Patent Application Titled “Blockchain Based Radiology Billing, Radiologist Management, And Radiology Data Tracking System” Published Online (USPTO 20230153874): Patent Application

2023 JUN 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Cornblath, Eli (Philadelphia, PA, US); Randazzo, William Thoburn (Augusta, GA, US), filed on November 15, 2022, was made available online on May 18, 2023.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “

“Field of the Invention

“This invention relates to a radiology billing and radiologist management system that utilizes information from the radiology workflow to generate billing and payment invoices as well as clinical-work-related data points on a distributed ledger (blockchain) as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that may then be used to collect payment for clinical radiology services provided, pay for clinical radiology services provided, and track clinical radiology work performed. More particularly, this invention relates a non-transitory computer-readable medium that provides an interface for retrieving information from the medical record relevant to radiology billing and clinical radiology work performed, transmitting and storing the information retrieved from the medical record onto the blockchain as an NFT, and creating a marketplace for submitting and paying radiology invoices and tracking clinical radiology work performed.

“The Prior Art

“Workflow in a radiology department and practice includes a radiology information system (RIS), picture archiving and communication system (PACS), and electronic medical record (EMR). The RIS and EMR contain information related to patient information, patient demographics, image type (i.e., imaging modality), body part, patient diagnosis/condition, and assignment of an image for interpretation by a radiologist, in addition to other details related to the imaging performed on a specific patient. The RIS is the graphical user interface (GUI) where radiologists interact with each patient file to open a radiology image and subsequently transmit an interpretation of the image (i.e., the radiology report) to the RIS, PACS, and EMR. PACS is the image viewing software that displays the patient’s image and a limited amount of data tagging each image to a specific patient; the purpose of the PACS is to allow the radiologist to interact with and manipulate the image to render a clinical interpretation.

“After completing the review of an imaging study, a billing workflow is initiated, which generally entails gathering patient information and information related to the type of imaging study performed.

“Broadly, there are two types of billing workflows in radiology: preliminary/cash payment and final/insurance payment. In teleradiology, radiologists work remotely from the hospital or imaging center where images are acquired and are connected to the RIS, PACS, and EMR via the internet. In teleradiology, “preliminary” interpretations may be rendered by a radiologist, in which case billing is a peer-to-peer remittance that does not involve insurance vendors. However, in “preliminary” billing, a “final” interpretation is eventually provided by a different radiologist, usually working on site. When a “final” interpretation is provided as a stand-alone interpretation or following a “preliminary” interpretation, the billing pathway is generally directly through insurance companies without the intermediate step of remitting peer-to-peer payment. In some cases, payment for radiology services are performed as a peer-to-peer cash transaction for a “final” interpretation when agreed upon by both parties.

“The preliminary billing workflow briefly entails creating a word document or spreadsheet annotating the radiology services provided and transmitting that document to the client via mail, facsimile, or electronic mail. The paying client reviews the submitted documentation and then remits payment to the radiology billing entity or radiology practice that provided the preliminary interpretation via check by mail or electronic funds transfer (EFT) via traditional banks. This process is labor intensive, prone to error, and has long turnaround times (up to 45 days or greater from when the bill is submitted to the payer).

“The insurance-based workflow briefly entails collecting patient information, diagnosis, and imaging modality, which is then submitted to the insurer for eventual payment. Routinely, a third-party service is used for insurance related billing, which may be a dedicated department or separate company used by a hospital or radiology practice, which adds cost and labor to the billing process. The billing information is then supplied to another intermediary before the insurer, which depending upon the insurance company and other variables include entities such as an insurance clearing house, who are responsible for taking the submitted billing data (patient information, imaging modality, diagnosis, etc.) and compiling it into a format acceptable by the insurance company. This process also has a long turnaround time (weeks to months), is prone to error (both unintentional and intentional, i.e., insurance fraud), and requires many intermediate steps which add time, cost, and labor.

“Related to billing payers for work performed by a radiologist, the radiologist is also paid via certain pathways, which rely directly upon receiving payment from the payers. Generally, once payment is collected via a preliminary/cash or final/insurance pathway, the radiologist is paid for the work performed. As above, the long turnaround time for collecting payment affects the time in which the radiologist is paid (i.e., there is a lag time in payment for the work performed). When paid, radiologists typically receive payment via EFT or check.

“In the case of teleradiology, radiologists can be located worldwide and perform their clinical work (interpretation of radiology images) via a computer and an internet connection; specifically, they can receive radiology images and transmit their interpretation no matter where they are physically located in the world. Payment to the radiologist in these circumstances becomes more complex, particularly when the paying entity and radiologist are located in different countries (i.e., there is increased cost, time, and complexity with cross border fiat payments).

