U.S. patent application number 17/247114 was filed with the patent office on 2021-10-14 for medical record management based on hub-and-spoke system.
The applicant listed for this patent is salesforce.com, inc.. Invention is credited to Nadeem Ahmed, Sameer K. Bhatia.
Application Number | 20210319866 17/247114 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 1000005304306 |
Filed Date | 2021-10-14 |
United States Patent
Application |
20210319866 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Ahmed; Nadeem ; et
al. |
October 14, 2021 |
MEDICAL RECORD MANAGEMENT BASED ON HUB-AND-SPOKE SYSTEM
Abstract
Systems and methods may include determining, by the server
computing system associated with a first healthcare network,
patient identification data associated with a patient being treated
by a healthcare provider of the first healthcare network, the
patient identification data including at least facial recognition
data associated with the patient; requesting, by the server
computing associated with the first healthcare network, for health
records of the patient from a plurality of healthcare networks, the
requesting generated based on the patient identification data;
combining, by the server computing system associated with the first
healthcare network, the health records of the patient received from
the plurality of healthcare networks to generate a combined health
record of the patient; and transmitting, by the server computing
system associated with the first healthcare network, the combined
health record of the patient to a computer system associated with
the healthcare provider.
Inventors: |
Ahmed; Nadeem; (Mississauga,
CA) ; Bhatia; Sameer K.; (Omaha, NE) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
salesforce.com, inc. |
San Francisco |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
1000005304306 |
Appl. No.: |
17/247114 |
Filed: |
November 30, 2020 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
63007764 |
Apr 9, 2020 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G16H 10/60 20180101;
G06K 9/00288 20130101; G06K 9/00087 20130101; G06F 21/32 20130101;
G06K 9/00255 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G16H 10/60 20060101
G16H010/60; G06K 9/00 20060101 G06K009/00; G06F 21/32 20060101
G06F021/32 |
Claims
1. A system for combining electronic health record associated with
a plurality of healthcare networks, the system comprising: a
database system implemented using a server computing system, the
server computing system configurable to cause: determining, by the
server computing system associated with a first healthcare network,
patient identification data associated with a patient being treated
by a healthcare provider of the first healthcare network, the
patient identification data including at least facial recognition
data associated with the patient; requesting, by the server
computing associated with the first healthcare network, for health
records of the patient from a plurality of healthcare networks, the
requesting generated based on the patient identification data;
combining, by the server computing system associated with the first
healthcare network, the health records of the patient received from
the plurality of healthcare networks to generate a combined health
record of the patient; and transmitting, by the server computing
system associated with the first healthcare network, the combined
health record of the patient to a computer system associated with
the healthcare provider.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of
healthcare networks is configured to store health records of its
patients based on individual patient identification data.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the requesting for the health
records of the patient from the plurality of healthcare networks
includes data related to a consent of the patient allowing each of
the plurality of healthcare networks to share the health records of
the patient with the first healthcare network.
4. The system of claim 3, wherein the requesting for the health
records of the patient from the plurality of healthcare networks is
performed by the server computing associated with the first
healthcare network based on a hub-and-spoke arrangement using an
application programming interface (API) associated with each of the
plurality of healthcare networks.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein the requesting for the health
records of the patient from the plurality of healthcare networks is
performed based on the first healthcare network being not
associated with a health record of the patient.
6. The system of claim 5, wherein the patient identification data
associated with the patient further includes one or more of voice
recognition data and fingerprint data.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein the combined health record of the
patient is generated by grouping similar categories of the health
records received from the plurality of the healthcare networks.
8. A computer program product for combining electronic health
records (EHRs) associated with a plurality of healthcare networks
comprising computer-readable program code to be executed by one or
more processors when retrieved from a non-transitory
computer-readable medium, the program code including instructions
to: determine, by the server computing system associated with a
first healthcare network, patient identification data associated
with a patient being treated by a healthcare provider of the first
healthcare network, the patient identification data including at
least facial recognition data associated with the patient; request,
by the server computing associated with the first healthcare
network, for health records of the patient from a plurality of
healthcare networks, the requesting generated based on the patient
identification data; combine, by the server computing system
associated with the first healthcare network, the health records of
the patient received from the plurality of healthcare networks to
generate a combined health record of the patient; and transmit, by
the server computing system associated with the first healthcare
network, the combined health record of the patient to a computer
system associated with the healthcare provider.
9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein each of the
plurality of healthcare networks is configured to store health
records of its patients based on individual patient identification
data.
10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the requesting
for the health records of the patient from the plurality of
healthcare networks includes data related to a consent of the
patient allowing each of the plurality of healthcare networks to
share the health records of the patient with the first healthcare
network.
11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the
requesting for the health records of the patient from the plurality
of healthcare networks is performed by the server computing
associated with the first healthcare network based on a
hub-and-spoke arrangement using an application programming
interface (API) associated with each of the plurality of healthcare
networks.
12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the
requesting for the health records of the patient from the plurality
of healthcare networks is performed based on the first healthcare
network being not associated with a health record of the
patient.
13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the patient
identification data associated with the patient further includes
one or more of voice recognition data and fingerprint data.
14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the combined
health record for the patient is generated by grouping similar
categories of the health records received from the plurality of the
healthcare networks.
15. A computer-implemented method for combining electronic health
records (EHRs) associated with a plurality of healthcare networks,
the method comprising: determining, by the server computing system
associated with a first healthcare network, patient identification
data associated with a patient being treated by a healthcare
provider of the first healthcare network, the patient
identification data including at least facial recognition data
associated with the patient; requesting, by the server computing
associated with the first healthcare network, for health records of
the patient from a plurality of healthcare networks, the requesting
generated based on the patient identification data; combining, by
the server computing system associated with the first healthcare
network, the health records of the patient received from the
plurality of healthcare networks to generate a combined health
record of the patient; and transmitting, by the server computing
system associated with the first healthcare network, the combined
health record of the patient to a computer system associated with
the healthcare provider.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of
healthcare networks is configured to store health records of its
patients based on individual patient identification data.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the requesting for the health
records of the patient from the plurality of healthcare networks
includes data related to a consent of the patient allowing each of
the plurality of healthcare networks to share the health records of
the patient with the first healthcare network.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the requesting for the health
records of the patient from the plurality of healthcare networks is
performed by the server computing associated with the first
healthcare network based on a hub-and-spoke arrangement using an
application programming interface (API) associated with each of the
plurality of healthcare networks.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the requesting for the health
records of the patient from the plurality of healthcare networks is
performed based on the first healthcare network being not
associated with a health record of the patient.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the patient identification data
associated with the patient further includes one or more of voice
recognition data and fingerprint data.
Description
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE
[0001] An Application Data Sheet is filed concurrently with this
specification as part of the present application. Each application
that the present application claims benefit of or priority to as
identified in the concurrently filed Application Data Sheet is
incorporated by reference herein in its entirety and for all
purposes.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
[0002] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains
material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright
owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of
the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the
Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise
reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to data processing
and more specifically relates to management of patient records
associated with healthcare networks.
BACKGROUND
[0004] The subject matter discussed in the background section
should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its
mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned
in the background section or associated with the subject matter of
the background section should not be assumed to have been
previously recognized in the prior art.
[0005] Medical histories are important diagnostic tools in the
emergency setting. One of the common problems when treating a
patient in an emergency situation when the patient has not been
treated by a healthcare provider before is the inability for the
patient to provide complete information about the patient's medical
history. Covid-19 is an example of such an emergency situation,
especially when a patient is an elderly or someone from out of the
area. Without the healthcare provider having the medical history, a
patient may be at risk while being treated by the healthcare
provider.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0006] The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and
serve only to provide examples of possible structures and process
operations for the disclosed techniques. These drawings in no way
limit any changes in form and detail that may be made to
implementations by one skilled in the art without departing from
the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
[0007] FIG. 1 shows a diagram of an example computing system that
may be used with some implementations.
