Re: [Gnumed-devel] graphing is_alpha as an approximated pseudo-number ?

[Karsten Hilbert]

Done.

 "<n" will plot at 1/2n
 ">n" will plot at 2n

Karsten

On Sat, Aug 24, 2013 at 06:02:26PM +0000, Jim Busser wrote:

> A colleague elsewhere wrote the following:
> 
> ****************
> I have been spending so much time on EMR requirements and functionality I am 
> not interested in working on interfaces except where they impact on the EMR. 
> An interesting little thing is on how to deal with a lab result that comes in 
> like "<0.01" or ">10". The EMRs are set up to receive a numeric result but as 
> soon as the "<" or other symbols are included things get screwed up. When 
> looking at a text base report this is not a problem as the human reader 
> understands what this means. The computer does not. When graphing out these 
> results some EMRs do not display that result. The labs insist that that is 
> how they should report results that are out of the accurately measurable 
> range. I get stuck with looking at a graph and not seeing these significant 
> high or low results. Many doctors say they do not bother with graphs. My take 
> is that they have not seen good graphs and they have been taught to "look at 
> the numbers". My feeling is that when they were taught it was not easy to 
> produce graphs and all that was available were raw results or flowsheets. 
> Graphs can be a wonderful way of displaying a lot of results in a way that it 
> makes it easier to understand things. It is also a way of combining various 
> things like lab results, vital signs and medication use. I think that there 
> should be some teaching done on these issues.
> ****************
> 
> so I was wondering in the case of (say) TSH values which were
> 
>       2011-09-30      0.7 uU/mL
>       2012-07-20      1.2 uU/mL
>       2013-05-28      <0.01 uU/mL
> 
> would it be computationally manageable, and clinically reasonable, to pass 
> over to gnuplot
> 
>       0.7     (as is)
>       1.2     (as is)
>       a derived value
> 
> where in the case of an is_alpha which contains < to parse what is beyond the 
> symbol and to pass to gnuplot either one half, or perhaps one third, of a
> 
>       CAST (numeral text as a number)
> 
> and, in the case of an is_alpha which contains >, to pass say double or 
> triple the numeral text?
> 
> I am just thinking that despite that such values are known precisely, they 
> confer no wrong or even misleading semantic and, besides, these do not alter 
> the original value stored in GNUmed's columns. 
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> -- Jim
> 
> 
> 
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