On Sat, 2003-07-05 at 03:45, Andrew Ho wrote:

>   My impression was that TORCH's exported record has a direct one-to-one
> mapping to TORCH's data model. If this understanding is incorrect, please
> let us know where we can find a true description of TORCH's data model.

True enlightenment, for those that seek it may be found in the code.

> 
> > If it were a data model you could tell if this was a "date" type, a
> > "time string" or a "character string".
> ...
> 
>   I understand that an exported record is but an example (=instance) of
> the data maintained by TORCH. Thus, while it is possible to ascertain
> something about the data model by looking at a part of an exported record,
> what I quoted was certainly not a full description of the much larger
> TORCH data model!

Nor was it even a description of one element of the data model.


>   For the purpose of illustrating the embedding of terminology within an
> EMR (which was my purpose in mentioning this fragment of TORCH exported
> record), I thought it sufficient to show just a small example.

You were incorrect as there was no example of any standard terminology
embedding at all.  There "may" have been an example of of the use of a
coding system (ICD) elsewhere in the export.

> --> In this example, "social history" is one of the "terminology" used by
> TORCH.  Will TORCH reconcile this "social history" term with similar
> terms (if any) in SNOMED CT ?

Hmmmmmmm....that's top secret stuff. <vbg>


>  If so, how do you plan to carry out the
> mapping / translation between the two?

.....with due diligence, professional integrity and the knowledge that I have a clue 
what I am doing.


> (As you can see, answering these questions may or may not require a full
> review of the entire TORCH data model. :-)

...and your point is?

>   Just so that you won't mistakenly conclude that I am singling out TORCH,
> GnuMed, OSCAR, TkFP, and other EMR's will also have to address the same
> challenge. 

I see that the OIO project is missing from this list, do you (or
whomever is writing the OIO code) not intend to, "...address the same
challenge."? 

> Your willingness to share your thoughts on this can help many
> of us plan a better strategy.

Really? How so?


--tim

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