[0008] FIG. 2 shows a diagram of an example network environment
that may be used with some implementations.
[0009] FIG. 3A shows an example healthcare system, in accordance
with some implementations.
[0010] FIG. 3B shows an example healthcare system and its combining
EHR module, in accordance with some implementations.
[0011] FIGS. 3C-3D show example phases of reopening in different
geographical areas, in accordance with some implementations.
[0012] FIG. 4 shows an example of a combining EHR module and its
communication with multiple EHR systems, in accordance with some
implementations.
[0013] FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C show examples of patient identification
data used by different EHRs, in accordance with some
implementations.
[0014] FIG. 6A shows an example of application programming
interfaces associated with different healthcare systems, in
accordance with some implementations.
[0015] FIG. 6B shows an example combined patient record generated
by a combining EHR module, in accordance with some
implementations.
[0016] FIG. 7 is an example flow diagram of a process that may be
used to combine the EHRs from different healthcare systems, in
accordance with some implementations.
[0017] FIG. 8A shows a system diagram illustrating architectural
components of an applicable environment, in accordance with some
implementations.
[0018] FIG. 8B shows a system diagram further illustrating
architectural components of an applicable environment, in
accordance with some implementations.
[0019] FIG. 9 shows a system diagram illustrating the architecture
of a multi-tenant database environment, in accordance with some
implementations.
[0020] FIG. 10 shows a system diagram further illustrating the
architecture of a multi-tenant database environment, in accordance
with some implementations.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0021] Some implementations may include systems and methods for
providing combined electronic health records (EHRs) for patients
using EHRs associated with a plurality of healthcare networks. Each
of the EHRs associated with the plurality of healthcare networks
may not be designed to have similar frameworks even though they may
be designed to serve the same purpose of storing EHRs for the
patients. Because of the difference in the frameworks of the EHRs,
it may be difficult for the different healthcare networks to share
their EHRs efficiently. Some implementations may use one or more of
facial recognition data, voice recognition data and fingerprint
data as patient identification data to enable the healthcare
networks to share the EHRs of the patients.
[0022] In a recent report from the University of California San
Francisco analyzing how hospitals are sharing or not sharing with
other healthcare providers outside of their system, more than 95%
of the nation's nearly 6,000 hospitals have an electronic health
records system, but less than one-third or 29.7% are sharing,
sending and receiving electronic patient records with different
outside provider groups. With the current situation with Corvid-19,
being able to access the electronic health records of patients with
minimal delay regardless of which healthcare networks the patients
are associated with may be an important factor in saving their
lives.
[0023] Examples of systems and methods associated with providing
combined EHRs stored by different healthcare networks will be
described with reference to some implementations. These examples
are being provided solely to add context and aid in the
understanding of the present disclosure. It will thus be apparent
to one skilled in the art that the techniques described herein may
be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In
other instances, well known process operations have not been
described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the
present disclosure. Other applications are possible, such that the
following examples should not be taken as definitive or limiting
either in scope or setting.
[0024] In the following detailed description, references are made
to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of the description
and in which are shown, by way of illustration, some
implementations. Although these implementations are described in
sufficient detail to enable one skilled in the art to practice the
disclosure, it is understood that these examples are not limiting,
such that other implementations may be used and changes may be made
without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
[0025] As used herein, the term "multi-tenant database system"
refers to those systems in which various elements of hardware and
software of the database system may be shared by one or more
customers. For example, a given application server may
simultaneously process requests for a great number of customers,
and a given database table may store rows for a potentially much
greater number of customers.
[0026] The described subject matter may be implemented in the
context of any computer-implemented system, such as a
software-based system, a database system, a multi-tenant
environment, or the like. Moreover, the described subject matter
may be implemented in connection with two or more separate and
distinct computer-implemented systems that cooperate and
communicate with one another. One or more examples may be
implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus,
a system, a device, a method, a computer readable medium such as a
computer readable storage medium containing computer readable
instructions or computer program code, or as a computer program
product comprising a computer usable medium having a computer
readable program code embodied therein.
[0027] The disclosed implementations may include a
computer-implemented method to provide combined EHRs for patients.
The method may include determining, by the server computing system
associated with a first healthcare network, patient identification
data associated with a patient being treated by a healthcare
provider of the first healthcare network; requesting, by the server
computing associated with the first healthcare network, for
electronic health records (EHRs) of the patient from a plurality of
healthcare networks, the requesting generated based on the patient
identification data of the patient; combining, by the server
computing system associated with the first healthcare network, the
EHRs of the patient received from the plurality of healthcare
networks to generate a combined EHR for the patient; and
transmitting, by the server computing system associated with the
first healthcare network, the combined EHR for the patient to a
computer system associated with the healthcare provider.
[0028] The disclosed implementations may include a system for
providing combined EHRs for patients. The system may comprise a
database system implemented using a server computing system, the
server computing system configurable to cause determining, by the
server computing system associated with a first healthcare network,
patient identification data associated with a patient being treated
by a healthcare provider of the first healthcare network;
requesting, by the server computing associated with the first
healthcare network, for electronic health records (EHRs) of the
patient from a plurality of healthcare networks, the requesting
generated based on the patient identification data of the patient;
combining, by the server computing system associated with the first
healthcare network, the EHRs of the patient received from the
plurality of healthcare networks to generate a combined EHR for the
patient; and transmitting, by the server computing system
associated with the first healthcare network, the combined EHR for
the patient to a computer system associated with the healthcare
provider.
[0029] The disclosed implementations may include a computer program
product comprising computer-readable program code to be executed by
one or more processors of a server computing system when retrieved
from a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the program code
including instructions to determine, by the server computing system
associated with a first healthcare network, patient identification
data associated with a patient being treated by a healthcare
provider of the first healthcare network; request, by the server
computing associated with the first healthcare network, for
electronic health records (EHRs) of the patient from a plurality of
healthcare networks, the requesting generated based on the patient
identification data of the patient; combine, by the server
computing system associated with the first healthcare network, the
EHRs of the patient received from the plurality of healthcare
networks to generate a combined EHR for the patient; and transmit,
by the server computing system associated with the first healthcare
network, the combined EHR for the patient to a computer system
associated with the healthcare provider.
[0030] While one or more implementations and techniques are
described with reference to providing combined EHRs for patients
implemented in a system having an application server providing a
front end for an on-demand database service capable of supporting
multiple tenants, the one or more implementations and techniques
are not limited to multi-tenant databases nor deployment on
application servers. Implementations may be practiced using other
database architectures, i.e., ORACLE.RTM., DB2.RTM. by IBM and the
like without departing from the scope of the claimed subject
matter. Further, some implementations may include using Hardware
Security Module (HSM), a physical computing device that safeguards
and manages digital keys for strong authentication, including, for
example, the keys used to encrypt secrets associated with the data
elements stored in the data stores. It may be noted that the term
"data store" may refer to source control systems, file storage,
virtual file systems, non-relational databases (such as NoSQL),
etc.
[0031] Any of the above implementations may be used alone or
together with one another in any combination. The one or more
implementations encompassed within this specification may also
include examples that are only partially mentioned or alluded to or
are not mentioned or alluded to at all in this brief summary or in
the abstract. Although various implementations may have been
motivated by various deficiencies with the prior art, which may be
discussed or alluded to in one or more places in the specification,
the implementations do not necessarily address any of these
deficiencies. In other words, different implementations may address
different deficiencies that may be discussed in the specification.
Some implementations may only partially address some deficiencies
or just one deficiency that may be discussed in the specification,
and some implementations may not address any of these
deficiencies.
