existence and assumed value

Technical (archive)
1

Hi all,

I noticed that the JAVA ADL-parser marks a CObject existence as required
if it is not specified in ADL
If there is also an assumed value specified, then this is, in my opinion
conflicting, because the function of the assumed value is to use it when
there an attribute is not used
(page 21 AOM.pdf).

Or am I wrong?

Thanks for your attention

Bert

2

Hi Bert,
Assumed value is different to default value (see the AOM spec for definition
of assumed value, default value is further defined in the new 1.5 AOM spec).
If an element has a assumed value defined and its value is not present, the
assumed value should not be used in the data, it remains not present. The
meaning of not present is the assumed value from a clinical perspective, but
does not get injected into the data. Compare with a default value which
does get injected into the data when the value is not originally present.

My understanding is that assumed values are most usually used in state, not
data (e.g. assumed value of blood pressure position is sitting).

Heath

3

Just to concur with Heath. These are intended to describe the
clinical assumption that it would be safe to make, usually about
patient state, if the data was NOT specifically recorded. i.e if
patient position was not recorded in a blood pressure reading, it
would be safe to assume the patient was sitting, or if the oxygen
level was not recorded in the ambient oxygen archetype, it would be
safe to assume that the patient was breathing air.

In practice, we have very few examples in the CKM archetypes to date,
where it is safe to make such clinical assumptions.

Ian

Dr Ian McNicoll
office / fax +44(0)141 560 4657
mobile +44 (0)775 209 7859
skype ianmcnicoll
ian.mcnicoll@oceaninformatics.com
ian@mcmi.co.uk

Clinical Analyst Ocean Informatics
Honorary Senior Research Associate, CHIME, University College London
openEHR Archetype Editorial Group
Member BCS Primary Health Care SG Group www.phcsg.org / BCS Health Scotland

4

Thanks Heath for your explanation, that is indeed something completely
different as I was thinking.

So, it is something we do not need to worry about when processing
archetyped data on the backend,

You just made may day, saves me some time

Bert

Op 20-09-10 10:10, Heath Frankel schreef:

5

Hi Bert,

maybe also this links could be helpful..
http://old.nabble.com/"state"-and--"protocol"-structures-are-mandatory%2C-when-defined--td29174701.html
and
http://www.openehr.org/wiki/display/dev/Existence+of+Attributes+(AOM,+ADL+and+XML)

Leo

BertV wrote:

6

Thanks Ian,

My question was more for technical point of view.

I raise an exception is a required entry (existence) is not in the data
set. I was wondering if this was conflicting with the assumed value (if
available)
I understand from Heath that this is not conflicting because assumed
values are not injected in the data-sets.

I think, there purpose can be to use in a GUI (f.e. generated on base of
an archetype, to give an value to a GUI-control, which can be changed by
the GUI-user). Another purpose, I cannot think of.

Bert

Op 20-09-10 11:14, Ian McNicoll schreef: