting factor, and (iii) the product of the scaled previous study factor sum total and a previous study weighting factor; and
m) treating the patient and directing future radiologic testing at least in part on the patient radiation and diagnostic study score comprising selecting a future radiologic test from a future ionizing radiation radiological test and a future non-ionizing radiation radiological test based upon the patient radiation and diagnostic study score, and performing the future radiologic test on the patient.
2. The method of claim 1 , further including associating, by the at least one score processor, a recent study indicator with a total number of past radiologic tests that occurred in a recent indicator time period, wherein the patient radiation and diagnostic study score is a multi-digit numerical value with the at least one digit being the recent study indicator, and treating the patient and directing future radiologic testing in part on the recent study indicator comprising selecting the future radiologic test from the future ionizing radiation radiological test and the future non-ionizing radiation radiological test based upon the patient radiation and diagnostic study score and the recent study indicator, and performing the future radiologic test on the patient.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the ionizing radiation weighting factor ranges from 0.0 to 1.0, the non-ionizing radiation weighting factor ranges from 0.0 to 1.0, and the previous study weighting factor ranges from 0.0 to 1.0.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the ionizing radiation weighting factor ranges from 0.2 to 0.8, the non-ionizing radiation weighting factor ranges from 0.1 to 0.8, and the previous study weighting factor is less than 0.5.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the ionizing radiation weighting factor is at least 0.5, and the non-ionizing radiation weighting factor is less than 0.5.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein a sum of the ionizing radiation weighting factor, the non-ionizing radiation weighting factor, and the previous study weighting factor is 1.0.
7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the recent indicator time period is less than one year, the scoring period is at least one year, and the general population radiologic test data includes at least 1000 patients.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the recent indicator time period is less than six months, the scoring period is at least five years, and the general population radiologic test data includes at least 500,000 patients.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the recent indicator time period is no more than ninety days and the scoring period is at least ten years.
10. The method of claim 2 , wherein the recent study indicator is the last digit of the patient radiation and diagnostic study score.
11. The method of claim 1 , further including the steps of creating, by the at least one score processor, a score alert if the radiation and diagnostic study score is above a predetermined score alert value, and treating the patient and directing future radiologic testing at least in part on the score alert comprising selecting the future radiologic test from the future ionizing radiation radiological test and the future non-ionizing radiation radiological test based upon the patient radiation and diagnostic study score and score alert, and performing the future radiologic test on the patient.
12. The method of claim 1 , further including the steps of creating, by the at least one score processor, an indicator alert if the recent study indicator is above a predetermined recent study alert value, and treating the patient and directing future radiologic testing at least in part on the indicator alert, comprising selecting the future radiologic test from the future ionizing radiation radiological test and the future non-ionizing radiation radiological test based upon the patient radiation and diagnostic study score and indicator alert, and performing the future radiologic test on the patient.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein prior to forming the ionizing radiologic test sum total, each measure of ionizing radiation is modified by an age adjustment factor, wherein the at least one score processor determines the age adjustment factor by analyzing a patient birth date retrieved from the database and a ionizing radiologic test date for each ionizing radiologic test retrieved from the database to determine a patient test age, and wherein the at least one score processor scales the measure of ionizing radiation for each ionizing radiologic test by the age adjustment factor for each radiologic test ( 200 ).
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the age adjustment factor increases the measure of ionizing radiation for ionizing radiologic tests performed when the patient test age is less than a predetermined young age.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the predetermined young age is no more than 5 years old.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the age adjustment factor is a terminal value that does not increase the measure of ionizing radiation for ionizing radiologic tests performed when the patient test age is greater than a predetermined terminal age of no more than 25 years.
17. A method for determining a patient radiation and diagnostic study score associated with a series of past diagnostic radiologic tests associated with a patient, comprising the steps of:
a) accessing, by at least one score processor, a database and retrieving data indicative of a plurality of a patient's past radiologic tests during a scoring period, wherein the plurality of past radiologic tests includes at least two different past radiologic tests including at least one ionizing radiation radiological test and at least one non-ionizing radiation radiological test;
b) associating, by the at least one score processor, a measure of ionizing radiation with each of the patient's past ionizing radiation radiologic tests from the scoring period;
c) forming, by the at least one score processor, an ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total of each measure of ionizing radiation from the scoring period;
d) transforming, by the at least one score processor, the ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total into a scaled ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total by comparing the ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total with general population radiologic test data, wherein the scaled ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total indicates a measure of the ionizing radiation radiologic test sum total relative to the general population;
e) associating, by the at least one score processor, a resolution metric with at least each of the patient's past non-ionizing radiologic tests from the scoring period;
f) forming, by the at least one score processor, a resolution metric sum total of each resolution metric from the scoring period;
g) transforming, by the at least one score processor, the resolution metric sum total into a scaled resolution metric sum total by comparing the resolution metric sum total with general population radiologic test data, wherein the scaled resolution metric sum total indicates a measure of the resolution metric sum total relative to the general population;
h) associating, by the at least one score processor, a previous study factor for each radiologic test from the scoring period that has been performed 2 or more times during the scoring period;
i) forming, by the at least one score processor, a previous study factor sum total from the scoring period;
j) transforming, by the at least one score processor, the previous study factor sum total into a scaled previous study factor sum total by comparing the previous study factor sum total with general population radiologic test data, wherein the scaled previous study factor sum total indicates a measure of the previous study factor sum total relative to the general population;
k) associating, by the at least one score processor, an ionizing weighting factor to the scaled ionizing radiologic test sum total, a non-ionizing radiation weighting factor to the scaled resolution metric sum total, and a previous study weighting factor to the scaled previous study factor sum total;
l) creating, by the at least one score processor, the patient radiation and diagnostic study score from the sum of (i) the product of the scaled ionizing radiologic test sum total and an ionizing radiation weighting factor, (ii) the product of the scaled resolution metric sum total and a non-ionizing radiation weighting factor, and (iii) the product of the scaled previous study factor sum total and a previous study weighting factor, wherein the ionizing radiation weighting factor ranges from 0.2 to 0.8, the non-ionizing radiation weighting factor ranges from 0.1 to 0.5, and the previous study weighting factor is less than 0.5;
m) associating, by the at least one score processor, a recent study indicator with a total number of past radiologic tests that occurred in a recent indicator time period, wherein the patient radiation and diagnostic study score is a multi-digit numerical value with the at least one digit being the recent study indicator; and
n) treating the patient and directing future radiologic testing at least in part on the patient radiation and diagnostic study score comprising selecting a future radiologic test from a future ionizing radiation radiological test and a future non-ionizing radiation radiological test based upon the patient radiation and diagnostic study score and the recent study indicator, and performing the future radiologic test on the patient.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein a sum of the ionizing radiation weighting factor, the non-ionizing radiation weighting factor, and the previous study weighting factor is 1.0.
19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the recent indicator time period is less than six months, the scoring period is at least five years, and the general population radiologic test data includes at least 500,000 patients.
20. The method of claim 17 , further including the steps of creating, by the at least one score processor, a score alert if the radiation and diagnostic study score is above a predetermined score alert value, and treating the patient and directing future radiologic testing at least in part on the score alert comprising selecting the future radiologic test from the future ionizing radiation radiological test and the future non-ionizing radiation radiological test based upon the patient radiation and diagnostic study score and score alert, and performing the future radiologic test on the patient.