[0032] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example computing system that may
be used with some implementations. In diagram 102, computing system
110 may be used by a user to establish a connection with a server
computing system. The computing system 110 is only one example of a
suitable computing system, such as a mobile computing system, and
is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or
functionality of the design. Neither should the computing system
110 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating
to any one or combination of components illustrated. The design is
operational with numerous other general-purpose or special-purpose
computing systems. Examples of well-known computing systems,
environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use
with the design include, but are not limited to, personal
computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices,
multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top
boxes, programmable consumer electronics, mini-computers, mainframe
computers, distributed computing environments that include any of
the above systems or devices, and the like. For example, the
computing system 110 may be implemented as a mobile computing
system such as one that is configured to run with an operating
system (e.g., iOS) developed by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. or
an operating system (e.g., Android) that is developed by Google
Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.
[0033] Some implementations may be described in the general context
of computing system executable instructions, such as program
modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules
include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures,
etc. that performs particular tasks or implement particular
abstract data types. Those skilled in the art can implement the
description and/or figures herein as computer-executable
instructions, which can be embodied on any form of computing
machine program product discussed below.
[0034] Some implementations may also be practiced in distributed
computing environments where tasks are performed by remote
processing devices that are linked through a communications
network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules
may be located in both local and remote computer storage media
including memory storage devices.
[0035] Referring to FIG. 1, the computing system 110 may include,
but are not limited to, a processing unit 120 having one or more
processing cores, a system memory 130, and a system bus 121 that
couples with various system components including the system memory
130 to the processing unit 120. The system bus 121 may be any of
several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory
controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a
variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not
limitation, such architectures include Industry Standard
Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus,
Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association
(VESA) locale bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus
also known as Mezzanine bus.
[0036] The computing system 110 typically includes a variety of
computer program product. Computer program product can be any
available media that can be accessed by computing system 110 and
includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and
non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation,
computer program product may store information such as computer
readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other
data. Computer storage media include, but are not limited to, RAM,
ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM,
digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage,
magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other
magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to
store the desired information and which can be accessed by
computing system 110. Communication media typically embodies
computer readable instructions, data structures, or program
modules.
[0037] The system memory 130 may include computer storage media in
the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only
memory (ROM) 131 and random access memory (RAM) 132. A basic
input/output system (BIOS) 133, containing the basic routines that
help to transfer information between elements within computing
system 110, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM
131. RAM 132 typically contains data and/or program modules that
are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by
processing unit 120. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 1
also illustrates operating system 134, application programs 135,
other program modules 136, and program data 137.
[0038] The computing system 110 may also include other
removable/non-removable volatile/nonvolatile computer storage
media. By way of example only, FIG. 1 also illustrates a hard disk
drive 141 that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile
magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 151 that reads from or writes
to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 152, and an optical disk
drive 155 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile
optical disk 156 such as, for example, a CD ROM or other optical
media. Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer
storage media that can be used in the exemplary operating
environment include, but are not limited to, USB drives and
devices, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital
versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state
ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive 141 is typically connected
to the system bus 121 through a non-removable memory interface such
as interface 140, and magnetic disk drive 151 and optical disk
drive 155 are typically connected to the system bus 121 by a
removable memory interface, such as interface 150.
[0039] The drives and their associated computer storage media
discussed above and illustrated in FIG. 1, provide storage of
computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules
and other data for the computing system 110. In FIG. 1, for
example, hard disk drive 141 is illustrated as storing operating
system 144, application programs 145, other program modules 146,
and program data 147. Note that these components can either be the
same as or different from operating system 134, application
programs 135, other program modules 136, and program data 137. The
operating system 144, the application programs 145, the other
program modules 146, and the program data 147 are given different
numeric identification here to illustrate that, at a minimum, they
are different copies.
[0040] A user may enter commands and information into the computing
system 110 through input devices such as a keyboard 162, a
microphone 163, and a pointing device 161, such as a mouse,
trackball or touch pad or touch screen. Other input devices (not
shown) may include a joystick, game pad, scanner, or the like.
These and other input devices are often connected to the processing
unit 120 through a user input interface 160 that is coupled with
the system bus 121, but may be connected by other interface and bus
structures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal
serial bus (USB). A monitor 191 or other type of display device is
also connected to the system bus 121 via an interface, such as a
video interface 190. In addition to the monitor, computers may also
include other peripheral output devices such as speakers 197 and
printer 196, which may be connected through an output peripheral
interface 190.
[0041] The computing system 110 may operate in a networked
environment using logical connections to one or more remote
computers, such as a remote computer 180. The remote computer 180
may be a personal computer, a hand-held device, a server, a router,
a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and
typically includes many or all of the elements described above
relative to the computing system 110. The logical connections
depicted in FIG. 1 include a local area network (LAN) 171 and a
wide area network (WAN) 173 but may also include other networks.
Such networking environments are commonplace in offices,
enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet.
[0042] FIG. 1 includes a local area network (LAN) 171 and a wide
area network (WAN) 173 but may also include other networks. Such
networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide
computer networks, intranets and the Internet.
[0043] When used in a LAN networking environment, the computing
system 110 may be connected to the LAN 171 through a network
interface or adapter 170. When used in a WAN networking
environment, the computing system 110 typically includes a modem
172 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN
173, such as the Internet. The modem 172, which may be internal or
external, may be connected to the system bus 121 via the user-input
interface 160, or other appropriate mechanism. In a networked
environment, program modules depicted relative to the computing
system 110, or portions thereof, may be stored in a remote memory
storage device. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 1
illustrates remote application programs 185 as residing on remote
computer 180. It will be appreciated that the network connections
shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a
communications link between the computers may be used.
[0044] It should be noted that some implementations may be carried
out on a computing system such as that described with respect to
FIG. 1. However, some implementations may be carried out on a
server, a computer devoted to message handling, handheld devices,
or on a distributed system in which different portions of the
present design may be carried out on different parts of the
distributed computing system.
[0045] Another device that may be coupled with the system bus 121
is a power supply such as a battery or a Direct Current (DC) power
supply) and Alternating Current (AC) adapter circuit. The DC power
supply may be a battery, a fuel cell, or similar DC power source
needs to be recharged on a periodic basis. The communication module
(or modem) 172 may employ a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) to
establish a wireless communication channel. The communication
module 172 may implement a wireless networking standard such as
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11
standard, IEEE std. 802.11-1999, published by IEEE in 1999.
[0046] Examples of mobile computing systems may be a laptop
computer, a tablet computer, a Netbook, a smart phone, a personal
digital assistant, or other similar device with on board processing
power and wireless communications ability that is powered by a
Direct Current (DC) power source that supplies DC voltage to the
mobile computing system and that is solely within the mobile
computing system and needs to be recharged on a periodic basis,
such as a fuel cell or a battery.
[0047] FIG. 2 shows a diagram of an example network environment
that may be used with some implementations. Diagram 200 includes
computing systems 290 and 291. One or more of the computing systems
290 and 291 may be a mobile computing system. The computing systems
290 and 291 may be connected to the network 250 via a cellular
connection or via a Wi-Fi router (not shown). The network 250 may
be the Internet. The computing systems 290 and 291 may be coupled
with server computing systems 255 via the network 250. The server
computing system 255 may be coupled with database 270.
[0048] Each of the computing systems 290 and 291 may include an
application module such as module 208 or 214. For example, a user
may use the computing system 290 and the application module 208 to
connect to and communicate with the server computing system 255 and
log into application 257 (e.g., a Salesforce.com.RTM.
application).
