Re: [Gnumed-devel] Lab import (data) matching

[Karsten Hilbert]

> >> The biggest problem to matching is usually variants of the first or
> >> middle names or exchanges between them e.g.
> >>    Smith, Ann Marie
> >>    Smith, Annie M
> >>    Smith, Marie
> >>    Smith, A Mary
> >> can be different forms of the same person.
> > Sure, but there's no way to avoid that. But they will all provide very
> > good candidate matches from which a user can easily select the proper
> > patient.
> 
> When a user accepts a lab-variant name as belonging to a patient,  
> maybe it is worth to add that alias to a patient's names,
No, because it is not the/a real name of that patient.

> that would  
> save this step having to be done again the next time that a patient  
> goes back to that same lab.
IF the lab is known to make such mistakes I wouldn't trust their data
to be auto-matched later on eiter. If a particular use case really
calls for keeping around the lab's idea of what name a patient should
bear I'd store it as an external ID of type, say, "lab specific name" including 
the responsible lab as issuer.

Because that's what it really is. An opaque external ID, not the name.

Karsten
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