Managing personal health records using meta-data and cloud storage

Abstract

Patient generated data or personal clinical data in general is considered an important aspect in improving patient outcomes. However, personal clinical data is difficult to collect and manage due to their distributed nature, i.e., located over multiple places such as doctor's office, radiology center, hospitals, or some clinics, and heterogeneous data types such as text, image, chart, or paper based documents. In case of emergency, this situation makes necessary personal clinical data retrieval almost impossible. In addition, since the amount and types of personal clinical data continue to grow, finding relevant clinical data when needed is getting more difficult if no actions are taken. In response to such scenarios, we propose an approach that manages personal health data by utilizing meta-data for organization and easy retrieval of clinical data and cloud storage for easy access and sharing with caregivers to implement the continuity of care and evidence-based treatment. In case of emergency, we make critical medical information such as current medication and allergies available to relevant caregivers with valid license numbers only.