Records For Living Community

Hello,

So far the eval of your product is good.  I entered in all of height/weight data for each of my kids since birth.  The height and weight were entered in the visits window.  In the Test window, there appears to be a relational connection because the test-vital signs-measurements, which shows the height and weight correctly for the appropriate date.  However, when I try to create a report for the growth chart, I get the following error:

“There is no height/weight data recorded for ages 0 through 20.  You can go to the ‘Health/Tests’ page to add a new height or weight measurement.”

When clicking the ‘Health/Tests’ link, I go to the tests and then to a vital sign, and the height/weight data is present.  Why isn’t the growth chart working? 

I was really disappointed to see that the data is not being charted on the CDC for chart for height, weight, and BMI.  BMI isn’t an option in any format.  There is a link to the CDC charts, but why not chart the customers data in the same standard format?  Due to these limitations there is a good possibility that I won’t purchase your product.  Have I missed the CDC formatted charts, including BMI? 

Eric

Eric,

Thank you for your interest in HealthFrame and for taking the time to let us know about the problems you encountered with the growth chart.

It turns out the issue is simply a bad error message.  You got a message that said, "There is no height/weight data recorded for ages 0 through 20....".  In reality the problem you report is typically caused by not entering an individual's date of birth.  Please look at the screen shot below and make sure that for each of your children that you enter the date of birth information in the "Basic Information" section.  Once you've done that, please check the CDC charts, as well as the BMI data in the weight chart.

Our development team has been notified of this confusing error message and it will be corrected for future releases.

Thank you again for reporting this issue and please let us know if we can be of additional assistance.

Support Team
Records For Living

Thanks.  Entering the birth information fixed the charting problem.  However, the charting is too low in resolution for pediatric monitoring.  The CDC charts you mentioned are links to a CDC pdf chart.  And I can't find any reference to the BMI chart in the weight chart.  This tool could be a great tool if the charting was improved!  All of the data gathering is good, but if it can't be analyzed with good resolution and well presented charting, then the utility of the data is lost.  As an example of the needed charting improvement, I strongly suggest the height/weight data be automatically formatted on a CDC percentile chart, where the outputted chart looks exactly like the pdf but with the patients data automatically charted.  This comment applies to all of the charts in the HealthFrame.  Is there a plug-in to improve the charting?

Thank you for following up on this thread!  We're happy to hear that you are now able to see the data charted on the CDC graph.

Some of the questions/issues you raise may be addressed by the built-in customization support.  For instance, you mention the resolution of the CDC graph is too low.  Please see the image below, which illustrates how you can switch out of the default (which displays 20 years) and select something more appropriate such as 6 years.  Future releases will have increased granularity, supporting ranges of 6 months, 1 year and 2 years.

Displaying BMI is an option in the weight chart - this also uses the customization feature.  Please see the image below illustrating the display of the BMI information for one of our sample personal health records.

It is also worth mentioning that if you have issues with some of the graph support, HealthFrame also supports exporting data in a format that can be imported into spreadsheet programs for improved graphing to meet your needs.

Finally, to be clear, what are you suggesting with regards to the automatic formatting on a CDC percentile chart?  Are you referring to the fact that the current implementation only displays the curve for the 50% percentile?

Thank you for your input and suggestions for how we can continue to improve HealthFrame!

Support Team

Thanks for the quick response.  It's good to hear there will be higher time resolution in the future releases.  I think it would be really useful if all of the charts were formatted to a standard like the CDC.  Both patients and doctors are used to seeing the data in a standard format, which usually has been proven over time, and data analysis would be quicker and more accurate.

For instance, I suggest making the BMI exactly like the CDC charts with percentile lines from the 5th to 95th percentile.  See this link for the CDC BMI...  Having all of the percentile lines in the appropriate charts can help pinpoint a potential health problem.

Having to export the data for standard charts and standard formatting is not user friendly.  However, the export feature is good for unusual data manipulation.

I also suggest making the growth charts a data point or a line, and not bar graph.  The bar graph is really hard to tell where the actual data lies on the chart.  I'd attach an example, but I don't see how to do this in this forum.  

Eric,

Thank you for the CDC graph suggestions - we have forwarded your comments to our development team for consideration in future releases.

Here is some information on how to attach an image to the forum, for future reference.

Thanks again for your feedback!
Support Team

Thanks.  Here's the example of the bar graph, that in my opinion should be a data point or line chart.

Found an excellent CDC spreadsheet!!  While we wait for HealthFrame to integrate the CDC style charts, I found an excel spreadsheet that will chart weight and height percentiles up to 36 months.  Unfortunately, you will have to export the data from HealthFrame to do this.  Here's the link to the excellent spreadsheet:

Also, if you're interested in having the excel spreadsheet designer add charts for BMI, weight, and height for ages up to 20 years, you might want to drop him a nice note requesting it.  Here's his contact link.