Novice who is in dire need of help

[Mark Maloney]

I am a medical student who was asked to set up a database for use in a
medical practice. It'll be of moderate size and will need to be very easy for
the end user to operate. I've been trying to develop it in PDOXWIN 5.0
but have found ObjectPal to be cumbersome and difficult to learn in my
somewhat limited time frame. What compounds the problem is that in this
academic health setting, no one knows ObjectPal...not even the head of
medical informatics.

Maybe you can help me with a small problem that I am having...Here is the
scenario: My application is being used by our multidisciplinary division
(doctors, nurses, dietitian, psychologists, etc.) to track data, write
reports, etc. on our patient population (1500 patients). The demographic
data is relatively stagnant was my obvious choice for parent table. Each
detail table is linked to the parent by a one to many relationship so
that each patient can have numerous entries composite keyed by an ID# and
the visit date. The problem is that when I design the individual forms
for the professional and link the data model in the aforementioned
relationship, Paradox only allows me to place parent fields on the form.
The child fields are automatically and irreversible turned into summary
fields when I try to define them. All I want to do is to be able to
display the demographic data (via lookup) and be able to input data about
that individual into table(s) linked to it.

Is that too much to ask???

Also, if this undertakng (the project) seem out of range for someone with
relatively no experoence with PDOXWIN, would it be prudent to enlist the
services of a developer, and if so, the approximately how much would it
cost??

Thanks in advance,

Mark Maloney
Division of Pediatric Endocrinology
University of Maryland School of Medicine

[Sundial Services]

In article <Pine.A32.3.91.960105...@umabnet.ab.umd.edu> Mark Maloney <mmal...@umabnet.ab.umd.edu> writes:

>Maybe you can help me with a small problem that I am having...Here is the
>scenario: My application is being used by our multidisciplinary division
>(doctors, nurses, dietitian, psychologists, etc.) to track data, write
>reports, etc. on our patient population (1500 patients). The demographic
>data is relatively stagnant was my obvious choice for parent table. Each
>detail table is linked to the parent by a one to many relationship so
>that each patient can have numerous entries composite keyed by an ID# and
>the visit date. The problem is that when I design the individual forms
>for the professional and link the data model in the aforementioned
>relationship, Paradox only allows me to place parent fields on the form.
>The child fields are automatically and irreversible turned into summary
>fields when I try to define them. All I want to do is to be able to
>display the demographic data (via lookup) and be able to input data about
>that individual into table(s) linked to it.

You can input information into a table-frame, which will reflect the
one-to-many relationship between the patient and visit data. Frequently what
is done in situations like this is to open a subordinate form when a button
like "enter new visit" is pressed.

>Also, if this undertakng (the project) seem out of range for someone with
>relatively no experoence with PDOXWIN, would it be prudent to enlist the
>services of a developer, and if so, the approximately how much would it
>cost??

You probably *are* in the situation where a professional developer can be more
cost-effective than for you to continue to spend a lot of time banging your
head against the application. (Analogy: I don't try to fix the plumbing in
my house anymore...don't say "I'll do it myself!" when thinking about a new
addition, etc.)

But you probably want to look locally for someone to assist you -- someone who
can easily come to your place of business, work closely with you, the doctors
and staff, and who can establish a long-term relationship with your
organization. You can probably expect to pay $35 to $50 per hour for this
service, but if you "get a good one," it will be worth the investment. Be
sure to ask for and check references -- not simply for technical ability, but
for the ability to deliver.

-Mike Robinson; Sundial Services, Scottsdale AZ (602) 946-8259; fax 874-2068
sun...@primenet.com

[Gene Griswold]

Sounds like your not setting up correct master-detail linking in your data
model. Once you have that you'll want to drop a tableframe object into
your form for the detail table.

Gene G.

[Jim Hyslop]

Mark Maloney <mmal...@umabnet.ab.umd.edu> wrote:
>Also, if this undertakng (the project) seem out of range for someone with
>relatively no experoence with PDOXWIN, would it be prudent to enlist the
>services of a developer, and if so, the approximately how much would it
>cost?

Check out your university's Computer Engineering department - you may
be able to find student there, who will work on it with you. That student
might be able to do it for academic credit - as opposed to $$$ credit :) .

Jim

[Jochen Doermann]

In article <4cubgk$5...@steel.interlog.com>, ji...@interlog.com says...

Mark,

Be careful about contracting a computer sciences or computer engineering
student for this kind of project. From my personal observations, these
students are susally very bright and could write an ObjectPAL compiler for
you, but they don't know beans about business information systems. They can
ususally write extremely fast, efficient and ingenious C/C++ programs that
nobody else will be able to understand or maintain (often they can't either
after a few months).

If you're considering student help, go to the the business information
systems department. This is often part of the School of Business (it is at
the University of Wisconsin - Madison) or a special section of the Computer
Sciences department.

Good Luck -- Jochen

[David Crosby]

Make sure that the tables are not READ ONLY. Right click on the table
name in the Data Model.
My your fingers never tire,
and your methods have no bugs.