NameDescriptionTypeAdditional information
Index

Index of specimen

integer

None.

AOEID

AOE ID.

  • For a test level AOE, the ID is aoe.{obxcode}{labcode}
  • For a shared test level AOEs and Order-Level AOEs, the ID is aoe.{obxcode}
  • For specimen-level AOEs, the ID is specimenaoe.{obxcode}{labcode}-n where n is a 1-based index identifying the instance of the specimen (e.g. specimen 1, 2, 3, etc.)

string

Max length: 600

DisplayValue

Display Value for AOE.

string

Max length: 500

CodedValue

Coded Value for AOE.

string

Max length: 500

LabCode

Identifies the test for which this question is to be asked

string

Max length: 255

Question

The text of the question to be presented to the user, e.g. “LMP” or “Fasting”

string

Max length: 255

Explanation

Additional text that helps explain the question (optional)

string

Max length: 255

OBXCode

A unique code that identifies this question.

string

Max length: 255

AOEType

The type determines the way the question is presented to the user.

  • checkbox – a three-state radio button or a two-state checkbox is presented. If a three-state radio button is used, the choices are “Yes”, “No” and “Not Answered”. See the options field for the mode setting of three-state or two-state. The default is three-state if no options are specified.
  • checkboxgroup – a collection of checkboxes providing a multi-select input all tied to one AOE. See the options field for the specification of the values for each checkbox.
  • date – a calendar popup is presented
  • default – the question is presented with a predetermined text value. If this type is set then the desired text will be set in the options field. This should be displayed in the UI and it will pass through to the ORM, but it must not be changed by the user.
  • label – the question is presented with no input field. This is essentially a way to present a comment rather than solicit input. See options below for styling of label.
  • select – a drop-down list box of choices should be presented (see options).
  • selectcombo – a drop-down list box of choices should be presented with the option of adding a free text choice when “other” is selected (see options).
  • text – a single-line text entry field should be presented (see options).
  • textbox – a multiline text box should be presented (see options).
  • time – a text box with a formatted time entry should be presented (see options).

string

Max length: 255

Options

Options provides some further information for certain types of AOE questions.

  • If Type is set to “checkbox” then the options field can be used to indicate whether the checkbox should act as a 3-state radio button group with choices of “Yes”, “No”, or “Not Answered”, or as a single 2-state checkbox. 3-state mode is recommended since it guarantees the user either checks Yes or No to provide a non-blank value. A 2-state checkbox might be better if there are many questions that are typically left as “No”. If the options field is empty, the mode should be 3-state.

    The mode specification is as follows...

    mode=m

    where ‘m’ can either be 2-state or 3-state.

    Additionally, if this checkbox is to act like an acknowledgement (required to be checked before order can be sent) then the following will be added to the option string:

    acknowledge=y

    Multiple options are ‘|’ separated. For example, for a 2-state checkbox with acknowledgment enabled, the option string would be:

    mode=m|acknowledge=y

  • If Type is set to “checkboxgroup” then this field defines the options to be shown to select from, as “label1^value1|label2^value2|label3^value3…”. The value portion is sent in the OBX record as part of a semicolon-separated list of values for each checkbox that is selected, and the label is what should be shown to the user. For example, if the user selected the checkboxes for “labe1” and “label3”, the value sent in the OBX record would be “value1;value3”. If the label is equal to the value for all the checkboxgroup options, then it is acceptable to have the options formatted as “label1|label2|label3…”
  • If Type is set to “date”
    • And the options field contains an “F”, the date field should allow for a free form date input (e.g. “summer 2011”, “last week”, “2 months ago”). A calendar input control should still be available for selecting a specific date however. Without any options specified for a date type, the date aoe should only allow input formatted as a specific date (e.g. mm/dd/yyyy).
    • And the options field contains “now”, the date field should be pre-populated with today’s date.
    • And the options field contains “includetime”, an additional time input field should appear next to the date field so a full date/time can be entered. Note that if a time field is included, any ‘F’ option for free form input should be ignored. In addition to the time field, a “Set to Now” button should be provided that will set the date and time to the current date/time in the customer’s specified time zone.
    • And the options field contains "nofuturedates", the calendar input should not allow the selection of a date beyond current date.
    • And the options field contains "onlyfuturedates", the calendar input should not allow the selection of a date of today or before.
    • Note that if both "nofuturedates" and "onlyfuturedates" are included in the options, the "nofuturedates" option should be ignored.
    • Separate multiple options using the ‘|’ character. For example, if both the “F” and “now” options are used, the options value would be “F|now”.
  • If Type is set to “default” then this field will contain the text to be displayed.
  • If Type is set to “label”, then the options field can be used to style the label. Style attributes are comprised of a set of “attribute=value” pairs with multiple pairs separated by “|”. Below are the possible attributes and values for each.
    • Font-weight: Possible values are any css font-weight values (e.g. bold, normal).
    • Font-style: Possible values are any css font-style values (e.g. italic, normal).
    • Font-color: Possible values are any css color value (e.g. black, red, #b00)
    • Font-decoration: Possible values are any css text-decoration value (e.g. underline, none)
    • Font-size: Possible values are any css font-size value (e.g. 8pt, 10px)
    Example option value for a label:

    font-size=8pt|font-color=#b00|font-style=italic|font-weight:bold

    If the options value is empty for a label, the label’s default styling will be

    font-size=10pt|font-color=black|font-style=normal|font-weight:bold|font-decoration=underline

