[Cronometer-development] Fw: Biomarkers thoughts

[Gerald T. <ge...@sa...>]

Forwarding to list.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gerald Turnquist" <ge...@sa...>
To: "Aaron Davidson" <aa...@sp...>
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 5:12 PM
Subject: Biomarkers thoughts


>> - I like to put a moving average on the weight graph (my only
>> biomarker) to smooth out the fluctuations. The biomarker part of
>> Cronometer might be easier to use if the check boxes were over in
>> user preferences and the ones you had selected there all appeared
>> in the biomarkers tab (i.e. entry field and the chart already
>> showing, and right on that tab rather than the chart in a dialog).
>
>
>>>I've always wanted moving averages for weight (and other charts).
>>>Actually, the whole biomarker tracking feature set needs a lot of
>>>love. I am not happy with what I have there at all. I hate the UI,
>>>want to plot various things against one another (and against
>>>calories, protein, etc...). Also, the users should be able to track
>>>any custom metrics, and take readings at any time of day (for
>>>instance many diabetics want to take blood glucose readings several
>>>times a day, and chart it along with things like sugar intake). If
>>>you're interested in this, we can talk more about it. I'd be happy to
>>>say 'go wild'.
>
> Here's my thoughts at this time (bound to change as I try to implement).
> Let me know if I'm already off track anywhere.
>
> To accomodate custom biomarkers, make their definition in data rather than 
> code.
> Define (and select) in preferences, have the current ones predefined for 
> selection
> (or customization).
>
> Make which metrics are selected persistent i.e. not having to re-select to 
> enter a value for the
> metric for the current day. That means for each of the metrics the user
> has selected in their preferences, there will be a panel in the biomarker 
> view. I'd like
> to show all the charts at once on the biomarker tab and scroll that panel 
> (rather than
> having to click a button to see the chart) but that might be too much if 
> you track all of
> them, need to prototype. I did like having that weight chart on my
> main window in my program. Wonder if I could put the biomarkers into tabs 
> and put that right on
> the daily summary (not a separate Biomarkers tab, more like the tabs of 
> nutrients).
> Depends on real estate, I'll keep it to 1024x768.
>
> Try not to change the BiomarkerHistory format for now so there is no data 
> conversion needed.
>
> Assume all charts have date/time as the x-axis but some you might want to 
> record time as well as
> date (I guess all except weight might be suitable to have time). Ability 
> to select the
> start date/time and end date/time for viewing on the chart. Assuming that 
> for something like blood glucose
> and the person takes several readings in one day, they would also like to 
> zoom out to view trends
> over multiple days. Zoom out averages data for each day to collapse to one 
> data point per day?
>
> The y-axis label can be just the name of the biomarker like now.
>
> Leave for future enhancements the ability to combine markers on one chart 
> e.g. blood glucose vs
> sugar (food in general?) intake, multiple days of multiple readings 
> overlaid on one chart to see
> variations in days, carbohydrate intake vs weight, the imagination runs 
> wild.
>
> Biomarker definition
> - name
> - value
> - units? only if we want to show that on the y-axis label I guess
> - typical starting value? like 70 for heart rate.
> - valid range for editing? assume all values are numeric floats
> - choose whether to show moving average
>
> Predefined biomarkers (like now)
> - weight
> - body temperature
> - systolic bp
> - diastolic bp
> - resting heart rate
> - blood glucose
>
> BiomarkerPanel - one for each selected biomarker
> - name
> - time entry field (optional). Date is assumed to be the current day being 
> viewed.
> - value entry field
> - chart
> - start date/time for chart
> - to date/time for chart
> Makes me wonder if the data entry use case is different enough that it 
> isn't on the same panel
> as viewing the chart (contrary to my earlier comment). Need to think some 
> more and prototype.
> The moving average thing should be easy, it came free with JFreeChart if I 
> remember correctly.
>
> Enough thinking! I feel the need to code!!
>
>
> p.s. I see comments in the code about using a proper DB at some point. I 
> do have experience with JDO as an
> OR mapping technology. It is very similar to the new JPA which might be 
> the more appropriate choice
> (the OpenJPA implementation) for this project, using an open relational DB 
> like HSQL. We could go wild
> and use an object database like db4o but that might be risky. In any case, 
> a real database is probably
> overkill at this point and a distraction from getting to a stable 1.0 
> release, but could be fun in
> the future.