Topics

See Using the Consultation View menu and data entry which explains how to access and display the Consultation View screen and menu of Patient Record.

1. On Consultation View, you will find that any data entry made in the current consultation will automatically be put in Topic 1, and the title on the tab will describe this data. The title on the Topic tab takes the Read code that is hierarchical, so, for example, if you enter a sore throat, then you enter acute tonsillitis, the title will change from Sore Throat to Acute Tonsillitis.
2. If you want to start a new topic, click on Another Topic (or Consultation – Another Topic, or Alt-C, T). Or right click while pointing to the tab which had Topic 1 and select New Topic (this only works once there is one topic set up; it will not work if the tab still has the Topic 1 as a title).
3. This creates a new tab called Topic 2. Add the further medical problems or data entry, and these will now be placed in Topic 2 within the same consultation.
4. If you want to return to add further data to Topic 1, click on the first Topic tab which represents Topic 1. Continue to add data for Topic 1.
   Note - if you open a problem, or add a new problem, before you start adding topics, all the topic data will also go into the problem. Even if you forgot to open a problem beforehand, you can still drag and drop items from the Topic pane and drop it into an open problem. Problems and Topics working together are particularly powerful.

Move Consultation Topic Items

Within a consultation, you can move items added under one topic to another by dragging and dropping from the Consultation View pane. For example, you may have entered a symptom of C/O - a headache under Topic 1, and then started Another Topic, under which you enter Backache.

1. To move the backache entry from Topic 2 to Topic 1, click on the backache line and hold the mouse key down - the cursor changes to a page with the corner turned down, as you drag away from the line.
2. Release the mouse key when the white arrow positioned over the destination, in this case, the Topic 1 heading (tab). Topic 2 will now be found in the relevant heading under Topic 1.
   Note - Topics are only shown for the current consultation. A fresh consultation will clear the topic titles. But if you visit the previous consultation in the Consultation tab where you used topics, you will see the data you entered grouped into topics.

Revisiting an old consultation where topics were used, the data is grouped under topic headings