ConditionsSection for Visit Summary PDF — What should clinicians see?
Hi everyone!
I’m starting work on the ConditionsSection (O3-5670) for the visit summary PDF pipeline in openmrs-module-patientdocuments.
Context: The visit summary PDF already has sections for vitals, diagnoses, and allergies (PR #16, in final review). Conditions is the next section to implement.
The design question: In OpenMRS, conditions are patient-level data — they belong to the patient, not to a specific visit (unlike vitals or diagnoses which are tied to encounters within a visit). This is the same as how we handle allergies. So the section will show the patient’s conditions as part of their clinical picture at the time the summary is printed.
I have two questions about what a clinician would expect to see:
1. Status filter Should the section show only Active conditions, or should it also include Inactive and History-of conditions?
My default assumption: only Active conditions, since the visit summary is a snapshot of the patient’s current clinical state. But I can see an argument for including History-of if clinicians find that useful for context (e.g., a resolved TB diagnosis that’s still clinically relevant).
2. Chronicity The original mockup labeled this section “Chronic Conditions.” Should we filter to only chronic conditions, or include all active conditions regardless of whether they’re acute or chronic?
My default assumption: show all active conditions. A clinician printing a visit summary likely wants the full picture — an acute condition like pneumonia is just as relevant as a chronic one like hypertension. The section heading could simply be “Conditions” rather than “Chronic Conditions.”
Would love to hear about what makes the most clinical sense.
Thanks!