Implement DDD and drawing the line between the an Entity and value object
- by William
I am implementing an EMR project. I would like to apply a DDD based approach to the problem. I have identified the "Patient" as being the core object of the system. I understand Patient would be an entity object as well as an aggregrate. I have also identified that every patient must have a "Doctor" and "Medical Records". The medical records would encompass Labs, XRays, Encounter.... I believe those would be entity objects as well. Let us take a Encounter for example. My implementation currently has a few fields as "String" properties, which are the complaint, assessment and plan. The other items necessary for an Encounter are vitals. I have implemented vitals as a value object. Given that it will be necessary to retrieve vitals without haveing to retrieve each Encounter then do vitals become part of the Encounter aggregate and patient aggregrate. I am assuming I could view the Encounter as an aggregrate, because other items are spwaned from the Encounter like prescriptions, lab orders, xrays. Is approach right that I am taking in identifying my entities and aggregates. In the case of vitals, they are specific to a patient, but outside of that there is not any other identity associated with them.
