[Gnumed-devel] What is a calendar was Re: appointment schedular

[Jim Busser]

On 2011-05-07, at 1:04 AM, address@hidden wrote:

> Having an online schedular (calendar) has multiple advantages. -access 
> -availability.
> Google calender is one such free online calender. Instead of kde based 
> calendar, which may not be useful on other platform, should we include google 
> calender as a schedular?

What is a schedule? What is a calendar?

What do they need to do?

I suggest that a schedule is an orderly listing, in relative date-time order, of
- multiple actions that are to happen
- involving one or more systems or person-entities

A calendar simply helps to
- "fix" the schedule to a specific calendar date-time when it starts
- help to display / visualize how the schedule would appear in the context of 
any other already-calendarized (or reserved) schedule blockings
- optionally use program logic to find optimal timing or resolve or at least 
warn about conflicts

A concern was raised that maybe Google calendar compromises data integrity 
(security) or view access (privacy). That is true if:

- the data must be stored at Google
- the data consists of information that exists only at Google
- the data is data about which there is a concern if it would become known

What could be safely stored at Google?

- date-time durations when unnamed doctors, each labelled one among something 
like "A" or "JB" is
        available
        already-booked, or
        not available

- a patient identifier or key that does not give away patient information
        either a bi-directionally useful key e.g. PUPIC
        a unidirectional GNUmed to Google key (one-way hash of PUPIC)

Here are some thoughts about why calendaring is complicated…

- it is not so much the display of simple information… for any one doctor, the 
appointment dates & times could even be put into the Waitlist and the data 
series {date-time, patient name} could be plotted as rows

- it is not even a problem of being to display the information for multiple 
doctors side by side, this is simply an extended case of display of simple data

… the complicated part is the LOGIC of streamlining and automating appointment 
lengths based on the desired visit types, and finding "openings" based on a 
schedule defined by each doctor in the praxis in advance, and deciding whether 
to support "protected" times in such a system, and then supporting to search to 
find "available" times that satisfy the required time for a doctor of interest 
or any doctor in the praxis that would be available, depending if the doctors 
each dedicated different portions of their time -- for example certain mornings 
or afternoons -- for certain kinds of patient activities. And THEN supporting 
how to fix broken appointments when a doctor's availability must change. And 
also to manage patient preferences and waitlists and the state of knowledge and 
the status of communications after every change.

I cannot understand that you would ever put a "copy" of clinical information 
e.g. "HIV" *inside* a calendar, you might only display it (or provide a link to 
reason for visit) in the visual representation of the calendar.

-- Jim