[Gnumed-devel] Show a marker when there is another patient with "same or similar" name

[Jim Busser]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Karsten Hilbert <address@hidden>
> Date: August 14, 2010 10:15:43 PM PDT
> 
>> On Sat, 14 Aug 2010, Jim Busser wrote:
>>> Two patients can correctly have the same name. This then depends on date
>> of
>>> birth and / or another identified (health number) for differentiation.
>>> This is already supported.
>> 
>> The same name and the same DOB, in a large enough database.
>> 
>> Our long term nursing facilities have big markers which say "another
>> patient 
>> has the same or a similar name"
>> They are human encoded and placed
> 
> Would that not  be a good idea for an automated warning ?
> 
> Show a marker when there is another patient with "same or similar" name ?

in what context to show this? Noting that...

... in main GNUmed search box... similar names will be obvious when within the 
scope of matching, but similar names that are spelt slightly differently (once 
an incompatible character would be added) would be missed as would names that 
SOUND alike.. here you could totally miss finding the desired person. FoxBASE 
used to have a function called SOUNDEX() but maybe that only ever worked in 
english?

- in the current GNUmed search results, it isn't apparent (unless I do not yet 
have enough test names) which of the results match a unique individual's 
preferred or currently-used (main) name and which of the results are 
non-primary names and it isn't clear whether the results are grouped by unique 
individual ... should they / could they be?