Medication Search

[Nate]

We have a few hundred medications in our database and it gets a little tedious searching for some as they are all very small and the pages scroll quickly to the right when using the mouse wheel. I noticed some space on the right side of the screen above the area used to add new scripts. Would it be possible to have a small search field there like patient look up. Where you can begin typing the name of the medication and it will find all medications that begin with the letters as you type them. Basically make it similar to the patient look-up field. Perhaps when you open the medication list the cursor could go directly to that location and all you need to do is start to type a few letters of the medication and you will have what you want.

Just an idea.

[jordansparks]

Yes, that's been planned for quite some time. The whole window needs an overhaul.

[DavidWolf]

Would there be a way for OD USER's to share their medication list data?
Mine is fine now, but for new users a head start would be a great benefit....

[jordansparks]

Well, shouldn't we make new users carefully assemble their list of medications? Shouldn't it be their responsibility to make sure each is spelled properly according to their source? And shouldn't it be very important as part of that process to look at cautions, interactions, class, etc? The important data for each medication needs to be paraphrased, and nobody but the dentist should do that. Of course, this is the real world, and I'm very far behind on looking up each of the medications in my list. I don't have a good answer for you there.

[DavidWolf]

I can see the merit in all those arguments....even though that is what dental school was for...
More importantly, I could see some liability in providing a list that is not accurate....

I am sure there are some major database issue with importing a list into a database that is not brand new, since the drugs are locked once they are attached to a patient's chart.

I would love to get the mis-spelled "asprin" out of my database, but it is attached to hundreds of patients.

I am going to settle for just be able to search for the drugs.

Thanks as always.

[jordansparks]

There is also planned a management tool to let you change misspelled medications. But it's going to take admin privileges to get into. So I guess I'm saying don't worry too much about your asprin entries. A solution is coming some day.

[cneelley]

I think this argument that each dentist should assemble his own list according to his or her own research is absolutely silly. I don't mean to be offensive, but it seems to me the more sources of info we have the better. A list that is assembled and shared would be fantastic. Opendental would not be liable at all. That is like saying a publisher who made a book of drugs 5 years ago could be sued if drug info changed since the publication. I am sure there are disclaimers, or something. It just does not happen. I think a list of drugs with pertinent dental info would be great.

cneelley

[jordansparks]

Medication names is one thing. But descriptions? Do you really want someone else's clutter in there?

[cneelley]

I think there is somebody else's clutter in everything we learn. Ultimately we form our own opinion after we use it. The more info and input from others the better, always. I have always found that a bunch of dentists getting together and just talking about cases or little things to be extremely informative and helpful. Very often there is disagreement between practitioners what works and what doesn't. But I think everybody learns, and it is very helpful. So, whether I agree or not with other' input, clutter, I think it is very helpful.

cneelley

[drtech]

I think instead of thinking of it as clutter, think of it as a great starting point and if you want to change the description, then you can just change it. (or is that locked and are you not able to do that yet?)
Personally, I haven't even started using the med list because i havn't taken the time to put all of them in...I would love to see a shared list.

[jordansparks]

Yes, you can change it after the fact. Maybe I'll think about turning that into one of our web services. We now have a server that you are all using every time you check for updates, and its functions can be expanded. We already have plans to use it for shared language translations, carrier UCR's, feature request voting, and a few other things. A master medication list maintained by all seems sensible. But it's not going to happen immediately.

We also have been in contact with third party suppliers of this information. It is realistic that we can implement one of their API's without too much effort.