On Thu, Mar 10, 2005 at 08:02:40AM +0100, Gerard Freriks wrote:
>
> As convenor of CEN/TC251wg1 responsible for the EN13606 EHR
> standard I'm reading with interest the e-mail exchanges.
>
Gerard, it is nice to have voices from the standards bodies
piping up on the list ;-)
>
> It is good to understand that:
> - the EN13606 EHR standard is a European standard that contains
> several open ends (optionalities, abstract data types instead
> of implementable data types, etc)
> - the application of the standard needs an Implementation
> Specification that is valid in a certain domain.
>
The Implimentation Specs (or absence thereof) is likely to have
problems if implementors divert with their 'local' inter-
pretations, making interoperability of the EHR a major issue
in the furure, when data accumulates.
Besides, as Bert put it : "I am used to standards exactly
telling me what or how to do something. Thinking should already
have been done". Surely, this makes a lot of sense.
I also echo the sentiment, that if freedom is granted for local
implimentations, the limits must be known.
When applied to demographic entities like 'EntityName' which
would be important in every record, effort needs to be made to
make it as generic as possible to cover the widest possible
spectrum of human population.
I would suggest the following components for EntityNameParts:
IndexName - viz. A single name by which the record would be
indexed, be it Surname, family name, tribe or
any other name the person opts to insert.
OtherNames - viz. other components of the person's name in
full
AKANames - viz. Nickname, or any other name the person is
normally known by. NULL () if none.
Initials - viz. initials for the name (to exclude accepted
things like bin, al, etc.) This also helps in
sequencing the name components.
A few examples to illustrate the above are:
1. 'Shaw, George Bernard (GBS), GBS'
2. 'Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma), MKG'
3. 'Denzong, Mao (Mao-Tse-Tung), MD'
4. 'Minh, Ho Chi (), HCM'
5. 'Al-Busaidi, Suleman bin Said bin Mohammed (), SSMB'
6. 'Taylor, Elizabeth (Liz), ET'
With a EntityNameParts of this sort virtually every name from
any part of the world can be covered. The situation of change
in name, like for ladies after marriage (in most societies), or
the in few odd cases, like 'Cassius Clay' becoming 'Mohammed
Ali' the change would have to be reflected by versioning.
Just a suggestion (wild or otherwise) for enlarging the scope
of demographic data.
Bish
Bangalore
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