[0049] For some implementations, one of the computing systems 290
and 291 may be used by an administrator associated with a
healthcare system to initiate the process of obtaining a combined
EHR for a patient. The administrator may be associated with a
healthcare system 305 (shown in FIG. 3A). The administrator may log
into the healthcare system 305 via the application 257. The
administrator may then launch the application 260 (also referred to
as combining EHR module 260). The combining EHR module 260 may be
coupled with database 270 which may be configured to store patient
health records associated with a plurality of patients. The
database 270 may span across multiple database systems and may
include multiple databases. The combining EHR module 260 may be
configured to communicate to one or more other server computer
systems to generate a combined EHR for a patient from one or more
EHRs that the patient may be associated with. The one or more other
server computer systems may be associated with other healthcare
systems.
[0050] FIG. 3A shows an example healthcare system, in accordance
with some implementations. The healthcare system 305 in diagram 300
may be associated with a hospital, a medical group, a system of
hospitals or with any healthcare provider providing healthcare
related services to a plurality of patients. For example, the
healthcare system 305 may be implemented as a tenant in a
multi-tenant environment and may be associated with a system having
an application server providing a front end for an on-demand
database service capable of supporting multiple tenants. The
healthcare system 305 may be part of one system, or it may span
several systems across multiple geographical areas.
[0051] For some implementations, the healthcare system 305 may be
configured to cause performing operations related to managing
available physical resources and physical capacities such as
equipments and beds 335. For some implementations, the healthcare
system 305 may be configured to cause performing operations related
to managing available human resources or human capacities such as
treating specialists 325 and supporting staff 330. For some
implementations, the healthcare system 305 may be configured to
cause performing operations related to patient outreach which may
include communicating with the patients 320 to let them know that
the hospitals or medical providers are open for business again and
will be rebooking or rescheduling them and guide them through a
scheduling process for return appointments. This may be performed
by the customer outreach and patient appointment scheduling module
340. For some implementations, the healthcare system 305 may be
configured to cause operations related to billing, finance or
insurance payment 310 to process billing and to determine margin
and revenue mix, collect payments for treatments provided to the
plurality of patients 320. This may include operations related to
completing insurance forms, filling out forms related to the intake
processes, etc.
[0052] For some implementations, the healthcare system 305 may be
configured to cause accessing an electronic health record (EHR) 315
to access patient health records for the plurality of patients 320.
The EHR 315 may also be referred to as electronic medical record
(EMR). The EHR 315 may be configured to store patient health
records of patients associated with the healthcare system 305. For
example, a patient health record may include information about a
patient's most current health condition as well as information
about past health condition. For some implementations, a patient
health record may include information about past surgeries, type of
treatments received, immunization dates, allergies, radiology
images, laboratory and test results, hospital stay, past
appointments, and insurance coverage information when applicable.
For some implementations, a patient health record may also include
characteristic information about a patient including, for example,
age, racial background, education background, gender, employment
information and current contact information including mailing
address, telephone number and email address.
[0053] For some implementations, when there is a shared health
event such as, for example, a pandemic, the healthcare system 305
may be configured to cause receiving shared health event update 345
from one or more of local, national and international health
organization such as, for example, Center for Disease Control (CDC)
and World Health Organization (WHO). For example, the shared health
event update 345 may include information about the different
reopening phases associated with the shared health event.
[0054] FIG. 3B shows an example healthcare system and its combining
EHR module, in accordance with some implementations. The healthcare
system 305 in diagram 350 may be configured to cause obtaining
combined EHRs for patients when the patients may be associated with
one or more EHRs. The combined EHR may help the healthcare provider
associated with the healthcare system 305 have a more complete
health-related histories of the patients. For example, when a
patient is admitted at a hospital because of an emergency
situation, and the patient is unable to provide any medical
history, the hospital may use the identification of the patient to
find out all possible medical histories in order to determine the
best treatment action. The operations may be performed by the
combining EHR module 260. The combining EHR module 260 may be
configured to use the identification of the patient and search for
possible medical histories from different healthcare systems. It
may be possible that the different healthcare systems may need to
participate in a shared program that enable the search to occur. It
may be possible that the different healthcare systems may
automatically enable the search to occur when the search is based
on emergency situations. It may be possible that the combined EHR
may result in only the EHR 315 (shown in FIG. 3A) when a patient is
only associated with the healthcare system 305.
[0055] FIGS. 3C-3D show example phases of reopening in different
geographical areas, in accordance with some implementations.
Reopening phases 380 shown in FIG. 3C may correspond to the
reopening phases from Covid-19 as applied in the state of New York.
Reopening phases 390 shown in FIG. 3D may correspond to the
reopening phases from Covid-19 as applied in the state of
California. It may be noticed that the reopening phases 380 and 390
are different from one another, even though they are both
applicable to Covid-19. There are three phases in the reopening
phases 380, with phase 1 being most dangerous to high risk
individuals, and they must stay at home. Phase 2 of the reopening
phases 380 may be more open and businesses may resume operations
but require practicing of social distancing. Phase 3 of the
reopening phases 380 may be least restrictive where businesses may
resume normal operations with normal staffing. In comparison, there
are four phases in the reopening phases 390 with phase 1 being most
restrictive, phases 2 and 3 may be applicable to reopening
workplaces at lower risks and those at higher risks respectively,
while phase 4 may be applicable to end of stay at home order and
gradual opening of larger gathering venues.
[0056] It may be noticed that, since the reopening phases may be
different for different areas (e.g., New York vs. California), it
is possible that the timing of the reopening phases are also
different. For example, while the state of New York may start the
reopening phase 3 on Aug. 15, 2020, the state of California may
start the reopening phase 3 on Jul. 15, 2020. It may also be
noticed that the difference in the phases may be based on the
difference in population density. For example, an area that has a
large population may be associated with the reopening phases that
may span over a longer time period as compared to an area of
similar size but with a smaller population. The reopening phases
may also vary based on availability of vaccine. For example, in an
area where the vaccine is very accessible, the reopening phases may
be more aggressive than an area where accessing the vaccine is
difficult or not easily accessible.
[0057] For some implementations, a risk level may be associated
with each reopening phase for a geographical area. The risk level
may decrease as more safety measures such as, for example, social
distancing requirements, mask requirements, etc. are put in place
and practiced by members of the geographical area. For example,
there may be a higher risk of being exposed to Covid-19 during
reopening phase 1 of California than during the reopening phase 3
of California. For some implementations, the risk level associated
with the reopening phases of a shared health event (e.g., Covid-19)
may be considered in scheduling the plurality of patients for
return appointments. For example, less patients may be scheduled
for return appointment during reopening phase 1 in California, and
more patients may be scheduled for return appointments during
reopening phase 3 in California. As another example, patients with
serious underlying condition such as heart disease may be less
likely to be scheduled for a return appointment during the
reopening phase 1 in California, but more likely to be scheduled
for a return appointment during the reopening phase 3 in
California.
[0058] For some implementations, a current reopening phase may be
rolled back due to change to the shared health event, and the
rescheduling of the patients for the return appointments may
reflect the rolled back reopening phase. For example, the change in
the shared health event may reflect a situation when the shared
health event may become worse when it was expected to be better,
and a current reopening phase (e.g., phase 3) may revert back to a
previous reopening phase (e.g., phase 2) instead of the next
reopening phase (e.g., phase 4). As the spread of Covid-19
continues to increase in the second wave during late 2020, the
number of people getting infected continues to increase. This
increase may cause more people to be admitted to the hospitals for
treatments, and the need to have their medical records available
becomes more apparent when the patients are unable to provide such
information.
