[Gnumed-devel] Storing text communications

[Busser, Jim]

I am sometimes in a situation where an email sent to me by a patient or a 
doctor needs to be stored, and am wondering how best to handle this in GNUmed.

My first decision will have to be whether to make the email (or a string of 
emails back and forth within the space of a few hours or a day) its own 
encounter, or whether to include the email(s) as an item inside a more 
substantial encounter such as might include

- an email from a patient asking about a test result
- a review of the test result
- a phone call to the patient to discuss the result

which I might end up categorizing as a phone encounter, because that represents 
the most-intensive interaction with the patient.

My second decision, and this is where I need ideas, is where within GNUmed (and 
how) to store the one-or-many emails. My instinct is to regard the emails (even 
those emanating from me) as a kind of correspondence and not a chart "entry" 
(i.e not a "progress note") although a progress note might be added, in which 
to record my additional impressions.

I think it would be reasonable to define a document type called "Email".

Here are some of my questions:

1. If each of a couple of emails were temporarily saved (out of the email 
client) onto the filesystem as a separate file, and these were all "picked" 
using the "pick file(s)" button, and these parts were saved as a Document, does 
the GUI permit to later add a later email as a "part" to this "Document"? I ask 
because I do not, at the moment, have a "test" system but only a production 
system …

2. From inside the email program, as an alternative to having (for each email) 
to 
        - perform Save As
        - assign a filename and accept (or change) the 'save' directory
        - switch to GNUmed
        - click the "pick files' button
        - navigate to, and select, the file(s)

it would be much easier to copy the email text (including headers) to the 
clipboard, switch into GNUmed and "paste it as a part" except such 
functionality is not currently supported.

Would it be feasible to insert, into the Attach documents plugin, to the left 
of the buttons "Show part" and "Remove part", a button named "Create text part" 
whose action would supply an edit area in which to be able to paste the copied 
email "text" and then save this, to be appended to the existing list of "parts"?

Or enhance the already-existing

        "Optional: A free-text document description."

insert, between the buttons "Save" and "Discard", an extra button "Add as text 
part"?

-- Jim

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