Automatic calculation could be implemented safely if the report is carefully formatted to avoid ambiguity. For example, the current report has 3 columns (medication, date(s), and details). The medication column contains only the name of the drug in large, bold text. I'd recommend including the automatic calculation in the same font, but also italicized, underneath the medication name (the med name should also have the brand and generic names). It should also have the # of pills on the same line in smaller font and in parenthesis. Frequency should be below that, in the same size font as the # of pills (or possibly in font that is a litter smaller). For example (I can't control font in this post, so you have to imagine the fonts as described above):
-------------------------------------------------------
AMOXICILLIN (Brand: AMOXIL)
500 mg (2x 250mg tablets)
1 tablet by mouth 2 times per day
-------------------------------------------------------
This format should be available as a separate summary report, and the details column should be left out. A second report should be available to show the full details for use in situations where that detailed info is needed.
On another note, your SIG line contains the latin abbreviations in parenthesis after the written out form (eg: 2 x daily (BID)). I recommend leaving out the latin abbreviation altogether, as the medical community is trying to move away from the use of abbreviations as the increasing use of computers makes quickly noting things in a patient record without resorting to abbreviations practical. Most electronically generated and printed prescriptions nowadays already avoid abbreviations. Since you already include the written out instructions (i.e. 2 x daily), adding abbreviations in parenthesis after that simply takes up more space and adds unnecessary text. Also, I recommend renaming the SIG line in the details section to something that doesn't rely on medical jargon. While I'm sure physicians will know what SIG means if presented with a report, the patients who use the HealthFrame system and view the reports might find it confusing (At first, I thought it seemed to be the same thing as the instruction line, and I was confused as to why there was seemingly redundant information. It was only after I googled SIG that I realized HealthFrame was just using the dosage, frequency, and route fields to create a SIG for the report).
I am glad to hear that HealthFrame v3 will allow for a great deal of customization on the medication summary report. That will be hugely beneficial. You didn't say how you were planning to implement that customization, but I'd like to recommend an implementation that I think would be very beneficial. I suggest that there be an option to save various customization settings as different custom "reports". Different situations may require different levels of detail and/or different formatting, so allowing multiple custom report settings to be saved and accessed would be ideal (similar to how you can save different reports in Microsoft Access, except instead of creating the reports with SQL queries or wizards, each report could be created by changing the customization settings and filters on the medication summary report, clicking a "Save Custom Report" button, and choosing a name for the custom report). Just to be clear, I am not proposing that the actual data presented in the medication summary report at the time a custom report is created be saved, but only the customized formatting, filtering, and sorting options. So if I added a new medication after I created and saved a custom report, the next time I opened the saved custom report my new medication data would be included.
Finally, I'd like to recommend that instead of putting medication status (i.e. Active versus Discontinued) in the status line of the details column for each medication, you should rather have two separate sections of the report. The top section should be labeled "Active Medications" and contain active meds, while the discontinued meds should be in the separate bottom section labeled "Discontinued Medications". Although you currently have active meds listed first in the summary report, there should be a greater visual separation between the two.
Thank you for taking the time and effort to consider my recommendations and suggestions. I look forward to using HealthFrame version 3 when it is released.