[0059] FIG. 4 shows an example of a combining EHR module and its
communication with different healthcare networks, in accordance
with some implementations. In diagram 400, the combining EHR module
260 may be configured to communicate with the computer systems
associated with the healthcare networks 415A, 415B, 415C, 415D and
415E in a hub and spoke arrangement. The combining EHR module 260
may be configured to execute in a server computer system such as
the healthcare system 305 (shown in FIG. 3A), which may be
associated with a different healthcare network. Each of the
healthcare networks 415A, 415B, 415C, 415D and 415E may be
associated with its own EHR. For some implementations, each of the
healthcare networks 415A, 415B, 415C, 415D and 415E may be
associated with a combining EHR module such as the combining EHR
module 260. As such, any of the combining EHR module associated
with the healthcare networks 415A, 415B, 415C, 415D or 415E may be
configured to operate in a hub position communicating with the
other healthcare networks. For example, when a Covid-19 patient is
admitted to a healthcare network 415A, the combining EHR module
associated with the healthcare network 415A may communicate with
the server computer systems associated with the other healthcare
networks in a hub and spoke arrangement to retrieve the health
records of a patient.
[0060] FIG. 5A shows an example patient identification data used by
the different EHRs, in accordance with some implementations. Each
of the healthcare networks shown in FIG. 4 may be associated with a
server computing system that stores patient records in an EHR. As
shown in diagram 500, these EHRs may be the EHR 315A, 315B, 315C,
315D and 315E. There may be patient identification data 510 about
each patient that an EHR may use to distinguish one patient from
the other patients. For example, the patient identification data
510 may include social security number 525, date of birth 526 and
gender 527, as shown in diagram 520 of FIG. 5B. As such, when a
patient with Covid-19 is admitted to a healthcare network
associated with the EHR 315A, the combining EHR module associated
with the EHR 315A may be able to communicate with the server
computer system associated with the EHR 315B to determine whether
the EHR 315B has any health record of the patient based on the set
of unique patient information. Similarly, a combining EHR module
associated with the EHR 315B may be able to communicate with the
server computer system associated with each of the EHRs 315C, 315D
and 315E to determine whether they have any health record of the
patient based on the set of unique patient information. For some
implementations, instead of using the unique patient information
that includes the social security number 525, the date of birth 526
and the gender 527, data that is naturally unique to a patient may
be used. The data that is naturally unique to a patient may include
facial recognition data 560, voice recognition data 565 and
fingerprint data 570, as shown in diagram 550 of FIG. 5C. For some
implementations a combination of one or more of the information
shown in FIG. 5B and FIG. 5C may be used to form the patient
identification data.
[0061] For some implementations, consent may need to be provided by
a patient in order for the health record of the patient to be
obtained from the different healthcare networks. For some
implementations, the consent of the patient may need to be provided
to a healthcare network in order to retrieve the health record of
the patient from the EHR associated with the healthcare network. It
may be possible that none or only a few of the healthcare networks
have any health records of the patient.
[0062] Being able to access the health records of a patient from
different healthcare systems in a timely manner may enable the
treating physicians to develop a more complete treatment plan for a
patient that they may not have seen before but they have to treat
because of an emergency situation such as, for example, the
Covid-19 situation. For some implementations, the different
healthcare systems may participate in a health record sharing
network where the participants may allow other participants to
access their health records using the hub and spoke arrangement
described with FIGS. 4, 5A, 5B and 5C even though the health
records may be stored using different framework (e.g., different
database schema).
[0063] FIG. 6A shows an example of application programming
interfaces associated with different healthcare systems, in
accordance with some implementations. In order to share the health
records of their patients, each of the server computing system
associated with the EHR 315A, 315B, 315C, 315D and 315E may be
associated with an application programming interface (API), as
shown in diagram 600. An API may specify the format to access the
health records in a database that is configured to store the health
records. The API associated with one server computing system may be
different from the API associated with another server computing
system. An API may require an application (e.g., the combining
module 260) to provide the patient identification data 510 to
determine whether a particular healthcare network has any health
record of a patient.
[0064] FIG. 6B shows an example combined patient record generated
by a combining EHR module, in accordance with some implementations.
Combined EHR record 395 may be configured to include patient
identification data 510 (shown in FIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C) for a
particular patient. For some implementations, the combined EHR
record 395 may include the EHR from each of the EHRs that has
information about the patient combined into one file in a serial
format. For example, the combined EHR record 395 may include all
records from the EHR 315B, followed by all records from the EHR
315D and then followed by all records from the EHR 315E, as shown
in diagram 650. For some implementations, the combining EHR module
260 may be configured to evaluate the records retrieved from each
of the EHRs, extract similar sections from each EHRs, and combine
them by categories so that similar categories of the EHRs from the
multiple healthcare networks may be viewed together by a healthcare
provider. For example, all the immunization information may be
grouped together and all the xray information may be grouped
together. For some implementations, the combined health record may
be stored by the server computing system that initiates the request
for the health records of the patient.
[0065] FIG. 7 is an example flow diagram of a process that may be
used to combine the EHRs from different healthcare systems, in
accordance with some implementations. The process in diagram 700
may be performed by the combining EHR module 260 (shown in FIG. 4).
At block 705, patient identification data associated with a patient
being treated by a healthcare provider of the first healthcare
network may be determined. Examples of the patient identification
data is shown in FIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C. The patient identification
data may be determined by a server computing system associated with
a first healthcare network.
[0066] At block 710, the electronic health records (EHRs) of the
patient may be obtained from a plurality of healthcare networks
based on the patient identification data. Consent from the patient
may be provided to obtain the EHRs from the plurality of healthcare
networks. At block 715, the EHRs obtained from the plurality of
healthcare networks may be combined to generate a combined EHR for
the patient. At block 720, the combined EHRs for the patient may be
communicated to a computer system associated with a healthcare
provider.
[0067] FIG. 8A shows a system diagram 800 illustrating
architectural components of an on-demand service environment, in
accordance with some implementations. A client machine located in
the cloud 804 (or Internet) may communicate with the on-demand
service environment via one or more edge routers 808 and 812. The
edge routers may communicate with one or more core switches 820 and
824 via firewall 816. The core switches may communicate with a load
balancer 828, which may distribute server load over different pods,
such as the pods 840 and 844. The pods 840 and 844, which may each
include one or more servers and/or other computing resources, may
perform data processing and other operations used to provide
on-demand Services. Communication with the pods may be conducted
via pod switches 832 and 836. Components of the on-demand service
environment may communicate with a database storage system 856 via
a database firewall 848 and a database switch 852.
[0068] As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, accessing an on-demand service
environment may involve communications transmitted among a variety
of different hardware and/or software components. Further, the
on-demand service environment 800 is a simplified representation of
an actual on-demand service environment. For example, while only
one or two devices of each type are shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, some
implementations of an on-demand service environment may include
anywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demand
service environment need not include each device shown in FIGS. 8A
and 8B or may include additional devices not shown in FIGS. 8A and
8B.
[0069] Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand
service environment 800 may be implemented on the same physical
device or on different hardware. Some devices may be implemented
using hardware or a combination of hardware and software. Thus,
terms such as "data processing apparatus," "machine," "server" and
"device" as used herein are not limited to a single hardware
device, but rather include any hardware and software configured to
provide the described functionality.
[0070] The cloud 804 is intended to refer to a data network or
plurality of data networks, often including the Internet. Client
machines located in the cloud 804 may communicate with the
on-demand service environment to access services provided by the
on-demand service environment. For example, client machines may
access the on-demand service environment to retrieve, store, edit,
and/or process information.
[0071] In some implementations, the edge routers 808 and 812 route
packets between the cloud 804 and other components of the on-demand
service environment 800. The edge routers 808 and 812 may employ
the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing
protocol of the Internet. The edge routers 808 and 812 may maintain
a table of IP networks or `prefixes` which designate network
reachability among autonomous systems on the Internet.
