Introduction
I presented this project in May 2020 titled "Rethinking the paper trail" (press S to see speaker notes) which reviewed 30 Form G, 10 Form M, and 17 Form Os. The problems associated with using paper forms are listed, some of which are as follows.
- Unhelpful naming of forms for cataloguing
- Illegible handwriting
- Scanner failure: forms scanned incompletely with missing information
- Errors and scratches
- Missing fields
- Repetition which increases error rates
- No accessibility features
Technical information:
The digital forms consist of a faithful replica of the current paper forms available on the Ministry of Health website. They are designed from the ground up to be offline-only and provide the same experience as the current paper-based forms with a few enhancements to reduce errors. These enhancements include the following (to name a few).
- Eliminate repetition
- Ability to both type or handwrite the form
- Original form in PDF format, easily parse-able and easy to catalogue
- Enable screen-readers and other accessibility tools to be used
As it stands, the forms are intended to live locally on the particular computer where they are used. However, as demonstrated here, they can also be deployed quite easily on a network computer accessible from across the region. There is really no limit on where and how these forms can be deployed as they are fully standards compliant.
Lastly, but certainly not least, the forms are fully open source and the source code can be audited by anyone requiring only a web browser. This further aids assurances regarding privacy and confidentiality.
Demo
The forms are available on my website for demonstration purposes. Please note that this is not the intended final location for the forms. As mentioned, the forms are designed to work offline only and do not provide any online capabilities as that would jeopardize matters related to privacy and confidentiality.
A demonstration of what the physician sees when they attempt to fill the digital form can be viewed at the following link.
https://www.amoradi.org/public/2019-Form%20G/form_gmo.html
Final output
Once printed, the digital forms generate a PDF file to be printed and signed by the physician. The output looks very similar to the current paper forms. I have tried to faithfully recreate the current forms. An example output can be viewed here: