Known issues
Mac and Windows
Mac only
- The hospital code in the Rules Window is not implemented yet.
- "Combination rules" in the Rule Builder window are not implemented yet.
- The current recommended (and default) memory partition for LabScanner is 10MB, which is enough to import text data or archives containing at least 2000 patients and save the same 2000-patient list to an archive. This should be enough for experimentation for most people. If you deal with fewer patients, LabScanner will operate in much less memory. As a rule of thumb, allow 1.3 MB for LabScanner and about 3K per patient. When merging archives, enough memory should be available for the merged archive in addition to the currently open patient set. If you need to increase the memory partition, just quit LabScanner, open the "Get Info" window (File Menu) while LabScanner is selected in the Finder, choose "Memory" in the popup menu and increase the amount shown in the "preferred" box.
Windows only (evaluated with NT4, may not apply to 98 or 2000)
- Multiple discontinuous selections from lists using control-click (e.g., arbitrary selection of data points from the list on the Patient Display window for regraphing) don't work correctly (you must first choose two contiguous list items, then you can select any additional ones you wish by using shift-click).
Version history
- LabScannerR9e, 4/25/2001, compiled with REALbasic 3.1
- - Worked around the windows printing "screen freeze" by providing a user feedback window indicating progression through the printing process.
- Minor improvements in Windows printing, including smaller data points on the graph and a corrected right margin for the signature line.
- LabScannerR9d, 3/22/2001, compiled with REALbasic 3.1b4
- - Fixed a bug in printing reports containing graphs with linear regression fits that cause the first data point to be overlooked in the linear regression (this did not affect the on-screen display of curve fits).
- LabScannerR9b, 3/16/2001, compiled with REALbasic 3.1b1
- - Fixed a Windows bug introduced in LS9 that caused failure to print the last page of a series of reports. Reports print correctly now, but the Windows interface is unresponsive temporarily during printing (see Windows known issues above). This should be fixed shortly.
- LabScannerR9, 3/9/2001, compiled with REALbasic 3.0 final
- - Fixed a bug that prevented creation of new rules files.
- Added the ability to manually enter or edit patient and event data.
- Dragging a rules or archive file over the LabScanner icon now starts LabScanner and loads the file. On the Mac, double-clicking rules or archive files will also start LabScanner and load the appropriate file.
- LabScannerR8, 10/31/2000, compiled with REALbasic 3.0a11
- - Fixed a bug where patients with more than one test would cause erroneously high counts of flagged patterns in the summary test statistics.
- Added a workaround for an intermittent date calculation bug in Windows (this would appear as misplaced points on graphs).
- Fixed a bug that caused LabScanner to fail on startup if the settings file contained an invalid path to a rules file.
- New rule sets now appear in the rule sets window as soon as they are added.
- When rule sets are activated/deactivated from the Rule Sets Window, the new state is now saved immediately.
- Multiple selections in lists of rules and rule sets can now be activated/deactivated at once and the interface has been changed slightly to accomodate this. The "+" and "-" signs in front of the rule names now toggle immediately.
- Trend rules have been updated to include projected values above or below cutoff values at a specified point in the future. Trends can now be flagged on the basis of any combination of slope, last value, and projected value.
- The File Menu now is activated/inactivated correctly.
- Windows are now fixed at the correct size when appropriate in Windows.
- LabScannerR7, 9/26/2000, compiled with REALbasic 3.0a8
- - A substantial number of new features have been added, and a number of bugs have been fixed. This is the first version of LabScanner to be formally verified: the rule engine has now been checked for accuracy using a variety of boundery conditions with artificial patient data, and the demo rule sets and statistics calculations have been checked manually against a substantial amount of real patient data to verify accurate performance.
- LabScanner now has a more sophisticated concept of pattern persistence when sequential data points continue to flag the same rule. The idea of a sequence of triggering events with an initial and final event separated by a persistence interval has replaced the former concept of "flag runs." The patient display, stats calculations and reports have been updated to comply with this approach.
- The way value rules work has been changed a bit so that fewer value rules are required to cover various scenarios. A rule like "3 of 5 values greater than 1" now looks back over 5 or fewer values at a time and it will fire as soon as 3 values are accumulated (working down from the most recent value). The triggering event is assigned to the most recent value over 1 and the initiating event is the first value over 1. Thus flags are assigned to "out" values only and one rule can cover scenarios including "3 of 3", "3 of 4" and "3 of 5."
