Dear Tom
The data types thing is on the move. Issues that I think we should address in openEHR ASAP are:
DV_Quantity
precision - should not be manditory
units - should be able to be empty string - or optional as this is the only access to a REAL
DV_Ordinal
limits: mandatory - are we always going to have access to this in data coming in?
And the DSTC issue....
Should there be a new class for DV_Quantity that uses Scientific notation. They have implemented this - I am concerned that it makes the unit more flexible and therefore more risky for clinical interpretation (e.g. it would allow a number to be expressed as 2 * 10^6 or 20 *10^5 - where as placing this in the unit restricts this.
We need more input.
Cheers, Sam