[0072] In one or more implementations, the firewall 816 may protect
the inner components of the on-demand service environment 800 from
Internet traffic. The firewall 816 may block, permit, or deny
access to the inner components of the on-demand service environment
800 based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall 816
may act as one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway,
a stateful filter, a proxy server, or any other type of
firewall.
[0073] In some implementations, the core switches 820 and 824 are
high-capacity switches that transfer packets within the on-demand
service environment 800. The core switches 820 and 824 may be
configured as network bridges that quickly route data between
different components within the on-demand service environment. In
some implementations, the use of two or more core switches 820 and
824 may provide redundancy and/or reduced latency.
[0074] In some implementations, the pods 840 and 844 may perform
the core data processing and service functions provided by the
on-demand service environment. Each pod may include various types
of hardware and/or software computing resources. An example of the
pod architecture is discussed in greater detail with reference to
FIG. 8B.
[0075] In some implementations, communication between the pods 840
and 844 may be conducted via the pod switches 832 and 836. The pod
switches 832 and 836 may facilitate communication between the pods
840 and 844 and client machines located in the cloud 804, for
example via core switches 820 and 824. Also, the pod switches 832
and 836 may facilitate communication between the pods 840 and 844
and the database storage 856.
[0076] In some implementations, the load balancer 828 may
distribute workload between the pods 840 and 844. Balancing the
on-demand service requests between the pods may assist in improving
the use of resources, increasing throughput, reducing response
times, and/or reducing overhead. The load balancer 828 may include
multilayer switches to analyze and forward traffic.
[0077] In some implementations, access to the database storage 856
may be guarded by a database firewall 848. The database firewall
848 may act as a computer application firewall operating at the
database application layer of a protocol stack. The database
firewall 848 may protect the database storage 856 from application
attacks such as structure query language (SQL) injection, database
rootkits, and unauthorized information disclosure.
[0078] In some implementations, the database firewall 848 may
include a host using one or more forms of reverse proxy services to
proxy traffic before passing it to a gateway router. The database
firewall 848 may inspect the contents of database traffic and block
certain content or database requests. The database firewall 848 may
work on the SQL application level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing
applications' connection to the database or SQL management
interfaces as well as intercepting and enforcing packets traveling
to or from a database network or application interface.
[0079] In some implementations, communication with the database
storage system 856 may be conducted via the database switch 852.
The multi-tenant database system 856 may include more than one
hardware and/or software components for handling database queries.
Accordingly, the database switch 852 may direct database queries
transmitted by other components of the on-demand service
environment (e.g., the pods 840 and 844) to the correct components
within the database storage system 856. In some implementations,
the database storage system 856 is an on-demand database system
shared by many different organizations. The on-demand database
system may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualized approach,
or any other type of database approach. An on-demand database
system is discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 9 and
10.
[0080] FIG. 8B shows a system diagram illustrating the architecture
of the pod 844, in accordance with one implementation. The pod 844
may be used to render services to a user of the on-demand service
environment 800. In some implementations, each pod may include a
variety of servers and/or other systems. The pod 844 includes one
or more content batch servers 864, content search servers 868,
query servers 882, Fileforce servers 886, access control system
(ACS) servers 880, batch servers 884, and app servers 888. Also,
the pod 844 includes database instances 890, quick file systems
(QFS) 892, and indexers 894. In one or more implementations, some
or all communication between the servers in the pod 844 may be
transmitted via the switch 836.
[0081] In some implementations, the application servers 888 may
include a hardware and/or software framework dedicated to the
execution of procedures (e.g., programs, routines, scripts) for
supporting the construction of applications provided by the
on-demand service environment 800 via the pod 844. Some such
procedures may include operations for providing the services
described herein. The content batch servers 864 may request
internal to the pod. These requests may be long-running and/or not
tied to a particular customer. For example, the content batch
servers 864 may handle requests related to log mining, cleanup
work, and maintenance tasks.
[0082] The content search servers 868 may provide query and indexer
functions. For example, the functions provided by the content
search servers 868 may allow users to search through content stored
in the on-demand service environment. The Fileforce servers 886 may
manage requests information stored in the Fileforce storage 898.
The Fileforce storage 898 may store information such as documents,
images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managing requests for
information using the Fileforce servers 886, the image footprint on
the database may be reduced.
[0083] The query servers 882 may be used to retrieve information
from one or more file systems. For example, the query system 872
may receive requests for information from the app servers 888 and
then transmit information queries to the NFS 896 located outside
the pod. The pod 844 may share a database instance 890 configured
as a multi-tenant environment in which different organizations
share access to the same database. Additionally, services rendered
by the pod 844 may require various hardware and/or software
resources. In some implementations, the ACS servers 880 may control
access to data, hardware resources, or software resources.
[0084] In some implementations, the batch servers 884 may process
batch jobs, which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus,
the batch servers 884 may transmit instructions to other servers,
such as the app servers 888, to trigger the batch jobs. For some
implementations, the QFS 892 may be an open source file system
available from Sun Microsystems.RTM. of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS
may serve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessing
information available within the pod 844. The QFS 892 may support
some volume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be
grouped together into a file system. File system metadata can be
kept on a separate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming
applications where long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the
QFS system may communicate with one or more content search servers
868 and/or indexers 894 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update
data stored in the network file systems 896 and/or other storage
systems.
[0085] In some implementations, one or more query servers 882 may
communicate with the NFS 896 to retrieve and/or update information
stored outside of the pod 844. The NFS 896 may allow servers
located in the pod 844 to access information to access files over a
network in a manner similar to how local storage is accessed. In
some implementations, queries from the query servers 882 may be
transmitted to the NFS 896 via the load balancer 820, which may
distribute resource requests over various resources available in
the on-demand service environment. The NFS 896 may also communicate
with the QFS 892 to update the information stored on the NFS 896
and/or to provide information to the QFS 892 for use by servers
located within the pod 844.
[0086] In some implementations, the pod may include one or more
database instances 890. The database instance 890 may transmit
information to the QFS 892. When information is transmitted to the
QFS, it may be available for use by servers within the pod 844
without requiring an additional database call. In some
implementations, database information may be transmitted to the
indexer 894. Indexer 894 may provide an index of information
available in the database 890 and/or QFS 892. The index information
may be provided to Fileforce servers 886 and/or the QFS 892.
[0087] FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of an environment 910 wherein
an on-demand database service might be used, in accordance with
some implementations. Environment 910 includes an on-demand
database service 916. User system 912 may be any machine or system
that is used by a user to access a database user system. For
example, any of user systems 912 can be a handheld computing
system, a mobile phone, a laptop computer, a workstation, and/or a
network of computing systems. As illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10,
user systems 912 might interact via a network 914 with the
on-demand database service 916.
[0088] An on-demand database service, such as system 916, is a
database system that is made available to outside users that do not
need to necessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining
the database system, but instead may be available for their use
when the users need the database system (e.g., on the demand of the
users). Some on-demand database services may store information from
one or more tenants stored into tables of a common database image
to form a multi-tenant database system (MTS). Accordingly,
"on-demand database service 916" and "system 916" will be used
interchangeably herein. A database image may include one or more
database objects. A relational database management system (RDBMS)
or the equivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information
against the database object(s). Application platform 918 may be a
framework that allows the applications of system 916 to run, such
as the hardware and/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an
implementation, on-demand database service 916 may include an
application platform 918 that enables creation, managing and
executing one or more applications developed by the provider of the
on-demand database service, users accessing the on-demand database
service via user systems 912, or third party application developers
accessing the on-demand database service via user systems 912.
[0089] One arrangement for elements of system 916 is shown in FIG.
9, including a network interface 920, application platform 918,
tenant data storage 922 for tenant data 923, system data storage
924 for system data 925 accessible to system 916 and possibly
multiple tenants, program code 926 for implementing various
functions of system 916, and a process space 928 for executing MTS
system processes and tenant-specific processes, such as running
applications as part of an application hosting service. Additional
processes that may execute on system 916 include database indexing
processes.
