Tim This is definately a mistake - amny disorders have a date of onset that is fuzzy from a month point of view but is worthwhile - last Pap smear, last attendance at Ophthalmologist etc. The point about a fuzzy date is that it is helpful for human interpretation - a month that a spouse died will be very worthwhile even if a day is not known - when chasing records at another centre - knowing that a date is accurate or not will overcome a lot of frustration.
SAm > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-openehr-technical at openehr.org > [mailto:owner-openehr-technical at openehr.org]On Behalf Of Tim Benson > Sent: Friday, 7 June 2002 6:19 PM > To: Thomas Beale > Cc: openehr-technical at openehr.org > Subject: Re: Data Types > > > Tom, > I do not think that structure can be justified if that structure > is unlikely > to add either value or safety down the line. So in the situation where we > are not able to rely on a time as being either a strict point in > time or an > interval is likely to create semantic problems. Unless you can rely on > strict chronological listing it is unhelpful to try to give spurious > precision. So my suggestion is that such fuzzy dates should be put into > free text only and all dates associated with any entry should only be the > ones we can rely on, such as date and time of entry. > > What is more precise: "the first of the month, but do not remember which > month", "the night it rained" or "the morning that the kids were late for > school"? To me there is no point in using anything other than > free text for > any of these. Julian dates can be very useful, but not all date > information > fits the simple model and errors are made when we try to force it in. > > We should always have a time stamp for computer entry, which should be > flagged if this is the only Julian-type date information that is available > (and must be used with great caution along side free text data). > > Tim > > -- > Tim Benson > Abies Ltd, 24 Carlingford Road, London NW3 1RX, UK > +44 (0) 20 7431 6428, tb at abies.co.uk > > > From: Thomas Beale <thomas at deepthought.com.au> > > Organization: Deep Thought Informatics Pty Ltd > > Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2002 19:59:43 +1000 > > To: Tim Benson <tb at abies.co.uk> > > Cc: openehr-technical at openehr.org > > Subject: Re: Data Types > > > > > > > > Tim Benson wrote: > > > >> Surely the criterion for any structured data is whether > another application > >> is expected to use that structured data in a way that (a) adds > value and (b) > >> is safe. If either (a) or (b) are not true then structure > simply adds cost > >> and complexity without benefit. > >> > > Tim, I agree with the premise; but what is your solution in this case? > > The structure would only change in a very trivial way i.e. by adding a > > flag which means "day_unknown". Are you asking for a use case which > > proves that this should exist? I agree - that's what we need. Tim has > > provided the simplest of all - if the patient said it, we should record > > it. Is it enough - I don't know... > > > > - thomas beale > > > > > > > > - > If you have any questions about using this list, > please send a message to d.lloyd at openehr.org > - If you have any questions about using this list, please send a message to d.lloyd at openehr.org
