Patent Issued for Dynamically updating a community early warning score (USPTO 11250959): Cerner Innovation Inc.

2022 MAR 08 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Brown, Georgia (Kansas City, KS, US), Brown, Stacey (Kansas City, KS, US), Farley, Sheila (Kansas City, KS, US), filed on December 31, 2018, was published online on February 15, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11250959 is assigned to Cerner Innovation Inc. (Kansas City, Kansas, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Early warning systems are often used in the clinical setting (e.g., acute care) to detect patient deterioration and drive clinical decision-making. For example, the early warning system may detect that a particular condition a patient has been diagnosed with or a particular medication the patient is being treated with makes the patient a higher risk for a particular negative outcome. Unfortunately, these systems are limited to the clinical setting and do not account for, for example, a patient in a community care setting (e.g., in person visit in the community, in person visit at a clinic, clinical video visit, telephonic assessment or follow-up, electronic assessment via a patient portal or a voice system, upstream transition to a higher level of care setting, or a referral for an outside service such as transportation, meal service, or behavioral health evaluation). Moreover, these systems fail to consider additional patient information that is particularly relevant outside of a clinical facility (e.g., social determinant of health risk factors such as transportation limitations or food insecurity). This results in overlooked risk factors for the patient that increases the risk of deterioration or an acute event, resulting in an overall increase in health care costs.

“Various touch points may be needed based on the needs of a particular patient in a community care setting. For example, based on demographics corresponding to the patient, a particular condition the patient has been diagnosed with or the particular medication the patient is being treated with, or other factors, the patient may need follow-ups at particular time intervals. However, in the community care setting, in-person follow-ups are not always needed and are over-utilized which results in inefficient workforce management and fewer patient touch points. This results in unnecessary or missed touch points, unnecessary in-person appointments, and an overall increase in health care costs.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

“Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems, methods, and user interfaces for providing intelligent touch care. More particularly, embodiments of the present disclosure utilizes contributing data elements in a community early warning score (CEWS) to predict touchpoint discipline and to recommend frequency, modality, and upstream transitions of care and outside service referrals for a patient in a community care setting. In response to a touch point (e.g., a change in condition or medication, a scheduled or unscheduled appointment, or a patient question), the CEWS can be utilized along with data in an EHR of a patient, data from a patient device, or data from a patient portal to initiate a follow-up (e.g., personal health question or encounter).

“Notification tools and scheduling functionality are provided via a user interface of the patient device to improve clinical workforce capacity, increase the number of patient touches, and encourage heightened patient engagement. Moreover, the ability to capture dynamic rising risk provides clinical insight into changing risk outside of the controlled environment of a clinical facility. Overall, outcomes for the patient can be improved, touch points can be increased, and unnecessary in-person appointments and overall health care costs can be reduced.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. One or more computer storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform operations, the operations comprising: receiving, at a community early warning score (CEWS) engine comprising a plurality of data crawlers, a request to dynamically update a CEWS for a patient; automatically initiating a first set of the plurality of data crawlers to collect data in an electronic health record (EHR) of the patient, each of the first set of the plurality of data crawlers being responsible for collecting a distinct type of data within the EHR; automatically initiating a second set of the plurality of data crawlers to collect data originating from a patient device corresponding to the patient; utilizing the data collected by the plurality of data crawlers, dynamically updating the CEWS at the CEWS engine; and based on the updated CEWS, initiating a workflow for the patient at the patient device or a clinician device.

“2. The media of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data crawlers comprise an initial index component, a clinical risk factors component, a social determinants of health (SDOH) risk profile component, a clinical risk profile score component, a biometrics component, symptomatology component, or a clinical assist component.

“3. The media of claim 2, wherein the initial index component collects facility biometric data and assessment data from the EHR or the patient device to calculate the National Early Warning Score 2 for the patient, the assessment data including respiratory rate, an estimate of arterial oxygen saturation, hypercapnia, supplemental oxygen, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, level of consciousness, or temperature.

“4. The media of claim 2, wherein the clinical risk factors component collects medical history and medication profile from the EHR or the patient device to determine clinical risk factors of the patient, the clinical risk factors including a body mass index of the patient and an indication if the patient is: an opioid risk, an amputee, utilizes a medicinal sleep aid, paraplegic or quadriplegic, has a recent acute admission, or polychronic or polypharmacy.