“Lastly, radiologists interpret thousands to tens of thousands of separate imaging studies per year, which among other aspects, creates a large set of data useful for analyzing radiologist performance and productivity over time. Recording of this data is a labor-intensive process that requires unique and separate queries into the RIS, PACS, and EMR, depending on the data points that are sought.

“In these respects, the proposed invention of a radiology billing and radiologist management system based on the creation of NFTs provides a single solution for retrieving information from the medical record, connecting payers and payees on a single marketplace, and for tracking radiologist performance.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “This patent discloses and claims a novel, unobvious, and practical invention for radiology billing and radiologist management for collecting payment for clinical services provided, paying for clinical services provided, and tracking clinical radiology work performed.

“To attain this, the present invention generally comprises a non-transitory computer-readable medium that may include one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the device to: record data from the RIS, PACS, and/or EMR (referred to as “mined data”); sort and store the mined data in an array as metadata in a readable format for the blockchain; transmit the sorted and stored metadata into a mint function on a smart contract on the blockchain; execute the creation of a non-fungible token (NFT) on the blockchain based on the metadata; import the minted NFT into a marketplace; display the minted NFT along with the associated metadata on the marketplace for payers and payees to collect or remit payments and for clinical radiology data tracking. Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding computer systems, apparatus, and computer programs recorded on one or more computer storage devices, each configured to perform the actions of the methods.

“This invention may include a system of one or more computers configured to perform particular operations or actions by virtue of having software, firmware, hardware, or a combination of them installed on the system that in operation causes or cause the system to perform the actions. One or more computer programs can be configured to perform particular operations or actions by virtue of including instructions that, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the actions. Implementations of the described techniques may include hardware, a method or process, or a computer tangible medium.

“Implementations of this invention may include one or more of the following features. In one general aspect, an application programming interface (API) communicates with the RIS, PACS, and EMR for the purpose of recording data relevant to radiology billing and radiologist work performed. This data is typically contained in proprietary, firewall protected electronic health systems, which requires a purpose-built API to access the electronic health systems in a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) compliant manner for securely interacting with protected patient information and for retrieving data relevant to the purpose of this invention, comprising radiology billing, radiology payment, and radiologist management, the specific data of which is disclosed in more detailed in the Detailed Description section and also referred to as “mined data” for descriptive purposes.

“Once the mined data is identified and retrieved, an automated software algorithm sorts and stores the mined data based each imaging case, patient, and/or health care practitioner so it may be easily viewed, assessed, and tabulated by the user. The sorted and stored mined data is then uploaded into a mint function of a smart contract on the blockchain by the user, which allows for the creation of a non-fungible token (NFT).

“Briefly, a smart contract is an electronic contract that is recorded on the blockchain and coded to perform specific functions (the smart contract functions relevant to this invention are described in the Detailed Description section). Briefly, an NFT is a token on the blockchain that is unique and may contain data (metadata) associated with the token. The metadata may be directly stored on the blockchain or on a centralized or decentralized database with the corresponding metadata labeled by the unique NFT number. Additionally, an NFT may be associated with a user uploaded image, which may be stored directly on the blockchain or on a centralized or decentralized database.

“After the metadata is uploaded into the mint function, the user may then execute the creation of the NFT via a self-custody wallet associated with the blockchain, which requires the user to submit a “mint” transaction to the blockchain. Once the transaction is complete, the NFT is created and viewable on the blockchain as an immutable token. Additionally, the uploaded metadata is also viewable on the blockchain and associated with the minted NFT. If an image is also associated with the NFT, it may be viewable directly on the blockchain or viewed by accessing the image file location recorded in the metadata.

“A separate API, denoted as the marketplace-API for descriptive purposes, queries the minted NFTs and associated metadata/image from the blockchain, and then displays the NFT and metadata/image on the marketplace graphical user interface (GUI). The NFTs for this invention may comprise several categories depending upon the uploaded metadata including but not limited to: invoices for radiology services provided, payment vouchers for radiology services performed, and data points for radiologist work performed. The invoices for radiology services provided may be paid by the clients by “buying” the NFT on the marketplace using cryptocurrency; the payment vouchers for radiology services performed may be “sold” for cryptocurrency on the marketplace to the payer; the data points for radiologist work performed may be exchanged for cryptocurrency as a “work related bonus” or stored in the user’s wallet for data tracking.

“A first advantage of this invention is the creation of an automated pathway to record information from the medical record that can be directly stored as an NFT on a distributed ledger (blockchain).

“A second advantage of this invention is the transformation of medical information relevant to radiology billing, radiology payment, and radiologist work that is typically stored as a string of alphanumeric data and image files on proprietary, siloed system (as in a RIS, PACS, and EMR) into a new state as an NFT, which is auditable, immutable, and transferrable in a trustless, peer-to-peer manner on the blockchain.

“A third advantage of this invention is a peer-to-peer invoicing and payment marketplace that allows for fast and direct invoicing and payments of radiology work performed without the long turnaround times of typical billing and payment pathways previously described.

