I’m reaching out to request your review and input on our planned implementation of Age-Based Range Alerts. This feature will significantly enhance clinical decision support by providing dynamic reference ranges for vital signs and other fields based on patient characteristics.
Overview of Requirements
We’re planning to extend OpenMRS to support variable reference ranges starting with age-based alerts for vital signs. Currently, the system only supports static reference ranges regardless of patient factors, which creates challenges for clinicians working with diverse patient populations.
Seeking Your Input
Before we finalize our approach, we’d appreciate community feedback on several aspects:
Are these Vital Signs Reference Range Data Accurate?
Has anyone attempted similar functionality? What challenges did you encounter?
While we’re starting with age-based ranges, the plan is to extend support for other patient factors (sex, pregnancy etc). Any recommendations on prioritizing these extensions?
If you’ve worked on similar functionality or have insights from clinical practice that could inform our approach, we’d be grateful for your contribution.
Review Timeline
We hope to begin implementation in the next sprint, so early feedback would be especially valuable.
Thank you for your continued support in improving OpenMRS!
@kmuiruri Thanks so much! I really appreciate the support. Looking forward to the insights from your clinical associate, and great to hear it’ll also be reviewed with the clinicians for alignment.
Hello @veronica,
The reference Range is accurate and helpful for monitoring vital signs, However, I think it’s also good to consider how fast breathing is defined especially in children under 5 years for early warning in triage:
=>60breaths/min for infants under 2months
=>50breaths/min for infants 2-11months
=>40 for children 1-5years
You’re absolutely right—while general reference ranges are helpful for monitoring vital signs, it’s important to consider age-specific respiratory thresholds, particularly for children under five.
Appreciate you sharing the WHO-recommended cutoffs as well.
@burke@grace, would love to hear your thoughts on incorporating this nuance for the under-fives.
Hey all, here are some quick updates regarding this work.
The reference ranges implementation for Vitals and Lab results (Hemoglobin & Alkaline Phosphatase) is now live on Dev3!
This work has been backed by extensive research and expert guidance – huge thanks to everyone who contributed their knowledge and expertise to make this possible.
How It Works:
Configurable via CSV files in content packages for easy management
Implementer flexibility – override with your own reference ranges as needed
Flagging – uses reference ranges where available, falls back to concept-level ranges otherwise