“5. The media of claim 2, wherein the SDOH risk profile component collects assessment data and risk assessments from the EHR or the patient device to determine a SDOH risk profile of the patient, the SDOH risk profile comprising various factors corresponding to the patient including current housing situation of the patient, transportation available to the patient, utilities available to the patient, a financial situation of the patient, a health literacy of the patient, modes of communication available to the patient, social engagement of the patient, stress of the patient, or food insecurity of the patient.

“6. The media of claim 2, wherein the clinical risk profile score component collects risk assessments from the EHR or the patient device to determine a clinical risk profile score, the clinical risk profile score comprising risks corresponding to pain, fall, depression, anxiety, dyspnea, Activities of Daily Living/Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, frail or elderly, medication adherence, engagement, confusion, suicide risk, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

“7. The media of claim 2, wherein the biometrics component collects facility biometric data and assessment data from the EHR or the patient device to determine biometrics for the patient, the biometrics comprising temperature, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial blood pressure, weight, glucose data, supplemental oxygen, an estimate of arterial oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, activity data, or sleep data.

“8. The media of claim 2, wherein the symptomatology component collects assessments from the EHR or the patient device to determine symptomology for the patient, the symptomatology comprising assessed symptoms.

“9. The media of claim 2, wherein the clinical assist component collects facility biometric data from the EHR or the patient device to determine clinical assist mechanisms associated with the patient, the clinical assist mechanisms comprising an indication the patient is on: oxygen, infusion, a particular nutrition plan, dialysis, chemotherapy, radiation, or assistive devices.

“10. The media of claim 1, wherein the plurality of crawlers collect data derived from a symptom diary of the patient, biometric data from a device owned or utilized by the patient, biometric data from a prescribed kit, caregiver risk assessments, a patient schedule, or personal data of the patient.

“11. The media of claim 1, wherein the request is a periodic request, based on a touchpoint, based on an updated provided by or a request made by the patient device, the clinician device, or a clinical system.

“12. A computerized method comprising: receiving, at a community early warning score (CEWS) engine comprising a plurality of data crawlers, a request to dynamically update a CEWS for a patient; automatically initiating a first set of the plurality of data crawlers to collect data in an electronic health record (EHR) of the patient, each of the first set of the plurality of data crawlers being responsible for collecting a distinct type of data within the EHR; utilizing the data collected by the plurality of data crawlers, dynamically updating the CEWS at the CEWS engine; and based on the updated CEWS, initiating a workflow for the patient at the patient device or a clinician device.

“13. The method of claim 12, further comprising initiating a second set of the plurality of data crawlers to collect data originating from a patient device corresponding to the patient.

“14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second set of the plurality of data crawlers collects data derived from a symptom diary of the patient, biometric data from a device owned or utilized by the patient, biometric data from a prescribed kit, caregiver risk assessments, a patient schedule, or personal data of the patient.

“15. The method of claim 12, wherein the request is based on a touchpoint corresponding to a clinician documented change in condition or order.

“16. The method of claim 12, wherein the request is based on a touchpoint corresponding to an unscheduled clinician visit.

“17. The method of claim 12, wherein the request is based on a touchpoint corresponding to a scheduled clinician visit.

“18. The method of claim 12, wherein the request is based on a touchpoint corresponding to a patient question.

“19. The method of claim 12, wherein the request is based on a touchpoint corresonding to a patient reporting a change in condition.

“20. A system comprising: a processor; and a computer storage medium storing computer-usable instructions that, when used by the processor, cause the processor to: receive, at a community early warning score (CEWS) engine comprising a plurality of data crawlers, a request to dynamically update a CEWS for a patient; automatically initiate a first set of the plurality of data crawlers to collect data in an electronic health record (EHR) of the patient, each of the first set of the plurality of data crawlers responsible for collecting a distinct type of data within the EHR; automatically initiate a second set of the plurality of data crawlers to collect data originating from a patient device corresponding to the patient; utilizing the data collected by the plurality of data crawlers, dynamically update the CEWS at the CEWS engine; and based on the updated CEWS, initiate a workflow for the patient at the patient device or a clinician device.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Brown, Georgia. Dynamically updating a community early warning score. U.S. Patent Number 11250959, filed December 31, 2018, and published online on February 15, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11250959.PN.&OS=PN/11250959RS=PN/11250959

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