On Thu, Jan 27, 2005 at 01:23:53AM -0800, lakewood at copper.net wrote: > > One should include mental age as well. EHRs should not presume > a Patient's mental capabilities closely track their physical > age. This would be a recipe for disaaster under its own terms > since 'young' physical age and 'senior' physical age represent > gray areas regarding mental competence, etc. These gray areas > are recognized in most legal systems. > > Gerard Freriks wrote: > > >Hi, > > > >There are two concepts with the name 'age'. > > > >Age as a number. Age=56 > >Age as a process. baby, youth, post conception, gestational, > > > >As with many concepts we have two different concepts with the same > >name in daily life. > > > >Gerard > > > >On 26 Jan 2005, at 17:58, Sam Heard wrote: > > > > Tom and others > > > > The idea of age as a complex notion - post-conception, gestational > > (LMP) ie it can involve pre-birth periods - even well into life. > > This apperas to be important for decision support. > > > > I wonder if we need to model this as an archetype for demographics > > - but it needs to be in the EHR - age crops up in lots of > > evaluations (problem, family history) so we might need to have it > > as a formal TYPE! That is - we can use it consistently in various > > settings. > > > > > > I would argue that gender is of the same nature - with social > > gender, physical gender and genetic gender as the key concepts. > > > > No doubt there are others but these two are worth thinking about > > carefully. > > > > Sam > > ---end quoted text---
I am of the view, that there is no requirement of age at all. What is needed is the date of birth in the initial record. After that every time the patient/ individual seeks medical attendance, the age is automatically calculated. This is of special relevance in paediatric practice. The concept of 'age' varies with context and usage, and it is best to avoid anything arbitrary or non-specific. It is true, that there are millions who may not be aware of their date of birth (specially in a country like mine, India) but more often than not they can furnish dates in alternate calendars, or can give you an approximation to go by. Dr USM Bish Bangalore - If you have any questions about using this list, please send a message to d.lloyd at openehr.org
