On Tue, 16 Apr 2002, Christian Heller wrote: > Hi Gaetano, ... > > > WHY DON'T WE PLAN A NEW DATABASE STRUCTURE that can be able to > > manage every medical practice? > > The idea is good. But a "new" start is not necessary since the GNUmed > DB is already there. Many people are working on it and would for sure > welcome input from your side to integrate Tables for Dental needs.
Gaetano, Christian, Karsten, Horst - The idea of sharing a database structure comes up from time to time. The various standard terminologies, GEHR, OIO, and even Res Medicinae started out with this goal. GEHR and OIO propose a flexible/pluggable component layer for extending the schema (database structure). Others have tried to produce all encompassing sets of database tables. > Horst, Karsten? All software systems describe a certain data structure (if in database, it would be a database structure). At some point, if we want to move information between systems, we need to map one data structure to another. I doubt implementing an all encompassing set of database tables will be a viable solution. As Thomas Beale (GEHR) and I repeatedly stated in our OpenHealth list postings, no set of database tables/schema will ever be comprehensive. New medical knowledge will always need to be incorporated! > > And then we could write different clients. > > (PHP, PHP-Gtk, TclTK, Python, etc.) > > GNUmed (Python) uses its DB (of course) and ResMedicinae (Java) might > eventually also use it (not reached that state yet). Now you have the > chance to use it, too. I would like to see that! Sharing the DB is a good idea. However, is the DB schema easy to extend and manage over time? For example, if I take the GNUmed DB and modify a few of its tables (e.g. for psychiatry), how do I make sure that I don't break compatibility with the Internal Medicine modules? How do I make sure what I added will work with other people's ideas for describing the psychiatry domain? This type of "versioning" and change management is precisely what GEHR and OIO try to do. I urge you to read Thomas Beale's excellent paper: http://www.deepthought.com.au/it/archetypes/Output/front.html ... > But now back to implementation :-) Yes... :-) Best regards, Andrew --- Andrew P. Ho, M.D. OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes www.TxOutcome.Org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
