A system and method for generating a patient abstract containing data about a patient selected from the patient's medical records is presented. A medical order for a patent is analyzed and at least one term is extracted from the medical order. Based upon the extracted term, at least one medical concept related to an extracted term is identified. Then at least one medical data element related to an identified medical concept is identified. A database containing at least a portion of the patient's medical records is queried for the identified at least one medical data element, and at least a portion of a result from the query is displayed, for example, via a user interface.