Hi Tom, I agree with you.
My idea was that if we express the process quality, and consider data measured during this process, we end up with a range of data qualities - from "plain" to "not measurable" - and this last one leads to a Null value. For example, if I say that my echocardiography (the process) was globaly of poor quality due to patient's overweight, I can however correctly measure some information, have some other evaluated as "approximate" but with a value provided, and some other being Null. So, as a summary, I would say that : 1) confidence applys only when there is a value, it can be a numerical rating (0 to 100% in Odyssee) 2) Null value can have an explanation for null 3) The process itself should have a quality descriptor, and it would be nice to have a relationship between this global information and "local" data confidence. What led me to think that way is that among the reasons for Null that were proposed in former messages, most of them where indead qualifiers for the process at a whole (and I can even say that some where qualifier for the workflow (the process above the process) - I wonder how we can "chain" the quality indicators in the workflow-process-data sequence - for example, an exam can be technically good, but lead to wrong information because it was performed too early or too late in a worflow). Cheers, Philippe > Philippe AMELINE wrote: > >> Hi Koray, >> >> Don't you think that "Null" is not a singularity (I mean an isolated >> point), but the extreme value of a linear cursor we could name >> "validity" or "confidence". >> >> To give a matter of fact example, I could say that : >> >> I can provide a value without any comment : I am confident in the >> quality level of the measurement process >> I can provide a value saying that an average (or poor) level of >> quality must be noticed when using this information >> I can decide not to provide a value and explain why > > > Hi Philippe, > > our analysis in GEHR/openEHR has always been that confidence are > null-flavour are two different things: > - null / data quality - indicates that some datum was not obtainable > - confidence is likelihood of being correct a datum is, in the opinion > of the health care professional (or maybe someone else); it can only > be set when there is a value > > - thomas > > - > 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
