Hello All,
In the past there were lot of discussion on “Custom Form Creation”.
Actually Mark Leeds did a great work here several years ago.
We were thinking of creating all new tool with the latest technology and “Drag & Drop” approach to create custom forms and reports. We like to hear from the community of their input and needs. Any input is greatly appreciated.
Would absolutely be welcomed. Many of us are not developers and although the layout based forms are not that hard it is hard to visualize. CAMOS works and can be done quickly however the editing of individual CAMOS notes can be tedious. A forms creator that is visual and easy would be greatly appreciated. This would also contribute to a ton of templates that could be exchanged amongst users. We would have a true template archive or collection for all to choose from and modify easily on their own.
Another useful feature would be a PDF/jpg filler function.
Maybe this would be considered a custom form too.
Ya mean something like this:
Not really what you are asking but for that I have something close with this:
Hi Jerry.
Is the first one an official form that when printed looks like the original?
One of the things we as eye doctors often do is fill out RMV/DMV forms for driving privileges.
Although a PDF, it does not have preformatted fillable fields. In essence it is the same as a flat jpeg. The fields would need to be created/overlayed.
The other type of form is a standard preauthorization form used by all insurers in our state and it has “fillable fields” already. Most if not all of the form fields could be pre-populated right from the DB and printed, if they were linked correctly.
Which approach are you proposing or is this only really possible on a form-by-form basis?
I see in other EHR software that they have a way to create new forms based on an image. Just drop the fields on the image and link them to the correct DB field based on the current encounter id. Does this make sense?
Ray
For forms you may want to leverage classes from PFBC. There is need to redo all forms in a mobile/tablet friendly format.
For reporting are you considering recordset output or more complex/multi-section reports?
We have found desktop tools work better for users when dealing with pdf forms. Other EMRs you have seen probably require a desktop client installation. Browser as UI and open-source nature of this product limits flexibility here.
From EMR perspective it is important to digest the copies of pdf forms that are sent out. We have been planning to see if a flow like this helps in that regard:
Yep this is very doable and maybe best approach. My latter example is nearly there with just needs the point and click setup to map positions on the image. This is a similar approach @visolveemr is heading in their design pattern i’m guessing ie have input option selection bar where you drag option into position on the image then map position to forms table. Or something like that but without image and also creating the form labels etc.
My first example is, well, maybe showing off a little. 
Originally I was reading and writing to the pdf all the fields of the pdf but could not modify existing pdf to add signature hooks so I converted pdf to a flat, absolute positioning html and wrote js handler to handle form data(It does print as seen). It is rather a complicated process and not suitable here where just reading/writing to pdf may be.
Btw Ray, this is part of my Occupational module where I believe you have seen my hearing/analysis and PFT forms and plan, if ever I get the energy and time, to donate to openemr.
I’ve integrated the portals signing module into LBF and also added two canned form fields that can be dropped on any form to get patient/user signature on mentioned forms. Signing can be from a remote tablet or from the device populating the form(it’s auto). The LBF stuff is sponsored but the signing stuff is all mine and plan to donate as well.
Hope I didn’t get too off topic here but I just wanted to demo the image stuff and possible approach Ray spoke of.
I’m not sure here if visolve is going to create this and then donate or are looking for developer help but, if the latter, i’ll sign up…
Hi,
Problem with setting up workflows that require third party tools is that those tools tend to go away rather quickly, especially dealing with pdf’s. Best to create any new workflow dependencies that will be part of long term openemr workflow, specific to openemr, imo.
Also, not sure where mPDF fits except to gen an html to pdf. For dealing with pdf’s, a php/js tool is very doable for populating/reading pdf’s where once final, one would then flatten and archive. For edits, simply use the original pdf template populated with existing form data, edit then flatten and archive. This way a history is maintained.
I’m unsure of newer libraries that are available but when I looked at this a couple years ago, those libraries are gone or obsolete today. This is why I stress the import of any libraries needed for new feature should be written for openemr specific.
Of course this is just my opinion and may not be possible but where we can, I subscribe to this.
