Mammography Report Database

DrMaestro

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Hi,

I am a radiologist. I work at a medical faculty as the responsable for mammographic examinations. My former collegues didn't use any form of database to archive mammography reports but I want to create a Access Database to achieve this purpose. As I am a doctor, I don't have a lot of experience in database creation. So any help will be appreciated.

So far I created (with Access 2000) the part required for patient demographics (name, ID number. adress, etc). This part is relatively easy. I just created tables with the required fields and used a wizard in form generator to create a form. The harder part for me is the creation of the mammography results. I want the other physicians to be able to enter results as fast and as easily as possible. For this purpose I created option groups. One option group consists of 4 options detailing the mammpgraphic finding (mass, asymetical opacity, microcalcification, parenchymal distortion), the other option group is the BI-RADS score (a score which can be between 0 and 6, but 4 is divided to 4a, 4b and 4c. This is score is decided by the radiologist depending on mammographic findings). What I haven't been able to achieve is to link these option groups' results to a table. Because I want to be able to search and classify the patients depending on their BI-RADS score and mammographic finding. I also want to create a text message summarizing the choices made by the pyhsician: For example if the physician choose asymetrical opacity and BI-RADS 3, I want a text box to display "The mammogram is evaluated as BI-RADS 3 because of asymetrical opacity."

So, these are my current problems. Thank you very much.
 
How many characters, including spaces, will the longest summary contain?
 
Approximately between 100-120 characters
 
OK. So long as the summary will be 255 characters or less you can use a standard text field for your summary, with the field size probably best set at the maximum of 255 characters.

You've got a table for your patients' demographic data, including a patient ID number which you'll use to relate to the other table(s). Although this is an ID number the field should actually be a text field. Numerical data types are only used for numbers that will be used for calculations. While we're on the subject, since you say you're fairly new to all this, another general hint to save yourself a lot of aggravation later: in naming your objects, tables, forms, fields, controls etc. always using something on the order of BiRadsScore rather than Bi-Rads Score. Leave out spaces and if you feel you have to separate words rather than simply capitalizing the beginning letter of each word, use the underscore (_) character. This makes it much easier when referring to them. Spaces in names confuses Access.

You've already got Option Groups set up as follows:

Bi-Rads Score
0
1
2
3
4a
4b
4c
5
6

MammographicFindings
Mass
Asymetical opacity
Microcalcification
Parenchymal distortion

You'll need a table to hold each report, with, at a minimum, fields for (I'm guessing here)

PatientID
ExaminationDate
InterpretingMDName
BiRadsScore
MammographicFindings
Summary

Fields for any other data you need to store for the particular study. Is there some sort of admissions number, for instance, that would separate this study from other studies the same patient might have had? If not you'll have to use a combination of PatientID and date of exam.

Let me know if I've got this correct. I've got a pretty full day ahead but will be happy to spend some time this evening going over this in more detail and giving you some ideas either this evening or tomorrow.
 
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Hi,

Thank you very much for your reply.Your hints have been very valuable. The situation is just as you described. There isn't a specific admission number for a patient's subsequent examinations. So using a combination of patient ID and examination date will be, as you suggested, logical. By the way, I have been advised in another forum to use combo boxes instead of option groups. What is your opinion on this matter? Thanks again.
 
Given the very limited number of choices there's absolutley nothing wrong with using the option groups! They're actually much more straight forward to deal with, and exactly what I'd have opted for, in this situation! If you had a dozen or more choices, for a two or three or more groups of choices, comboboxes would have made sense, but your users will actually find it easier just to click on one option for each group. I was thinking about using a single combobox, which will be Wizard generated, for going to a given exams record. I'm going to go over this info and see what I can come up with for you to get started.

All too often people will advise you to do what they would do, without really stopping to think about what level you're operating on, or about how different your requirements are from what they're accustomed to dealing with. When helping newbies, I try to always go with the simplest techniques that will get the job done, also looking at whether I'm dealing with someone who's looking to make a living developing software, or someone like yourself who's merely looking for a tool to address a particular task.

I'll post back some things to you tomorrow.


Addendum:

DrMaestro, I apologize, but I've had a family emergency arise and won't be able to do much today, but I haven't forgotten you; I will get back to you. In the mean time, one point you've indicated you're having trouble with, connecting your option groups to your table. For each Option Group you need a field in your table set to datatype Number with field size set to Integer, not Long Integer, which is the default value. Assuming you have the Record Source of your form where the Option Group resides set to the table or query that includes the table, you need to click on the frame around the Option Group (not the individual options) then go into Property Box for the Option Group and under Control Source, select the name of the field. Now when you create and save a record the value of the Option Group will be stored in your table. The value stored for each choice within an Option Group depends on the Option's position in the group. In the case of the BI-RADS SCORE Option Group it would be something like this:

Option Group BiRadsScore

Option Value Stored
0 1
1 2
2 3
3 4
4a 5
4b 6
4c 7
5 8
6 9

If Option Group's name is Frame0 (which is he name Access assigns to the first Option Group created on the form) the value of the group in code would be referred to as Frame0.Value. So if the first option button (0)was selected, the value would be 1.

Hope this helps ou get started. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
 
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Dear Missinglinq,

Thank you very much for helping me. I hope the family emergency you mentioned is not a grave one. I am grateful you spared me some time in the middle of an emergency. I am not in a hurry and can wait as long as you require. Meanwhile, thanks for the clarification for the linking of option groups with tables. I'll try to come up with some solutions (if I can).
 
Hello, DrMaestro! Sorry to take so long getting back to you. How are you coming along with your project? I was thinking about your summary of the BI-RADS Score and Findings and, not knowing an awful lot about BI-RADS, have one question: Will the summary always be in the form of "The mammogram is evaluated as BI-RADS 3 because of asymetrical opacity." or will it sometimes be in the form of "The mammogram is evaluated as BI-RADS 0." without having a "because of" qualifying Finding?
 
Hi,

Sorry for the delay. I haven't been able to use Internet for a while because of my provider. Your question is one that I didn't think about previously (but I had to). You are right. Not all of BI-RADS results require a clarification.

BI-RADS 0 means further examinations are required (like sonography or MRI). It is due to some cause and requires clarification. BI-RADS 1 means everything is normal and it doesn't require further clarification. BI-RADS 2,3,4a,b,c, and 5 require clarification. BI-RADS 6 means that the lesion being examined is already verfied histoapthologicaly ( a biopsy has been performed). So the structure should be something like "The mammogram is evaluated as BI-RADS 6 because of a known malignancy"

Thank you very much. (By the way I just found a calendar form while searching this forum. It is not the one which is included with Access. I implemented it at the entry form. Is it a good idea?)
 
I've already done some preliminary work on the coding for the summaries, and will take your new info into account and see what I can come up with. As for the add-in calendar, it really depends on who wrote it. I've always used the native Access ActiveX calendars without problems, but there is plenty of custom made things out there. The only drawback I can foresee, with you being a new programmer, is that you'll have less of a chance of getting help here or at another forum with a non- Access calendar. But again, it depends on the author and how widely the calendar is used.
 
Allen is the Grand Master of Access! He's been around since the beginning, has written texts and such! Anything by him is top of the line!
 

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