Re: [Gnumed-devel] Measurement workflows - value colour red , display of � , and gnuplot auto-invocation ?

[Rogerio Luz Coelho]

All colors in the pastel pallete then :)) 

R. 

2013/7/14 Karsten Hilbert <address@hidden>

On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 01:37:11AM +0000, Jim Busser wrote:

> >> In GNUmed, clinical importance ("relevant") and the
> >> numeric or text value are both combined into red characters.
> >
> > Apart from preference I fail to see why that is a problem ?
>
> Perhaps it is just me, and perhaps it is just by force of habit (but I doubt it) ...
>
> … for any one test, when I visually scan across the line of results, and I see changing numeric values, it is easier for me to focus on the numeric magnitudes, in other words "how much did these numbers change or fluctuate, and in what direction) if the characters are all in the same font and colour.
>
> If normals and abnormals are in different fonts and/or colours, it can become too distracting.
>
> In the case of a series of values of a single test, all of which would be (say) low, it is easier for me to observe, on the basis of the cell shading, that the entire set is low, after which I can mentally "suppress" the background shading to better focus on the numbers themselves. For example, to decide whether there are trends within the block and then, if the field of view includes the values to become normal again, to see whether only marginally or fully normal.
>
> Take the example of a patient who is delirious, and who was not (and still does not) eat or drink very well, whose sodium (Natrium, Na) while on intravenous fluids had been low, and later after discontinuing intravenous fluid becomes highish.
>
> If a series with the most recent value is shown at left, thusly:
>
>       145 <--- 142 <--- 139 <--- 136 <--- 133 <--- 130 <--- 127 <--- 124 <--- 122 <--- 121
>
> then I personally  find something advantageous in a shaded background, because by shading the background of cells (containing values) 133 through 121 the abnormal state of sodium is more-effectively communicated to me as (in all likelihood) continuously low for that entire block of time, since the shading would be contiguous / continuous across all those values.
>
> If, instead, the shading were to be uniform, as is currently the case in GNUmed, then it would only be the characters themselves "130" etc which would appear "abnormal".
>
> To me, this does not communicate as effectively.
>
> It also, for me, becomes easier to "focus" on "just the numeric values" when all of them are of the same font colour. I can then avoid to feel distracted by the visual transition from "red" 133 to "black" 136 because even though the 136 is "normal" and the 145 are "normal", the clinical process does not care about such dividing lines.
>
> I am better able to see, when I can better ignore (mentally suppress) the shading, that not only has the patient gone from subnormal to normal, but we seem to be witnessing a new problem, where the patient is not drinking enough free water.
>
> I realize that I am providing an inpatient example and that the focus of GNUmed is outpatients however I think the principles of how information communicates to us remains the same. I also realize that some clinical systems highlight clinically significant changes even within normal ranges, and might therefore flag the patient whose sodium changes from 136 to 145 within 3-5 days but that is a separate issue.

OK, I see what you are getting at. It sounds quite
reasonable to me. Please suggest colors (and ways to
communicate what they mean).

Karsten
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