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November 19, 1998
Med-Data Systems Software Year 2000 Compliance
Overview of the Problem:
A great deal of software is designed to store date-related information using only the last two digits for the year. Additionally, date calculations that only use the last two digits of the year may not perform as expected when using dates from the year 2000 and beyond. For example, the difference between 1997 and 1967 will calculate correctly when using a two digit format (97 - 67 = 30), however the same calculation using the year 2000 and 1967 will not calculate correctly (00 - 67 = -67).Med-Data Systems, Inc. Software Compliance:
The Y2K problem is not a major issue with most Med-Data Systems software because many of our programs do not perform date related calculations. The only date related calculation that any of our software performs is a calculation of a patient/subject age based on their birth date. This date calculation is handled internally in a four digit year format. The user of the software can enter the birth date in several different formats. It will accept both a two and four digit year as a valid date format and uses the following general rule for interpreting two digit formats:
- 2 digit dates between 00-29 are assumed to occur in the 21st century.
- 2 digit dates between 30-99 are assumed to occur in the 20th century.
The current date used in the age calculation is supplied by the operating system in a four digit format. Therefore, there is no potential for error, until a patient/subject birth date includes a year greater than 2030 and in this case, no error will occur assuming the user provides the year of birth as four digits.Resource: Building Year 2000-Compliant Applications with Visual Studio and Microsoft Windows DNA
