Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide an individual with control over who may access an account of electronic health records (EHR records) related to the individual. The health records may be stored a network-accessible storage repository. An entity providing healthcare related goods or services may request access to an account by transmitting a request over a data communications network. Access is granted or denied depending on whether the individual has authorized access to the account. Two common transactions include deposit transactions to add records to the account, and withdrawal transactions to retrieve and view records from the account.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for controlling access to electronic health records associated with an individual are provided. Individuals are provided with an electronic health records account (EHR account), wherein the EHR account is available to store electronic health records associated with the individual, in a network accessible storage repository. Additionally, an individual may be provided with plurality of disposable access devices, wherein the access devices may be presented to an entity. In turn, the entity may access the individual's EHR account, based on a predefined authorization specified for a particular access device.

Abstract: Method, apparatus and article of manufacture for providing individuals with notifications pertaining to use of health records. In one embodiment, a network-accessible storage repository is configured to store a plurality of electronic health records regarding a plurality of individuals. Requests to access selective records of the plurality of individuals are received over a data communications network. For each individual whose respective records are accessed, a report is generated describing the access. The reports may then be provided to the respective individuals.

Abstract: A health record databank configured to associate electronic health records with multiple-accounts is provided. A network-accessible storage repository is used to store a plurality of electronic medical records for a plurality of individuals. In turn, individuals are provided with an electronic health records account (EHR account), wherein the EHR account is available to store electronic health records associated with the individual, in the storage repository. The individual may authorize access to the electronic records in a given sub-accounts. Requests for access may include both requests to deposit records into the sub-account, and requests to retrieve and view the records in a given sub-account.

Abstract: A database optimizer collects statistics regarding applications accessing a database, and makes one or more changes to the database schema to optimize performance according to the collected statistics. In a first embodiment, the optimizer detects when a certain type of application accesses the database a percentage of time that exceeds a predefined threshold level, and if the data in the database is stored in a less-than-optimal format for the application, the data type of one or more columns in the database is changed to a more optimal format for the application. In a second embodiment, the optimizer detects when one type of application accesses a column a percentage of time that exceeds a first predefined threshold level and is less than a second predefined threshold level, and creates a new column in the database so the data is present in both formats.

Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for intelligence building in expert systems and, more particularly, for evaluating treatment decisions overriding recommended treatments that are generated by expert systems. One embodiment provides a method of evaluating treatment decisions, comprising receiving a specification of a decided treatment for a patient having a given disease. The decided treatment differs from a recommended treatment identified by an expert system in response to analysis of symptomatic data corresponding to the patient. The patient is monitored subsequent to being treated according to the decided treatment. The decided treatment is evaluated on the basis of data captured by the monitoring. On the basis of the evaluation, feedback with respect to the decided treatment and the recommended treatment is generated.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for managing access to an abstract database are provided. The abstract database may include a data abstraction model comprising a plurality of logical field definitions, each of the definitions comprising a logical field name, and an access method maps the logical field to a physical data field. Collectively, the physical data fields provide an indirection layer logically disposed between the data abstraction model and the underlying physical database. By providing this layer of indirection using the physical data fields, a number of enhancements to the data abstraction model may be provided. This includes providing enhancements to the security, administration, and usability of an abstract database.

Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for managing execution of queries against databases and more particularly for restricting access to sensitive data in underlying databases. One embodiment provides a method for managing access to sensitive data in a database. The method comprises receiving, from a requesting entity, a query against the data in the database. The query is executed against the database to obtain a result set. The method further comprises determining whether the result set includes sensitive data based on predefined sensitivity attributes associated with data in the result set. If so, a sensitivity rating is determined for the result set, and a predefined security action is preformed with respect to the result set on the basis of the determined sensitivity rating.

Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for creating queries against databases and, more particularly, for creating queries that are suitable to identify relevant information from one or more underlying databases. One embodiment provides a method of composing a query against data in a database. The method comprises receiving a query having one or more result fields and a plurality of query conditions. Each query condition defines selection criteria for selection of data records from the database. Each selected data record has data that satisfies at least one of the plurality of query conditions. Each of the plurality of query conditions has an associated weight. The method further comprises receiving an accuracy threshold for qualifying data records. The accuracy threshold defines a requested minimum accuracy of each selected data record defining a qualifying data record forming part of a valid result set returned for the query.

Abstract: A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for processing continuous value data is disclosed. Data values stored in a database reflect a measurement of the value obtained for a specific point in time. In order to correlate the evaluation of two or more conditions, when measurements for each condition recorded at the same points in time are unavailable, embodiments of the invention provide a method for generating approximations of the unavailable values for comparison with others. Thereafter, a comparison between values for the points in time may be used to correlate the two conditions during query processing.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for managing different versions of a data model standard in both abstract and physical database environments. In one embodiment, new versions of the data model standard are analyzed to identify changes introduced by the new version. The database schema, organized according to the initial version of the standard, is then modified to reflect these changes. Logical representations of the data are provided that expose data organized according to both the initial version of the standard and according to the subsequent version of the standard.

Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for providing a visual display of information that quickly conveys how information, as represented by data retrieved for a set of queries, may have changed over time is disclosed. By animating information retrieved for a plurality of queries, a visual display is created that conveys how a data in a database has changed over time. Users compose a query template specifying a plurality of queries. The query template further specifies a time period and frequency range over which the queries in the query template should be executed. After executing a query to retrieve data corresponding to each point in time, a snapshot of the database is available to generate the visual display of information.

Abstract: An apparatus, program product and method utilize one or more usage statistics, which are reflective of what data is actually and/or likely to be used by a client when processing a database query, to reduce or eliminate the transfer of unnecessary data between a client and server in a client-server database management system. Information such as the columns that are or have been used and/or the number of rows that have been accessed, may be utilized to identify certain data that is likely to not be used during processing of the database query. Based upon the data that has been identified, a subset of the data that would otherwise be returned as a result of the database query may be identified and returned to a client, often substantially reducing the amount of data required to be retrieved by a client in connection with a database query.

Abstract: Methods, systems and articles of manufacture are provided for query evaluation. The query is evaluated upon inputting each incremental query element (or combination of element). Generally, for each incremental query element added, a query performance analysis is performed with respect to one or more runtime metrics such as total execution time and runtime resource consumption. The results of the analysis are provided as feedback to the user constructing the query.

Abstract: Methods, systems and articles of manufacture for query building with selectability of aggregation operations and grouping. Abstract queries are composed on the basis of a data abstraction model abstractly describing data in the database. The abstract queries may include result criterions and aggregation operations to be performed with respect to the result criterions for generating aggregation information. An object is generated containing query entities and allowing a user to selectively (i) generate an executable query corresponding to the abstract query inclusive of the aggregation operation and aggregation logic; and (ii) resolve the abstract query to the individual entities contained in the object exclusive of the aggregation operation and aggregation logic.

Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to methods, articles of manufacture and systems for automatically generating abstract representations of a limited subset of data repository fields accessed by a particular application. The limited subset of fields may be identified by monitoring queries issued against the data repository by the application. The abstract representations may be grouped in a data repository abstraction (DRA) component that serves as a data definition framework allowing data from the fields to be accessed independent of the particular in which the data is physically represented in the data repository. By limiting the fields exposed to the application to the limited subset of fields actually accessed by the application, the DRA component, in effect, provides the application with a custom database tailored to its particular needs.

Abstract: The present invention generally provides methods, systems, and articles of manufacture that provide a managed software development environment. In one embodiment, software programmers interact with the managed software development environment to develop a target software application. Embodiments of the invention prevent source code from being included in the target software application if the license for the project is incompatible with either the license under which the source code is available or with company policy. Embodiments of the invention further prevent linking to a library file if the library file is available under a license that is incompatible with the intended license of the target software application.

Abstract: The present invention provides methods, systems and articles of manufacture that enhance the capability of a database abstraction model and query application constructed for an underlying physical database. Typically, the query application is used to compose and execute an abstract query. Once an initial query result is presented to a user, a user may select to execute a model entity operation by interacting with a query interface of the query application. A model entity operation allows the user to retrieve additional information from the underlying database, based on information included in the initial query result, without having to create a new query or having to correlate the results of multiple queries.

Abstract: A method, computer-readable medium, and apparatus for programmatically providing a graphical user interface for creating queries are provided. Generally, the graphical user interface includes a first-level region for displaying one or more first-level query conditions and a first-level operator selection element, the selected first-level operator being applied to logically relate the one or more first-level query conditions. The graphical user interface also contains a second-level region for displaying two or more second-level query conditions and contains a second-level operator selection element, the selected second-level operator being applied to the two or more second-level query conditions within the second-level region to form a second-level query portion. The selected first-level operator is applied to the second-level query portion and the one or more query conditions of the first-level region to form a first-level query portion.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems and articles of manufacture for constructing a database abstraction model over an underlying physical database. Typically, queries of the database abstraction model are directed to queries of a model entity defined for the database abstraction model. To compose an abstract query, users select conditions evaluated using data associated with instances of the model entity. Using the database abstraction model, users may compose an abstract query according to logical or intuitive relationships among data elements stored in the underlying database. One addition to the database abstraction model is the ability to apply query criteria against related instances of a model entity. Because model entities may share a predefined relationship, embodiments of the invention allow for users to specify query criteria applied against related instances. Related instances may be identified by invoking a path function provided by the database abstraction model.