[Gnumed-devel] Episode selection and creation (was: Gnumed on Windows: the pain of pyPgSQL)

[Ian Haywood]

Karsten Hilbert wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 12, 2005 at 07:42:41AM +1000, Ian Haywood wrote:
> 
> 
>>>What should happen if the user had selected a health issue
>>>from the problem list but which already has an open episode
>>>of age < 90 days ? I think we then need to ask the user for
>>>guidance, no ?
>>
>>IMHO I would like it silently added to the open episode.
> 
> Sounds OK to me. What about the *name* of the episode ? The
> user may wonder how to find his notes ...
> 
> The scenario is like this. The problem list contains two
> items. One is the active health issue, one is the open
> episode for that health issue. User selects health issue
> thereby indicating he would like to start *another* episode
> under that issue - and not continuing the open episode
> that's also on display. Would that make sense ? Would that
> be a reasonable assumption ? It would mean we should close
> the open episode no matter how recent ... This, of course,
> requires that the user *can see* in the problem list that
> there is an open episode for a given health issue - which as
> of today isn't quite true.
Hmm, I suppose there two options. If we visually distinguish health issues and 
episodes
(by whatever means), yes,
you are right, clicking on a health issue does imply new episode.
Personally (but I can see how this would not be popular)
I would have a single line
<health issue>:<episode>

so
COAD: infective exacerbation

where a health issue has an open episode, selecting it adds to the episode.
Say there is a new episode less than 90 days, then the user would have to 
right-click
on that line and select "Close episode" (thus implictly opening a new one when 
we attach the SOAP note)
Similarily a "Rename Episode" on the right-click menu when we don't like the 
autogenerated name.

The idea is an interface that looks passably similar to existing products 
(where you can attach stuff to
a flat past history/problems list) and slowly eases users into the health 
issue/episode distinction.


Ian