Re: [Gnumed-devel] Fwd: Lab data support in OSCAR

[Hilmar Berger]

On Thu, 6 May 2004 21:05:47 +0200
Karsten Hilbert <address@hidden> wrote:

> > > 1) only if reviewed_by_clinician is false may
> > >    technically_abnormal be null
> > Why this ? Shouldn't technically_abnormal be set
> > automatically if range information/status is available from the
> > lab data ? What relation has this flag to the clinicians
> > decision ?
> 
> a) we can't rely on the technically_abnormal information being
>    there - it needn't be a requirement in other countries
> b) we can't rely on the range info being there (if it is and
>    the technically_abnormal flag is missing we try to
>    calculate the abnormal flag though)
> c) when a clinician reviews the data she IS able to ascertain
>    whether the value is technically abnormal, so we enforce
>    that relation, this may be a little tough on the poor
>    clinician, however
Shouldn't the clinician's decision go into a different parameter ? And 
shouldn't technically_abnormal rather than being binary hold something like 
"normal" (=within ranges), low, high, extremely low, extremely high ?
The information "abnormal" just forces you to look at the value to find out 
agan in what direction and to what extent the lab parameter was abnormal. I 
think if technically_abnormal could be automatically filled, it should be a 
meaningful value that gives you an idea of what clinical importance it might 
have.

Hilmar