[Gnumed-devel] further thinking on "current medication" -- Clinicians !

[Karsten Hilbert]

While working on displaying the list of current medications
(a screenshot is attached for your edification) the
following thought occurred to me:

Isn't this a listing of "substance use" - only that some are
intended (as far as the provider is concerned) to be used
while others are not ?

IOW, could we be collecting data on smoking, drug (ab)use,
alcohol intake, chewing (leaves, nuts) in here, too ?

We'd then need some flags on entries which we need to think
about:

        considered_harmful (from the POV of the care provider)
        physically_addicted
        unnecessary_health_risk
        other flags ?

Smoking:

.brand - pseudo brand "smoking" can be used to allow for computation
.preparation - pipe, sniff, water pipe, chew, cig, ...
.substance - "tobacco"
.started - "age 14" or equivalent
.schedule - like typical "as needed" drugs: "10/day"
.duration - well, left blank
.aim - quit or not, depending on current situation
.notes - "tried to quit 3 times"
.considered_harmful - yes
.physically_addicted - yes
.unnecessary_health_risk - yes

Alcohol:

.brand - pseudo brand "alcohol"
.preparation - liquid
.substance - "alcohol"
.started - "age 21"
.schedule - "3 beers every night, binge drinker, ..."
.duration - ...
.aim - see smoking
.notes - "2 failed rehabs"
.considered_harmful - yes
.physically_addicted - yes
.unnecessary_health_risk - yes

.brand - pseudo brand "alcohol"
.preparation - liquid
.substance - "red wine"
.started - "age 45"
.schedule - "1 glass/evening"
.duration - "for life"
.aim - "reduce risk of arteriosclerosis"
.notes - "report rashes, dyspnoe, monitor amount"
.considered_harmful - no
.physically_addicted - no
.unnecessary_health_risk - no

Can anyone think of examples which won't fit ?

The current medication widget would be enabled to optionally
group away ".considered_harmful=yes" in order to facilitate
showing intended treatment (only). Other places, say the
patient overview widget, would filter substance_use to risky
intake such as to show smoker, alcohol/drug use, etc.

Opinions ?

Karsten
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