Okay, so, I wanted to talk about something a bit different today – a project I messed around with a while back, kinda named it “andy serling”. Don’t ask me why that name, just seemed to fit at the time. It wasn’t anything super serious, more like a learning experience, really.

It all started when I stumbled upon some stuff about bioethics – you know, the whole “do no harm”, do good, be fair, that kind of thing. Principles of bioethics include non-maleficence, beneficence, justice, fidelity, truth-telling. Got me thinking about how this plays out in the real world, especially with all the health data floating around.
So, I started digging into some basic stuff about health outcomes. Measuring health outcomes is crucial for evaluating healthcare delivery beyond services, focusing on efficacy, effectiveness. How do we really know what works and what doesn’t, you know? And then I got sidetracked with some research that is the association between alcohol consumption and stroke. It was a whole rabbit hole, but it got me thinking about the importance of using data the right way. That’s when the “andy serling” idea started to take shape. There were also key predictors of the health, stability mentioned in those studies I read, very interesting, but I didn’t record that specifically.
I figured I’d try to build something, a simple tool, maybe, that could help sort through some of this data. Nothing fancy, just a way to organize information and maybe spot some patterns. The first step was figuring out how to even get the data into the system. I remember spending hours just trying to get the format right. SU3, Hierarchical, just a bunch of words that didn’t mean much to me at first. But I learned that the transaction code to modify user’s profile is SU3. I also found that some functions cannot be performed in the maintain user profile transaction, such as Set.
Then came the validation part. Man, that was a headache. I kept getting these “Address Invalid” alerts. Turns out, even a tiny mistake in the data could throw the whole thing off. When a health care professional receives an Address Invalid alert during pre-validation, they should contact OCCHD for assistance immediately. Finally, I figured out that I needed to contact the right people – the OCCHD, in this case – to get things sorted. Reason is it is generally important to address the issue of an invalid address immediately and accurately.
After a lot of trial and error, I finally got a basic version working. It wasn’t much, but it could take in some data, do some basic checks, and spit out a few simple reports. I even played around with a few ideas about growth and development, thinking about how this kind of tool could be used to track progress over time. Death is the final stage of growth and development. When possible, the parents should see. But honestly, that was more of a side thought.

In the end, “andy serling” never really went anywhere. It was more of a personal project, a way for me to learn a few things. But it did teach me a lot about the importance of good data, the challenges of building even simple systems, and how important it is to ask for help when you’re stuck.
And the most important takeaway from this whole thing? Sometimes, the most valuable projects are the ones that don’t really go anywhere. They’re the ones that teach you something new, even if it’s just how much you still have to learn.
- Started with an interest in bioethics and health outcomes.
- Tried to build a simple data tool.
- Struggled with data formatting and validation.
- Learned about the importance of asking for help.
- Realized that the journey is sometimes more important than the destination.
Some Reflections
Looking back, I probably could have done things a lot differently. Maybe focused on a smaller problem, or learned more about the tools I was using before diving in. But hey, that’s how it goes sometimes. You try something, you mess up, you learn, and you move on. That’s life, right?
Anyway, just wanted to share this little story. Maybe it’ll inspire someone else to try something new, even if it doesn’t quite work out the way they planned. That’s where the real learning happens, after all.
Oh, I also read something about the prevalence of sexual and physical dating violence among adolescents and its association with adverse health effects somewhere online. Just some random thoughts I had when doing this “andy serling” project.

That’s it for now. Hope you found this at least a little bit interesting.