Hello everyone, I’m working on creating an archetype for a report test using Better Archetype Designer. I’m wondering where I should enter the reference range for the reference range field in the archetype? Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you!
Hi Zahra,
Although theoretically you could constrain ADL in the archetype or template to capture these reference ranges, the tooling does not do so, and I’m not sure if the CDRs would comply!
In any case, we generally recommend against hardwiring reference ranges into models like this as they are very often quite specific to certain analyser methods, and rather just accept whatever is sent through from the lab system.
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Hello Mr. McNicoll, thank you for explaining whether it is possible to define the reference range in the archetype or template. It was very interesting to learn about this.
I had seen the DV_Quantity in the LinkEHR Studio, as shown in the image below:
I was looking for an image similar to the one below in Better’s Archetype Designer:
Thanks again for your explanation
Yep - you don’t want to do this. Reference ranges should be considered a knowledge resource like terminology, and maintained in their own space. There are so-called standard reference range (what you find in a Merck lab manual) but as Ian says, real ones in use are specific to machines, also to labs, and so on.
The openEHR DV_QUANTITY type is designed to capture whatever reference range the lab provides for the analyte result - hopefully specific to phenotype (sex, age, race if applicable, etc), not to define reference ranges. Putting these in archetypes would make them difficult to manage and would require ongoing changes to keep up with change in machines, methods etc.
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You can’t do this in Better’s Archetype Designer, by design.
Hello Mr. Beale,
Thank you for your explanation. I agree that reference ranges should be considered a separate knowledge resource and maintained in their own space, rather than being defined in archetypes. It makes sense that the openEHR DV_QUANTITY type is designed to capture whatever reference range the lab provides for the analyte result, and not to define reference ranges. I appreciate your insight on this topic.
In the image below, the Reference range is identified as follows:
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Reference range guidance is only intended for additional textual information or where the reference range provided in the lab message is in a textual format and not as a range of quantities
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