Feed Word document dropdown lists with csv file?

[znaya]

Hello all.



I was asked to provide a solution for a nursery home where they need to print the therapeutic scheme (medication and dosage) for patients. I have been thinking of the approach to take and I'd like to have some feedback on my ideas.

The need
Create an easy to fill document with the medication by time of the day (on wake up, breakfast, lunch, dinner...).
There is a global set of medication which may, occasionally, change.
The document needs to be easy to fill (tab navigable?).

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The ideas
In the beginning I thought of using Excel (would it be easier?) but I think I'll go with Word as no calculations will be needed, at the end only selectable values from dropdown lists are needed.
I thought of storing all the possible selectable medication and dosage in a csv file (that way it would be easily updatable) and to use VBA to read that file, when the Word document is open, create objects and store them in maps. Those maps would be used to populate the dropdown lists for selection.

Example of csv file content:

Omeprazole,20mg,1
Paracetamol,500mg,1
Paracetamol,1000mg,2

Does this sound a good approach?
Any feedback and ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

[Guessed]

I think you should ask the nurses there to see what they think they need to see. I'm sure they have a standard chart that they are all familiar with. If we come up with something else, no matter how clever, they won't want to adapt to it.

Once you know what they expect as their output, a solution can be arrived at to streamline the data entry to produce the required output.

As a matter of interest, here in Australia our elderly folks tend to live in Nursing homes and young children will be found in a Nursery. I hope they aren't giving Omeprazole to children.

[znaya]

I'm using their current medication chart (which i represent in a simplistic way in the screenshot).
My doubt is not about the output (it will be the same), it is about the implementation.

As I don't have any experience with VBA I'd like to have some feedback in order to develop it in an efficient and elegant way.

[Guessed]

I'm not seeing a screenshot in your posts - did you upload one?

If you attach a document that shows what you are trying to achieve then someone may be able to help you. We don't have enough information to make a start yet.