Re: [Health-dev] Health-dev Digest, Vol 37, Issue 25

[Luis Falcon]

Dear Roberto
On Sun, 31 Aug 2014 22:55:43 -0300
Roberto Novaes <address@hidden> wrote:

> Dear Luis Falcon,
> 
> First of all, thank you very much for your thorough answer.
> 
> > Thanks a lot for the library ! That would be a lot of work, but
> > definitely a great asset !
> 
> Yes, it is a lot of work. Although the implementation is not that
> hard, the amount of data is very big, and we have to be very careful
> to correctly copy AJCC data.
> 
> > Let me try to answer, from a general practitioner perspective, how
> > to integrate it in GNU Health.
> > I would definitely take advantage and use the "Pathology Groups"
> > functionality of GNU Health ( Health -> Configuration -> Diseases ->
> > Pathology Groups ). You can link it to diseases from the current WHO
> > ICD10 module. There is already a "neoplasic" group on it.
> 
> I was tinkering a little after your answer and I think it is a good
> way to go. I intend to add the T, N and M fields inheriting from
> disease, as well as the staging field. While our library is not
> ready, the doctor could fill the staging field by hand (that is what
> they already do nowadays)
> 
> > So, for example, you could call your TNM / Staging library if the
> > patient disease list contains one of the Neoplasic . There are
> > non-solid / diffuse oncological conditions where TNM does not work
> > well or just would not apply.
> 
> We are aware of the limitations of TNM staging, but we expect to
> cover a large spectrum of tumors using this functionalities,
> specially if you consider (at least in Brazil) that the majority of
> cancers are breast, prostate, lung and colon. All of them could
> benefit from TNM staging. For prostate cancer, we would also have to
> add PCA and Gleason fields also, but we expect to cover an initial
> demand for those most common cancer types.
> 
> > You have all that information starting from the gnuhealth patient
> > model. Appointments, evaluation dates, procedures, tests, etcetera
> > are available from the main "patient control panel", which should
> > be your friend :) .
> 
> Ok. Very nice!
> 
> > Finally, a personal side-note. We, as individuals, and our health
> > conditions require an integrative approach. This concept stands up
> > more when dealing with oncological conditions. We need to look at
> > the bio/psycho/social/spiritual factors as a whole, both to promote
> > health and for healing. I always have it present when designing and
> > implementing GNU Health.
> 
> We are hoping to solve (or try to solve) a specific problem of
> automatically generating survival analysis curves. Of course, for this
> holistic approach we would like to count on the help of the community.

Your library and the interaction with GNU Health is great ! Projects
like yours are most welcome in the GNU Health community, and I'm
positive researchers will find it very useful also.

Count on us for any questions you may have .

Looking forward to meeting you again and talk about this in person.

All the best
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Roberto Novaes
> Silex Sistemas
> www.silexsistemas.com.br
>