[0090] The users of user systems 912 may differ in their respective
capacities, and the capacity of a particular user system 912 might
be entirely determined by permissions (permission levels) for the
current user. For example, where a call center agent is using a
particular user system 912 to interact with system 916, the user
system 912 has the capacities allotted to that call center agent.
However, while an administrator is using that user system to
interact with system 916, that user system has the capacities
allotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical role
model, users at one permission level may have access to
applications, data, and database information accessible by a lower
permission level user, but may not have access to certain
applications, database information, and data accessible by a user
at a higher permission level. Thus, different users may have
different capabilities with regard to accessing and modifying
application and database information, depending on a user's
security or permission level.
[0091] Network 914 is any network or combination of networks of
devices that communicate with one another. For example, network 914
can be any one or any combination of a LAN (local area network),
WAN (wide area network), telephone network, wireless network,
point-to-point network, star network, token ring network, hub
network, or other appropriate configuration. As the most common
type of computer network in current use is a TCP/IP (Transfer
Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) network (e.g., the
Internet), that network will be used in many of the examples
herein. However, it should be understood that the networks used in
some implementations are not so limited, although TCP/IP is a
frequently implemented protocol.
[0092] User systems 912 might communicate with system 916 using
TCP/IP and, at a higher network level, use other common Internet
protocols to communicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an
example where HTTP is used, user system 912 might include an HTTP
client commonly referred to as a "browser" for sending and
receiving HTTP messages to and from an HTTP server at system 916.
Such an HTTP server might be implemented as the sole network
interface between system 916 and network 914, but other techniques
might be used as well or instead. In some implementations, the
interface between system 916 and network 914 includes load sharing
functionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors to
balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a
plurality of servers. At least as for the users that are accessing
that server, each of the plurality of servers has access to the
MTS' data; however, other alternative configurations may be used
instead.
[0093] In some implementations, system 916, shown in FIG. 9,
implements a web-based customer relationship management (CRM)
system. For example, in some implementations, system 916 includes
application servers configured to implement and execute CRM
software applications as well as provide related data, code, forms,
web pages and other information to and from user systems 912 and to
store to, and retrieve from, a database system related data,
objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system, data for
multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical database
object, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of
one tenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so
that one tenant does not have access to another tenant's data,
unless such data is expressly shared. In certain implementations,
system 916 implements applications other than, or in addition to, a
CRM application. For example, system 916 may provide tenant access
to multiple hosted (standard and custom) applications. User (or
third party developer) applications, which may or may not include
CRM, may be supported by the application platform 918, which
manages creation, storage of the applications into one or more
database objects and executing of the applications in a virtual
machine in the process space of the system 916.
[0094] Each user system 912 could include a desktop personal
computer, workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless
access protocol (WAP) enabled device or any other computing system
capable of interfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or
other network connection. User system 912 typically runs an HTTP
client, e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet
Explorer.RTM. browser, Mozilla's Firefox.RTM. browser, Opera's
browser, or a WAP-enabled browser in the case of a cell phone, PDA
or other wireless device, or the like, allowing a user (e.g.,
subscriber of the multi-tenant database system) of user system 912
to access, process and view information, pages and applications
available to it from system 916 over network 914.
[0095] Each user system 912 also typically includes one or more
user interface devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball,
touch pad, touch screen, pen or the like, for interacting with a
graphical user interface (GUI) provided by the browser on a display
(e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.) in conjunction with
pages, forms, applications and other information provided by system
916 or other systems or servers. For example, the user interface
device can be used to access data and applications hosted by system
916, and to perform searches on stored data, and otherwise allow a
user to interact with various GUI pages that may be presented to a
user. As discussed above, implementations are suitable for use with
the Internet, which refers to a specific global internetwork of
networks. However, it should be understood that other networks can
be used instead of the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet,
a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any
LAN or WAN or the like.
[0096] According to some implementations, each user system 912 and
all of its components are operator configurable using applications,
such as a browser, including computer code run using a central
processing unit such as an Intel Pentium.RTM. processor or the
like. Similarly, system 916 (and additional instances of an MTS,
where more than one is present) and all of their components might
be operator configurable using application(s) including computer
code to run using a central processing unit such as processor
system 917, which may include an Intel Pentium.RTM. processor or
the like, and/or multiple processor units.
[0097] A computer program product implementation includes a
machine-readable storage medium (media) having instructions stored
thereon/in which can be used to program a computer to perform any
of the processes of the implementations described herein. Computer
code for operating and configuring system 916 to intercommunicate
and to process web pages, applications and other data and media
content as described herein are preferably downloaded and stored on
a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may
also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium
or device, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable
of storing program code, such as any type of rotating media
including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk
(DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks,
and magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular
memory ICs), or any type of media or device suitable for storing
instructions and/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or
portions thereof, may be transmitted and downloaded from a software
source over a transmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from
another server, or transmitted over any other conventional network
connection (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communication
medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.).
It will also be appreciated that computer code for carrying out
disclosed operations can be implemented in any programming language
that can be executed on a client system and/or server or server
system such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup
language, Java.TM., JavaScript.RTM., ActiveX.RTM., any other
scripting language, such as VBScript, and many other programming
languages as are well known may be used. (Java.TM. is a trademark
of Sun Microsystems.RTM., Inc.).
[0098] According to some implementations, each system 916 is
configured to provide web pages, forms, applications, data and
media content to user (client) systems 912 to support the access by
user systems 912 as tenants of system 916. As such, system 916
provides security mechanisms to keep each tenant's data separate
unless the data is shared. If more than one MTS is used, they may
be located in close proximity to one another (e.g., in a server
farm located in a single building or campus), or they may be
distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one or more
servers located in city A and one or more servers located in city
B). As used herein, each MTS could include logically and/or
physically connected servers distributed locally or across one or
more geographic locations. Additionally, the term "server" is meant
to include a computing system, including processing hardware and
process space(s), and an associated storage system and database
application (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the
art.
[0099] It should also be understood that "server system" and
"server" are often used interchangeably herein. Similarly, the
database object described herein can be implemented as single
databases, a distributed database, a collection of distributed
databases, a database with redundant online or offline backups or
other redundancies, etc., and might include a distributed database
or storage network and associated processing intelligence.
[0100] FIG. 10 also shows a block diagram of environment 910
further illustrating system 916 and various interconnections, in
accordance with some implementations. FIG. 10 shows that user
system 912 may include processor system 912A, memory system 912B,
input system 912C, and output system 912D. FIG. 10 shows network
914 and system 916. FIG. 10 also shows that system 916 may include
tenant data storage 922, tenant data 923, system data storage 924,
system data 925, User Interface (UI) 1030, Application Program
Interface (API) 1032, PL/SOQL 1034, save routines 1036, application
setup mechanism 1038, applications servers 10001-1000N, system
process space 1002, tenant process spaces 1004, tenant management
process space 1010, tenant storage area 1012, user storage 1014,
and application metadata 1016. In other implementations,
environment 910 may not have the same elements as those listed
above and/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to,
those listed above.