- Variability rules have been extended to allow specification of variability less then, greater than, or equal to a given value.
- Graphical highlighting of data points that are part of flagged patterns has been improved.
- Reports now have the option of printing text added to patients using the notepad button. Reports can also have optional standard explanatory text added that will appear under the data list and graph.
- Rectilinear graphs now always show the entire reference range (if specified), even for tests with all low values.
- Clicking on the background of the Patient Display window now deselects all points in the data and flags/comments lists. Clicking once on a graph selects all data points in the graph.
- Archiving and merging archives is now a bit slower but much more memory efficient.
- Added simple filters to the variability and trend rules. Variabililty is now evaluated only if the average difference between the values in a sequence is greater than the difference between the first and last value. Conversely, the trend rule is evaluated only if the difference between the endpoints is greater than the average difference between all the points in the sequence.
- Added a workaround that avoids overwriting of demographics text fields in the Patient Display window. - Fixed a bug that caused previous results values in archives to be overwritten with zeros when archives were merged.
- Fixed a bug in the variability rule that caused the deviation value evaluated to be slightly less than the deviation value actually entered.
- Fixed a bug in counting out-of-range values in the statistical summary for tests that are drawn peak/trough.
- LabScannerR6, 8/28/2000; compiled with REALbasic 3.0a6
- - LabScanner no longer crashes in Windows if the Patient Display window is resized too small.
- The tab-delimited format window now activates the "Update" button when field content changes, so it is possible to save new tab-delimited import formats.
- Peak-trough values are now saved correctly into archives.
- Archives are now more compact.
- Document icons are now correctly shown on the Mac.
- LabScannerR5, 8/22/2000; compiled with REALbasic 3.0a6
- This version is functional for both Windows and Mac
A substantial number of new features have been added, including:- Text results replacements (Rule Window) is now fully implemented
- Management of multiple named import formats (tab or flat file)
- Management of multiple named scanning rule files
- Creation of standard or anonymized patient archives; merging patients into existing archives
- Attachment of text comments to patients (comments persist in archives)
- Optional display of sample comments
- Revision and improvement of patient display window controls and several menus
- Graphical highlighting of data points and selection of flagged rules or comments for a specimen when the specimen is double-clicked in the patient display
- Graphical highlighting of data points and selection of data points when rules or comments are double-clicked in the patient display
- Saving graphs to PICT (Mac) or BMP (Win) files for import into presentation or other programs
- Fixed a bug with skipping input data lines containing specified text (Input Format window) which terminated file entry rather than just skipping the line.
- Fixed a bug that made a physician's name required even though it wasn't listed as required data
- Fixed a bug in handling dates with spaces before single digit months or days
- Fixed a bug in graph dimensioning if all Y values were zero
- Fixed a bug in handling values of zero in semilog plots
- Fixed a bug in managing birthdate information
- Fixed a bug in the application of trend and variability rules
- Fixed a bug that prevented deleting rules
- The physician name displayed is taken from the most recent specimen
- Patient lists can now be re-displayed if the list window is closed
- Tab delimited file import now works correctly in Windows
- Dropdown menus now display correctly in Windows
- LabScannerR4, 4/11/2000; compiled with REALbasic 2.1b6
- - Fixed bug in import of tab-delimited data. reported by Burton Googe
- Fixed bug in scanning data where fewer than the required number of events for one rule could terminate further rule testing.
- Fixed cosmetic bug in date format display on graph when using 4 digit years.
- Disabled rule type tabs in Rule Builder window when editing pre-existing rules.
- A crashing problem made this version unusable for Windows
- LabScannerR3, 3/2/2000; compiled with REALbasic 2.1a27
- - Added workaround to fix misalignment of text and graphics in printed reports in the Windows environment.
- Added workaround to allow faster loading of data into the Patient List on the Mac.
- LabScannerR2, 12/17/99; compiled with REALbasic 2.1a17
- - Fixed bug leading to concatinating patient lists if list window was loaded, closed, and then new file was loaded.
- Reordered Scan menu.
- First release of Windows version.
- LabScannerR1, 6/24/99
- First release, Mac only
| Last modified: 10/31/00 | LabScanner Home |