Re: [Gnumed-devel] GNUmed 1.4

[Busser, Jim]

On 2013-08-18, at 3:23 AM, Karsten Hilbert <address@hidden> wrote:

> I have added management of meta test types.
> 
> Karsten

That's really, really great.

I only wonder … do you agree that a 1.4 release warrants to wait, until an 
approach to some of my medication-related concerns can be arrived at?

For example, allowing clin_when to be null?

I know it is desirable to "force" the users to input a clin_when, but this 
assumes that

        1) the users either know an exact date, to the day,
                for the clin_when (which more than occasionally, they don't) and

        2) that forcing input of a clin_when that is incorrect has no downside

The best solution would be to *both*:

1) permit clin_when to be null, AND

2) implement a custom date type, which allows a clin_when to be only as 
specific as the user comfortably knows and, when they did not know the 
clin_when down to the day, they would be supported to input it

        only to the decade (199_)
        only the year (2003)
        only to the month (2013-03)

If 1.4 is released without fixing the above (at minimum, allowing clin_when to 
be null) then, yes, I will enjoy sortable columns and some of the other 
improvements, but I am going to remain rather unhappy that I am forced to input 
clin_whens that I do not know, and later be unable to tell apart those which 
were accurate and those which were fabrications.

It is even worse that if I include such information in a document that becomes 
accessible colleagues outside the praxis, who do not use GNUmed and do not 
understand the unreliability of its medical record information.

If I would accordingly include, in my documents, this caveat:

        "Note: no reliance can be placed on any of the dates when
        any of the included clinical events are said to have happened,
        because while they might be correct, some kind of date had
        been forced to be entered, even when it was not actually known".

my licensing authority is going to be questioning my practice of medicine.

GNUmed cannot, currently, safely be used for anything pertaining to a complete 
and reliable list of medication use.

Sorry.

???

-- JIm