Re: [Gnumed-devel] proper English term needed for medication

[Jim Busser]

On 2009-10-29, at 12:39 PM, Karsten Hilbert wrote:

> > What column will this be?
>
>         clin.substance_intake.is_long_term

Is it better boolean as above or would it be better to be categorical

        clin.substance_intake.category

        values {short-term, long-term, NULL} default = NULL
        
Also in this table, I wondered for a moment I wondered  
whether .duration could take either an interval-based value (when  
known exactly) or when not known exactly could take the value of short- 
term or long-term

I suspect the data type "interval" would allow only a time-based value  
therefore it would have to be some other field.

That would beg the question as to any conceptual +- programmatic  
interaction with duration?

IOW:

if duration is null, the category of medication could be short-term or  
long-term

if the medication category is long-term, does that mean the duration  
should be nulled?

do we acknowledge potential ambiguity between
        duration as "intended"
        duration as "elapsed time since started .clin_when"
	duration as 'how long did they take it, if they stopped on or before  
today"

if a duration is specified and is understood to mean "as intended or  
post-hoc actual", should a specified duration be construed to mean  
short-term, or maybe still the medication could be intended as long- 
term with the duration used to pre-specify a plan of reassessment?

If the latter, then there would be neither conceptual nor programmatic  
linkage between duration and category, and the meaning of duration  
should be clarified to be

	Intended duration of use (whether total, or until reassessment), or  
actual duration if stopped, if known