On Fri, Mar 11, 2005 at 12:34:39PM +0100, Karsten Hilbert wrote: > [some snipped] > > Can you precisely say what your initials stand for ? Here in > Germany they are *always* the first letter of the first > name(s). In other countries, too (US, AU AFAICT). In a name, > that is. A sig may consist of initials only - first/last names > both included - such as on charts etc. >
Karsten, you have driven home the point. Look at the variances in what a simple thing like 'initials' may mean ;-) For OpenEHR to proceed as an international foundation, we need to talk a common language, understood by everybody, the same way. There is a need for the following: o Demographic entities need to be defined by us, and archetyped. o Since this links up with every subsequent entry, this section has to be based on philosophies of the 'HCF' (Highest Common Factor). o All nomenclatures used for such definitions should be culture neutral, and as generic as possible. o Once the 'definitions' are made and accepted, developing the archetypes would become simpler. Things would fall into place one by one. Demographic details are one of the toughest parts of any data base. In a multicultural society like mine, I do know what it means, and realise its importance. As regards 'initials' are concerned look for the word 'initial' on dict.org (the definition of about 5 dictionaries are given). However, perhaps better understood, with the following example: What would you expect, if you ask me to 'initial' a document as having seen. Do you expect 'USM' or 'USMB' ? If I ask you to do the same, I would expect you to place 'KH' and not just 'K'.IOW 'initials' are the first letters of the whole name in order of usage. Some societies use Family name in the beginning, so for them the order may differ in the initials from convention. Just my 2p USM Bish Bangalore - If you have any questions about using this list, please send a message to d.lloyd at openehr.org