  • If “Type” is set to “select” then this field defines the options to be shown to select from, as “label1^value1|label2^value2|…”. The value portion is sent in the OBX record, and the label is what should be shown to the user. The default selection to be shown will be indicated by “^D” following the label/value pair. For example: Head^HD|Neck^NK^D|Abdomen^AB|Arm^AM|Leg^LG indicates that “Neck” should be set as the default. If the label is equal to the value for all of the select options then it is possible the format of the options will be “label1|label2|…”
  • If “Type” is set to “selectcombo” then this field defines the options to be shown to select from, as “label1^value1|label2^value2|…”. The value portion is sent in the OBX record, and the label is what should be shown to the user. Any option that has a value equal to “other” should cause a text input field to appear when the option is selected. Whatever the user types in the text input field should be the value of the aoe. The default selection to be shown will be indicated by “^D” following the label/value pair. For example: Head^HD|Neck^NK^D|Abdomen^AB|Arm^AM|Leg^LG|Other…^other indicates that “Neck” should be set as the default. If the label is equal to the value for all of the select options then it is possible the format of the options will be “label1|label2|…”
  • If Type is set to “text” then the options field can contain “maxlen=n” where n is an integer value that sets the maximum number of characters allowed in the text data. If this field is empty then no size limit should be imposed.
  • If Type is set to “textbox” and the options field contains a single number then this defines the height of the textbox in number of character rows. Optionally the options field can contain “rowheight=h|colwidth=w” where h is the height of the text box in rows and w is the width of the textbox in characters.
  • If Type is set to “time” and the options field contains “now”, the time field should be pre-populated with the current time adjusted for the customer’s specified time zone.

string

Max length: 2000

LabRequired

Determines if AOE should be answered before allowing a send of the order to the Lab.

boolean

None.

PSCRequired

Determines if AOE should be answered before allowing a send of the order to the Patient Service Center (PSC).

boolean

None.

Shared

Indicates this question is shared between tests and should only be displayed once in an order. (e.g. Fasting is a question that is typically shared between tests). The OBX Code should be the same for any shared AOE questions. For example, if “Fasting” is to be shared then all the “Fasting” questions should use the same OBX Code.

boolean

None.

OptionGroups

This field is optional and is used only for questions of type “select”. Along with the TriggerID field, this field allows you to have the selection in one question (the triggering question) dynamically change the choices for selection in another question (the target question). This field is defined in the target question and takes on the following format: {triggervalue1}|{label1}^{value1}|{label2}^{value2}|…; {triggervalue2}|{label1}^{value1}|{label2}^{value2}|… Where {triggervalue} is the value of the triggering question that, when selected, will set the choices in the target question to the {label}^{value} pairs following the {triggervalue}. There should be a {triggervalue} and its associated {label}^{value} entries for every label entry defined in the triggering question’s “options” field. Note that the groups are separated by a semicolon ';', option choices are separated by a pipe character '|', and label/value pairs are separated by a carot '^'.

string

Max length: 2000

TriggerID

This field is used in conjunction with the OptionGroups field and should be set to the OBXCode of the question that is triggering this question to change as described in the OptionGroups above.

string

Max length: 255

VisibilityOptions

This field can be used to dynamically control the visibility of an AOE question based on the answer to another AOE question of type Select, Select Combo, or Checkbox (either 2-state or 3-state). The triggerid parameter references the OBXCode of the AOE question that will trigger the visibility change. The visiblevalues parameter is a list of values that will make this, the target AOE, visible. When the value of the trigger AOE question changes, the visibility of the target AOE will be enabled if the current value of the trigger AOE is in the visiblevalues list. If it is not, the target AOE will be hidden. The visiblevalues list can contain more than one value separated by ‘^’. If this AOE is to be shown for the default case when the trigger AOE value is empty, include an empty entry in the visiblevalues list. Below is an example of an AOE that will become visible when the trigger AOE has a value of “one” or “”. triggerid={obxcode of triggering AOE}|visiblevalues=one^ When the triggering AOE is of type 2-state checkbox, the values to trigger on are “y”, “n”, and “”. Note that a 2-state checkbox will start out with a value of “”. Once the AOE dialog is dismissed however, an unchecked 2-state checkbox will have a value of “n” and a checked 2-state checkbox will have a value of “y”. When the triggering AOE is of type 3-state checkbox, the values to trigger on are “y”, “n”, and “” for the three different states of “Yes”, “No”, and “Not Answered”.

string

Max length: 2000

InitValue

Used to specify the initial value for an AOE. This is currently only used for Order Level AOEs.

string

Max length: 255