“A fourth advantage of this invention is a peer-to-peer invoicing and payment system that is trustless (i.e., the smart contract coded on the blockchain is viewable and auditable by anyone and determines the validity and terms of transaction, not a human) and independent of fiat-based payment pathways that are complex, costly, and time consuming when dealing with cross-border payments as may be the case in teleradiology.

“A fifth advantage of this invention is an automated pathway to collect information from the medical record that relates to the work performed by a radiologist, which may then be used to track metrics such as reading rates and quality outcomes that can be tied into compensation and bonuses via the marketplace.

“These and other features of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the attached figures and of the following detailed description of those drawings and the presently-preferred and other embodiments of the invention. Additionally, it is to be understood that this invention is capable of other embodiments and that the terminology and phrases used are for the purpose of describing the invention but should not be regarded as limiting.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions for creating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on a distributed ledger (blockchain) using data from radiology information systems (RIS), picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), and electronic medical records (EMR) for radiology billing, radiologist management, and radiology data tracking, the set of instructions comprising: one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the device to: record data from the RIS, PACS, and/or EMR (mined data); sort and store the mined data in an array as metadata transmit the sorted and stored metadata into a mint function on a smart contract on the blockchain execute the creation of a non-fungible token (NFT) on the blockchain based on the metadata import the minted NFT into a marketplace interface with the minted NFT on the marketplace.

“2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the recording of data is performed by an application programming interface (API) that communicates with the RIS, PACS, and EMR.

“3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the API accesses the RIS, PACS, and EMR firewalls in a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) compliant manner for securely interacting with protected patient information.

“4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the API reads an alphanumeric string of data and/or images stored within the RIS, PACS, and EMR.

“5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the API outputs non-protected health information (PHI) data, anonymized data, and/or anonymized images (collectively referred to as mined data).

“6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the mined data comprises imaging modality.

“7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein imaging modalities comprise: X-ray (XR), ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine imaging (NM), mammography, and cardiac imaging.

“8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the mined data comprises an anonymized image of the mined imaging modality.

“9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the file format of the image comprises .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .tiff, .psd, .pdf, and DICOM, among others.

“10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the mined data comprises body part.

“11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the mined data comprises date of service.

“12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the mined data comprises health care practitioner.

“13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the mined data comprises other non-PHI.

“14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the other non-PHI comprises: age, gender, diagnosis, and medical condition/status.

“15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the sorting and storing is performed by an automated software-based algorithm.

“16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the automated software-based algorithm organizes alphanumeric mined data in a spreadsheet; the rows representing an individual data point (which comprises a single or group of cases/images, patients, or healthcare practitioners); the columns representing the other mined data parameters for each data point retrieved from the RIS, PACS, and/or EMR.

“17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the spreadsheet file format comprises .csv, .xls, and .xlsx, among others.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the spreadsheet and image from the mined data may be stored on a centralized and/or decentralized database with each individual data point and corresponding image labeled with a data point identifier.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein a data point identifier is a unique, assigned number, not containing PHI.

“20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the user uploads the sorted and stored metadata from the spreadsheet and image file into a mint function.

“21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the metadata is algorithmically read from the spreadsheet into the mint function as an array formatted in a standard readable format for the blockchain.

“22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the smart contract is written in the standard language of the blockchain utilized for minting.

“23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the smart contract is coded at minimum to perform tasks required in a marketplace.

“24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the marketplace tasks comprise minting, transferring, price setting, buying, selling, auctioning, invoicing, returning, countering, and re-naming.

“25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the creation of the NFT is performed by executing the mint function in the smart contract.

“26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the user interfaces with the blockchain via a self-custody wallet in order to execute the mint function in the smart contract.

“27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the self-custody wallet may be proprietary or based on existing software.

“28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein a marketplace-API reads and displays the metadata and image previously minted on the blockchain.

“29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the marketplace-API interacts with the specific smart contract on the blockchain where the NFTs were minted and reads the individual NFT metadata and image file (mined data).

“30. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the marketplace-API outputs the NFT metadata and image file (mined data) read from the smart contract onto the marketplace for viewing by the user.

“31. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface (GUI) of the marketplace displays individual NFTs as discrete items and displays the associated metadata and image file (mined data).

“32. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the user functions of the marketplace GUI are coded in the smart contract and comprise transferring, price-setting, buying, selling, auctioning, invoicing, returning, countering, and re-naming.

“33. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein the user interfaces with the blockchain via a self-custody wallet in order to execute the marketplace functions in the smart contract.

“34. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the self-custody wallet may be proprietary or based on existing software.”

For more information, see this patent application: Cornblath, Eli; Randazzo, William Thoburn. Blockchain Based Radiology Billing, Radiologist Management, And Radiology Data Tracking System. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230153874, filed November 15, 2022 and posted May 18, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230153874)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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