Re: [Gnumed-devel] re: create user UI plugin

[Karsten Hilbert]

On Thu, Jan 19, 2006 at 07:40:38PM -0800, Jim Busser wrote:


> Self-replying, it might be helpful for the widget to pre-populate 
> this "sign" (or call-sign etc) with a value derived by parsing the 
> staff member's names to return the initials.
Surely.

> Ideally, before returning them, it could check whether these already exist, 
> and
>    if they are unique, offer these as a default but
>    if they are not unique, return an alert
I'd rather employ an algorithm to force them unique (add a
number, add more characters, etc) in that case. They can
always be changed.

> I suppose it could be up to the local administrators to decide 
> whether to adhere to a "format" for example the doctors (like Karsten 
> Hilbert) could have a convention to have the short_name or call-sign 
> "DrKH" but that would be purely to make the value informative and any 
> presence of "Dr" in this field would not be to grant or enforce any 
> privileges.
Exactly.

> Is there any reason that once the staff member has been created, the 
> value of this field has to remain frozen?
No. That would violate one of our design principles: don't
make the database schema prone to display/UI changes. The
alias is simply for display purposes. It is always accessed
via the primary key of the provider.

> Is the value of "sign" written into clinical records, or does it 
> exist only in the staff table, to be used purely in the construction 
> of views?
We pride ourselves in the latter. However, the "sign" may
end up hardcoded in some places: think referral letters or
better yet printouts for, say, paper backup (where clinical
notes are tagged by "sign" to indicate which doctor they
come from). Such things really should contain a legend on
such values.

See, the EMR software I am working most with uses
single-character aliases. They are never in ample supply for
the staff needing one. They are also hardcoded into the
clinical data (hence I acquire "ownership" of notes of my
predecessor). Such stupidities are best avoided.

Karsten
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