Growth charts are a routine part of paediatric consultations. They help specialists monitor development, identify concerns early, and communicate clearly with families and referring providers. Despite this, clinicians have tended to require separate tools, plot data manually, or work outside their main clinical record.
Gentu, the cloud-based practice management software from Magentus, has now added growth charts directly into the clinical tab, putting them where paediatricians are already documenting care.
What Growth Charts Are Available in Gentu?
Gentu includes five growth chart types for paediatric patients:
- Weight-for-age
- Height/length-for-age
- Head circumference-for-age
- BMI-for-age
- Weight-for-height percentiles
All five are accessible from within the patient’s clinical record, so there’s no need to switch between systems or re-enter data.
What Clinical Features Are Included?
The charts go beyond basic plotting. Key capabilities include:
- Hover-over percentile scores — view exact percentile values by hovering over any data point on the chart.
- Correction for prematurity — apply gestational age corrections for premature infants, keeping growth tracking accurate from birth.
- Age-based auto-shifting — the chart reference range adjusts automatically as the child ages, so the right scale is always displayed.
These details matter in practice. A paediatrician reviewing a premature infant’s weight trajectory needs corrected data, not raw age-based plotting, to make informed decisions.
Can Growth Charts Be Shared With Parents and Other Providers?
Yes. Charts can be attached directly to clinical correspondence, whether that’s a referral letter, a report to a GP, or a summary for parents. They can also be printed from within Gentu. There’s no need to export, reformat, or screenshot, as the chart is ready to share from the same screen where it was created.
This is particularly useful for paediatricians who regularly communicate growth progress to families or coordinate with multidisciplinary teams.
What Do Clinicians Think?
The feature was developed with input from practising paediatricians and reviewed by Magentus’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Daryl Cheng, who works clinically in the specialty:
“As a core part of every paediatrician’s day-to-day work, this is a long-awaited and very welcome addition to enhancing the care we are able to deliver to children and their families.”
His full comments note that the charts are “directly embedded within clinical workflows for all paediatric patients,” with particular value in the percentile scoring, prematurity correction, and the ability to attach charts to letters for external providers and parents.
Why Build Growth Charts Into Practice Management Software?
The case for integrated growth charting comes down to something simple: clinicians shouldn’t have to leave their workflow to do routine clinical work.
When growth data lives inside the same system used for notes, letters, and billing, it reduces double-handling and keeps the clinical record complete. For practices seeing high volumes of paediatric patients, that means fewer clicks, fewer workarounds, and less time spent on administration per consultation.
For practices currently using desktop-based software, this is also an example of what a cloud-based system can offer. Updates like growth charts are available to all Gentu users automatically, with no installations or downtime required.
What’s Next for Gentu’s Charting Functionality?
Growth charts are the first step in a broader expansion of Gentu’s charting capabilities. Additional chart types, extending beyond paediatrics, are planned for the coming months.
For paediatricians, the current release covers the core charting needs of day-to-day practice. For other specialists, it signals that similar clinical tools are on the way.
To find out more about Gentu, visit magentus.com/practice-management/gentu.