[0101] User system 912, network 914, system 916, tenant data
storage 922, and system data storage 924 were discussed above in
FIG. 9. Regarding user system 912, processor system 912A may be any
combination of processors. Memory system 912B may be any
combination of one or more memory devices, short term, and/or long
term memory. Input system 912C may be any combination of input
devices, such as keyboards, mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras,
and/or interfaces to networks. Output system 912D may be any
combination of output devices, such as monitors, printers, and/or
interfaces to networks. As shown by FIG. 10, system 916 may include
a network interface 920 (of FIG. 9) implemented as a set of HTTP
application servers 1000, an application platform 918, tenant data
storage 922, and system data storage 924. Also shown is system
process space 1002, including individual tenant process spaces 1004
and a tenant management process space 1010. Each application server
1000 may be configured to tenant data storage 922 and the tenant
data 923 therein, and system data storage 924 and the system data
925 therein to serve requests of user systems 912. The tenant data
923 might be divided into individual tenant storage areas 1012,
which can be either a physical arrangement and/or a logical
arrangement of data. Within each tenant storage area 1012, user
storage 1014 and application metadata 1016 might be similarly
allocated for each user. For example, a copy of a user's most
recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage 1014.
Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is a
tenant might be stored to tenant storage area 1012. A UI 1030
provides a user interface and an API 1032 provides an application
programmer interface to system 916 resident processes to users
and/or developers at user systems 912. The tenant data and the
system data may be stored in various databases, such as Oracle.TM.
databases.
[0102] Application platform 918 includes an application setup
mechanism 1038 that supports application developers' creation and
management of applications, which may be saved as metadata into
tenant data storage 922 by save routines 1036 for execution by
subscribers as tenant process spaces 1004 managed by tenant
management process 1010 for example. Invocations to such
applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 that provides a
programming language style interface extension to API 1032. A
detailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations is
discussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA
A MULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, filed
Sep. 21, 2007, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its
entirety and for all purposes. Invocations to applications may be
detected by system processes, which manage retrieving application
metadata 1016 for the subscriber making the invocation and
executing the metadata as an application in a virtual machine.
[0103] Each application server 1000 may be communicably coupled to
database systems, e.g., having access to system data 925 and tenant
data 923, via a different network connection. For example, one
application server 10001 might be coupled via the network 914
(e.g., the Internet), another application server 1000N-1 might be
coupled via a direct network link, and another application server
1000N might be coupled by yet a different network connection.
Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) are
typical protocols for communicating between application servers
1000 and the database system. However, other transport protocols
may be used to optimize the system depending on the network
interconnect used.
[0104] In certain implementations, each application server 1000 is
configured to handle requests for any user associated with any
organization that is a tenant. Because it is desirable to be able
to add and remove application servers from the server pool at any
time for any reason, there is preferably no server affinity for a
user and/or organization to a specific application server 1000. In
some implementations, therefore, an interface system implementing a
load balancing function (e.g., an F5 Big-IP load balancer) is
communicably coupled between the application servers 1000 and the
user systems 912 to distribute requests to the application servers
1000. In some implementations, the load balancer uses a least
connections algorithm to route user requests to the application
servers 1000. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as
round robin and observed response time, also can be used. For
example, in certain implementations, three consecutive requests
from the same user could hit three different application servers
1000, and three requests from different users could hit the same
application server 1000. In this manner, system 916 is
multi-tenant, wherein system 916 handles storage of, and access to,
different objects, data and applications across disparate users and
organizations.
[0105] As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that
employs a sales force where each call center agent uses system 916
to manage their sales process. Thus, a user might maintain contact
data, leads data, customer follow-up data, performance data, goals
and progress data, etc., all applicable to that user's personal
sales process (e.g., in tenant data storage 922). In an example of
a MTS arrangement, since all of the data and the applications to
access, view, modify, report, transmit, calculate, etc., can be
maintained and accessed by a user system having nothing more than
network access, the user can manage his or her sales efforts and
cycles from any of many different user systems. For example, if a
call center agent is visiting a customer and the customer has
Internet access in their lobby, the call center agent can obtain
critical updates as to that customer while waiting for the customer
to arrive in the lobby.
[0106] While each user's data might be separate from other users'
data regardless of the employers of each user, some data might be
organization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users
or all of the users for a given organization that is a tenant.
Thus, there might be some data structures managed by system 916
that are allocated at the tenant level while other data structures
might be managed at the user level. Because an MTS might support
multiple tenants including possible competitors, the MTS should
have security protocols that keep data, applications, and
application use separate. Also, because many tenants may opt for
access to an MTS rather than maintain their own system, redundancy,
up-time, and backup are additional functions that may be
implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data and
tenant specific data, system 916 might also maintain system level
data usable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level
data might include industry reports, news, postings, and the like
that are sharable among tenants.
[0107] In certain implementations, user systems 912 (which may be
client machines/systems) communicate with application servers 1000
to request and update system-level and tenant-level data from
system 916 that may require sending one or more queries to tenant
data storage 922 and/or system data storage 924. System 916 (e.g.,
an application server 1000 in system 916) automatically generates
one or more SQL statements (e.g., SQL queries) that are designed to
access the desired information. System data storage 924 may
generate query plans to access the requested data from the
database.
[0108] Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of
objects, such as a set of logical tables, containing data fitted
into predefined categories. A "table" is one representation of a
data object and may be used herein to simplify the conceptual
description of objects and custom objects according to some
implementations. It should be understood that "table" and "object"
may be used interchangeably herein. Each table generally contains
one or more data categories logically arranged as columns or fields
in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a table contains an
instance of data for each category defined by the fields. For
example, a CRM database may include a table that describes a
customer with fields for basic contact information such as name,
address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might
describe a purchase order, including fields for information such as
customer, product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant
database systems, standard entity tables might be provided for use
by all tenants. For CRM database applications, such standard
entities might include tables for account, contact, lead, and
opportunity data, each containing pre-defined fields. It should be
understood that the word "entity" may also be used interchangeably
herein with "object" and "table".
[0109] In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be
allowed to create and store custom objects, or they may be allowed
to customize standard entities or objects, for example by creating
custom fields for standard objects, including custom index fields.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A
MULTI-TENANT DATABASE SYSTEM, by Weissman, et al., and which is
hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and for all
purposes, teaches systems and methods for creating custom objects
as well as customizing standard objects in a multi-tenant database
system. In some implementations, for example, all custom entity
data rows are stored in a single multi-tenant physical table, which
may contain multiple logical tables per organization. In some
implementations, multiple "tables" for a single customer may
actually be stored in one large table and/or in the same table as
the data of other customers.
[0110] These and other aspects of the disclosure may be implemented
by various types of hardware, software, firmware, etc. For example,
some features of the disclosure may be implemented, at least in
part, by machine-program product that include program instructions,
state information, etc., for performing various operations
described herein. Examples of program instructions include both
machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing
higher-level code that may be executed by the computer using an
interpreter. Examples of machine-program product include, but are
not limited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks,
and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks;
magneto-optical media; and hardware devices that are specially
configured to store and perform program instructions, such as
read-only memory devices ("ROM") and random access memory
("RAM").
[0111] While one or more implementations and techniques are
described with reference to an implementation in which a service
cloud console is implemented in a system having an application
server providing a front end for an on-demand database service
capable of supporting multiple tenants, the one or more
implementations and techniques are not limited to multi-tenant
databases nor deployment on application servers. Implementations
may be practiced using other database architectures, i.e.,
ORACLE.RTM., DB2.RTM. by IBM and the like without departing from
the scope of the implementations claimed.
[0112] Any of the above implementations may be used alone or
together with one another in any combination. Although various
implementations may have been motivated by various deficiencies
with the prior art, which may be discussed or alluded to in one or
more places in the specification, the implementations do not
necessarily address any of these deficiencies. In other words,
different implementations may address different deficiencies that
may be discussed in the specification. Some implementations may
only partially address some deficiencies or just one deficiency
that may be discussed in the specification, and some
implementations may not address any of these deficiencies.
[0113] While various implementations have been described herein, it
should be understood that they have been presented by way of
example only, and not limitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of
the present application should not be limited by any of the
implementations described herein but should be defined only in
accordance with the following and later-submitted claims and their
equivalents.
* * * * *