Managing Concept Sets

Owned by Burke Mamlin
Last updated: Aug 04, 2024 by Olara Moses
2 min read

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A concept set is designed to collect data from different, but related questions. The concept set serves as the parent concept, and the set members are the questions contained by the concept set.  A concept set has a datatype of N/A, because it itself does not collect information. Rather, the set members serve as the questions which collect data and the concept set groups the different responses to these questions together.

By default, OpenMRS contains three types of concepts sets:  Convenience Set, Lab Set, and Med Set. In the database, the responses to the different questions contained by a concept set are stored as obs groups.

This Lab Set provides an example of a question set.  The lab test contains several panels, each of which asks a unique question.  The responses to these questions are linked together to comprise the complete results of the test.

Additional Examples

  • A patient who has a severe allergic reaction of a rash in response to taking Sulfa.  The concept set would contain three separate questions, to ask: 1) the allergen, 2) the allergic reaction, and 3) the severity of the reaction.  Obs grouping would then link these answers together so that the three separate answers are now understood to be related to one another.

(please add more examples here)

Here is a helpful wiki page with more information on creating and editing concepts. 

Concept Set Members vs Coded Questions

Concept set members and coded questions may seem similar on the surface, but they are very different.

  • As discussed above, a concept set member describes the questions contained by a concept set. Each set member is a question concept in and of itself. Combined, the set members comprise the substance of their concept set.

    • For example: A concept set is created to collect related information regarding allergies. The set contains 3 separate questions: one to ask the allergen, one to ask the reaction, and one to ask the severity of the reaction. Each of these questions is a set member of the parent concept set.

  • A coded question, on the other hand, describes a question that has different coded answer options. The concept for the coded question is defined with a datatype=coded. Then, the coded responses are all concepts in dictionary which may be an answer to the question posed by the coded concept.