[jlgreco]

I frequently have to enter my first initial and middle name as my "first name". Why? Because that is how it appears in numerous official places, such as my credit card.

The users aren't broken, your database (and your assumptions about names) is.

[lostlogin]

The data base has errors and faulty assumptions, yes. I have some too, but I do not allow names entered into a big medical system to be anything other than the persons name, minimum of first name and last name, but I go over every record that passes through our scanners and enter middle names too. We have an AKA field where the patient can be called what ever the want, characters and numbers allowed. This is not stuck into medical image dicom headers but appears on the information system which is used when talking to patients or browsing records. Dicom files area transmitted across hospital, out information system data isn't but does transmit reports with a limited amount of patient data on them. Screw ups with identification happen too often already (once is too many) and matter too much to have a load of bad data in the system. Abbreviate anything at great risk. We have lots of people with the same name and same date of birth already, so extreme care is needed.

[bigiain]

"minimum of first name and last name"

Bzzzzt! Sorry…

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-b...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononymous_person

[lostlogin]

Wow, that first one is great, thanks. I'm saving that for future reference. Japan seems a hotbed for hard database problems. There is no way any of our systems could handle some of that, and its mostly not our fault - trying getting access to change stuff on medical database software or imaging equipment. It isn't possible.