[Gnumed-devel] One more unanticipated need concerning test "panels"

[James Busser]

I am just realizing, from looking at a sample message, that in the  
case of a panel like a "lipid profile" the lab can return comment  
information like "Fasting" in an OBR NTE field.

This is a comment on this patient's instance of this test panel, and  
not necessarily a comment about the intrinsic characteristics of the  
test, therefore should not actually go into clin.test_type.note_test_org

As this "fasting" comment characterizes the lipid profile panel, it  
would apply to all of its parts.

One option for storing this comment be to store it replicated inside  
each of the individual test results in the panel, as stored in  
test_result.note_provider (to be renamed note_test_org), which is  
where the individual result-specific OBX NTE 003 (Comment) will also  
go. That would save us having to normalize it out to a separate table  
for panel_data

Maybe within note_provider (to be renamed note_test_org) the OBR  
comment should be stored as "Test comment: <comment>" and the OBX  
comment stored as "Result comment: <comment>". How does that sound?