here is the color I used for when an input form field is active so as to focus is clearly. 
.
I wonder If it needs any adjustments
I am done with integrating the nursing assessment form.
@rhoyt Hi Bob- Elizabeth pointed out something that is a potential slow down to the Nsg Forms project.
The spreadsheet we received with the specs for the forms is missing the āBack End Documentationā for all the reports except the Nursing Assessment.
The āBack End Documentationā consists of the contents of all the dropdown lists on the form. So for eg, on the Nsg Assessment form, in the item āPatient locationā, the dropdown list contains the choices, āBed/Crib | Chair | Room | Wheelchair | Out of Room | Out on Pass | Otherā
However, none of the items in the other forms have dropdown contents specified. Some of the items on the Nursing Shift form are written so that the list of options can be determined, but the rest of the forms are not.
If this is intentional, it implies that all the data fields are free text, which has certain consequences. Just one of which is that freetext data cannot be tallied into any reports on the contents of those forms.
But rather than go into the rest of it right now, Iāll just ask if the dropdown contents do exist somewhere, can they be sent to us so Elizabeth can finish the project?
On some of the forms I might advantage of my 18 years nursing experience and come up with some dropdown list contents that reflect best practices, or at least seem reasonable. However, many of the items deal with terms and procedures that are obviously unique to a particular facilityās workflows.
If the rest of the forms besides the Nursing Assessment are not intended to have reports collated on their contents, then free text makes sense, and they will be coded that way.
Please advise. Thanks- Harley
Unfortunately, I sent you all of the information I received from MSU Denver. I received no response from my recent email but I can send again. Iām not sure at this point it is worth worrying about as only one school has asked for the nursing assessment forms. If we had multiple schools requesting I would task a nursing department somewhere to tackle this. Iām not opposed to using your ācommon senseā to create dropdowns
Hi Bob- Thanks for the quick response. Ok, Iāll go ahead and generate some generic- as- possible list options for the dropdowns, getting what I can from the different standardized Nursing Care Plans that are out there. But to my mind, thatās the best way to go anyway, making the forms as broadly applicable as possible.
Worst case scenario, if somebody wanted options more specific to their institutional practices, the forms could be extended and added to as a code customization that involved minimal coding angst, rather than major rewrites.
Iāll get on it!
- HT
I completely agree and thanksā¦Bob
Hello @rhoyt The Outreachy cycle is nearing its end and @elizabeth is close to finishing the MSU Denver Nursing Forms. She has done an incredible job of working with me to translate the specs then coding them into efficient, user friendly clinical forms. The forms are expected to be deployed to the Docs Demo site shortly- I hear a rumor of it happening tomorrow. Once deployed I will double check them for bugs, but her preliminary reports on their function appear to show them all working properly.
As soon as they are available on the Docs Demo site I will make a User Doc for one of the more interesting forms so you can see how well the assignment turned out. Also, you can use it to show prospective funding sources what sort of things are possible to add to the EHR.
Because that is my second purpose for this note: does it look like youāll be able to find a sponsor for another Outreachy intern (or 2?) to work on the LH EHR project? This Nursing Forms assignment generated 8 new user forms that need to be documented, so we have a bunch of work an Intern could do, and we have a couple other mentors coming online who would each be able to oversee an Intern in EHR Dev-ops, User Documentation and front- end (clinical forms) coding.
Just this one MSU project has added significantly to the scope of LibreEHRās capabilities and made it more suitable for even more diverse clinical settings or educational environments. Another focused project and an intern or 2 to carry it out would take the EHR to yet another quantum level of functionality. Perhaps somebody would like to expand its repertoire of in-patient forms?
Thanks again for this interesting and educational project. Regards- Harley
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@htuck @elizabeth @KoniKodes @tony
Congratulations on finishing the forms. Please let me know when they are integrated so I can take a look. I will probably run them by a friend of mine who is an RN PhD at U Minn.
I donāt know what to say about the future of LibreHealth EHR as an educational tool. I was enthused enough to spend roughly $15K of my own money to help move it along, only to see a tepid reception by the very people who were enthusiastic 5 years ago. Sadly, I think they want it for free, to include hosting which is unrealistic. They also want me to supply all educational materials so they donāt have to write any new curricula. Any thoughts about this would be appreciated.
@rhoyt How sad that it lost momentum after you put the time and money in.
Iām so proud of the work that our intern did to meet your needs. I am looking forward to hearing what your friend thinks of the forms.
I think the LibreHealth EHR system could be a great educational tool. And I think Outreachy interns could be very helpful in bringing it to the level that the industry needs - as is shown by the work Elizabeth did.
As far as educational materials, are you referring to the actual classroom notes? Or do they simply need great documentation on how the system works? Iām not qualified on the classroom notes, but we already have the team (and potential Outreachy interns) in place to help with the system documentation - which could be the basis for educational materials.
@KoniKodes @tony The reality is that small to medium-sized universities/colleges stand the greatest chance of benefiting from an open-source EHR for education because the larger schools have the resources to ārentā a commercial EHR for education. Many of these types of instructors lack formal informatics training so they turn to someone like me (who wrote a Health Informatics textbook) for literally everything. Iām busy with multiple other initiatives so donāt have time to do the work for them
Thank you for helping me to understand.
I could not write that textbook. However, I can write the documentation for the actual system activity.
Let me know if I can ever be of help.
@rhoyt Are you saying the informatics instructors are maybe software engineers pressed into service as informatics instructors? Are they using your text as curriculum for their class?
It occurred to me that if they are using your text itād be possible to go through the lessons and document an EHR workflow that illustrated the lesson. Is the text organized in such a way that this is a workable approach? Itās been a while but I believe I saw a document you circulated that had a couple of those already composed?
As it happens, my BS Comp Sci degree is in Health Informatics. I donāt have the time to write the whole set of workflows for the text myself but I could supervise an intern, determining the EHR tasks that would illustrate the lesson, and have them document those workflows.
We do have a couple very good prospects for interns are capable of that. We also have multilingual EHR mentors who have achieved some proficiency in translating healthcare- specific technical documentation, and could turn this into a ES-LA (Spanish-Latin America) or French (think 1/2 of Africa) production. Both as written docs and as videos.
Not sure if any of this sounds like something you can use. And of course I canāt speak for the rest of the LibreHealth project, but we could get the EHR section up to speed.
Not only do they get a free textbook, but they also get an instructor manual and a PowerPoint collection for each chapter. They donāt have to think too much on their own. They need to up their data science game so I am now completing a second textbook on Introduction to Biomedical Data Science. Will they tackle the new information??
Wow! This is busy! Iām willing to help where I can.
Just FYI, we are trying to be cutting edge by having our own āhow-toā videos on a Youtube channel and hosting all data on Data World. Each chapter will have data exercises with real healthcare data and embedded videos where appropriate. There could be a circumstance where I might ask for help or advice. Thanks
We have Elizabeth and Adele working on the videos for the nursing forms, and you already know how awesome @htuck is at creating videos. So I donāt think it should be a problem.
I can help supervise from back stage.
@rhoyt I definitely appreciate the need for being cutting edge! Iām curious how far youāve gotten with the videos and the exercise writeups, and whether production delays are a problem? One thing Iāve found is that the Interns we select have always been real speed demons, motivated to get the job done well, and quickly. Witness @elizabeth getting all 8 of the nursing forms done in 3 months, and all correctly as I interpreted the requirements.
If you have some funding depending on the completion of the docs you might do a cost/ benefit of getting them done sooner /vs/ later. Iād be glad to review your completed text and planned exercises with an eye to what we might be able to help with.
But in any case, sure, weāre always happy to advise.
- Harley