Methods and systems for managing distributed digital medical data

摘要

A network for mediating the peer-to-peer transfer of digital patient medical data includes a plurality of distributed agents each associated with a health care provider and connected to a central system. Periodically the agents collect local information relating to patient medical files and/or data streams, for example diagnostic images and associated reports, and process that information into metadata files acting as pointers to the original files. The metadata files are transmitted to the central system where they are parsed and the attributes are stored on the central system in patient records with records from the same patient grouped together whenever possible. Registered users can search the central system, even in the absence of a unique identifier, to identify patient records pointing to the remote patient medical files. Upon finding a patient medical file, the invention provides a streamlined process for communicating access authorization from the patient to the hospital or facility storing the medical files. Once patient authorization is received, secure processes are provided for transferring the data in its entirety to or for viewing by the user in a peer-to-peer fashion.

主权项

1. A method operable on a computer for managing distributed medical files, comprising the steps of:
receiving, on a central computer, a request by a user to access a patient medical file stored on a remote medical information system; authenticating that the user is authorized by the patient to access the patient medical file; determining a remote agent computer having access to the remote medical information system; transmitting, from the central computer to the remote agent computer, a request to provide the patient medical file to a specified device of the user; retrieving, by the remote agent computer, the patient medical file; transmitting, by the remote agent computer, the patient medical file directly to the specified device without passing the patient medical file through the central computer; and receiving from the remote agent computer at the central computer a notice that the patient medical file has been transferred from the remote medical information system to the specified device.