System and method for visually mapping and automatically completing electronic forms

摘要

A computer apparatus and method are provided for visually mapping fields of various electronic forms to a common object model. The forms may then be dynamically completed via a runtime engine that retrieves mapping data from a relational database and uses the mapping data to automatically populate corresponding fields of the forms without manual input by the user. Specifically, a visual mapping tool displays the objects of the common object model as well as the fields of a form to be mapped. A user drags and drops one or more of the displayed objects into a mapping area, and drags and drops a field to which the one or more objects are to be mapped. The user also identifies a type of association between the selected objects and the field. A mapping entry is then generated in a map file to map the selected objects to the field.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically mapping and populating fields in any selected electronic form specific to the field of healthcare from a common object model for any one of a multiplicity of diverse healthcare provider information with minimal manual input by the user, the method comprising the steps of:
displaying a plurality of objects from the common object model as a hierarchical object tree for a selected healthcare provider with the object model including detailed information relative to each healthcare provider and with the detailed information for the selected healthcare provider being represented by attributes and properties of the selected healthcare provider inclusive of at least gender, type of medical license, professional degree and work history; displaying a plurality of fields of the electronic form; receiving user selection from displayed objects of the common object model for the selected healthcare provider; displaying the selected objects in a mapping area; receiving user selection of fields from the displayed fields of the electronic form; displaying the selected fields in the mapping area; identifying a type of association between each of the selected objects in the mapping area and each of the selected fields in the mapping area with the identified type of association being selected from a group consisting of: a one to one connection between selected object and form field when it exists, and a conversion, including a derived association, a transformative association and an aggregation based upon an evaluation and determination of the attributes and properties of the selected healthcare provider from the displayed hierarchical object tree, when a one to one connection between selected object and form field does not exist; and generating a mapping entry in a map file mapping the objects in the mapping area to the fields in the mapping area based on said attributes and properties of the selected healthcare provider and the identified type of association, wherein the map file is stored and configured to be retrieved for use in automatically populating the plurality of selected fields in a selected electronic form from the stored map file for a selected healthcare provider and wherein the user selection of the displayed objects involves dragging and dropping each of the selected objects to the mapping area, and the user selection of displayed fields involves dragging and dropping each of the selected displayed fields to the mapping area.