Creating a Virtual EMR case

We have already created some notes about why you might want to take this approach. See http://openlabyrinth.ca/virtual-emr-for-learners/

But we haven’t told you how to create your own. Firstly, it may help to take a look at some of the example cases listed here. Here are a few pointers to help get you started.

  1. While you could create a case where everything is represented in a Virtual EMR interface, this can be a lot of work. We suggest that you create a simpler case to start with where only a few nodes use this approach. If you are going to use OpenLabyrinth, you will need access to an OLab server somewhere. Feel free to ask for an account on our demo server.
  2. In principle, this approach basically uses imagemap hotspots. This is a simple web programming technique, which may well be familiar to some of you. There is more information about this technique in the OpenLabyrinth User Guide – search for imagemaps.
  3. At present, we are limited to using fixed size imagemaps. Because of this, we suggest that you focus on optimizing things for a screen resolution of 1024×768 pixels (XGA resolution). This works for most screens, except phones, and is the default on most iPads.
  4. To create your EMR images, we found the easiest way is to create a fake case in your own EMR. Again, it is easiest to have a screen where you are close to 1024×768 pixels so you can see what things will look like.
  5. Use a simple screen grabber to copy the EMR screens that you want. In Windows, the old PrtScrn button will copy the current screen to your clipboard. Then you can paste it into PowerPoint or Paint or some other image editing tool.
  6. The next thing is the learning design for your case. Decide ahead of time how this navigation should work. It is a pain to redo this later.
  7. Once you have the design complete, simply follow the tips in the User Guide on how to create your imagemaps and hotspots.
  8. We have also found that it is quite easy to template the process so that you can speed up the mapping of Node URLs to specific spots on the images, since these tend to repeat themselves from case to case.