Karsten Hilbert wrote: > On Sun, Feb 18, 2007 at 05:32:54PM +1100, Tim Churches wrote: > >> surprisingly tricky and fragile). But it does support dataset >> versioning, so that the latest version of source data can be loaded into >> a new dataset in the background while users continue to use an existing >> dataset, and when the new load has completely it is transparently used >> for all new analysis sessions. > Isn't that what transactions are all about in an MVCC > database ?
Yes, but it doesn't use PostgreSQL (our data collection facility, NetEpi Collection, uses PostgreSQL). Also, the versioning is at the level of entire datasets (equivalent to tables in an SQL database, more or less). > >> would be harder, but possible - maybe a few weeks work. It can certainly >> load data directly from a database back-end, although some queries to >> flatten the data appropriately might be needed. > This might be achievable with a few flattening and/or even > materialized views inbetween the NetEpi code and the OpenMRS > schema. Yes, but would need to be able to use the OpenMRS concept dictionary and other metadata to be able to flatten the OpenMRS tables/entities stored in EAV form, and also do statically defined joins between those and other conventional tables in OpenMRS. Plus a Web front-end to drive it. all doable, but a few weeks work. >> also, form scanning just doesn't work as well in practice as people >> think it should, > Well, the path of least resistance here is to scan it and > use it as a background image in some text editor or other so > that what you type appears to be written into the fields > while it is (technically) written on top of the background > image. We then save the result as any other old document > tied into the medical record. No, we need the data in computable form for epidemiological (aggregate) analysis - images of numbers nd characters must be converted to ASCII or Unicode bytes. There is a commercial product, Teleform, which does this reasonably well - see http://www.cardiff.com/products/teleform/index.html - and we may just provide an interface which can load data which has been scanned off hand-written forms using that, but gee, an open source solution would be nice. Suggestions very welcome. Tim C
