# Build a panel
URL: https://docs.awellhealth.com/docs/run-care-flows/build-a-panel

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.awellhealth.com/llms.txt).



A panel is built by saying what the team needs to see. The column builder reads the description, finds
the matching data in the [FHIR resources underneath](/docs/run-care-flows/how-panels-stores-data), and
adds the column, so building a pre-op screening worklist is a matter of naming the columns that
worklist turns on rather than mapping fields by hand.

This walkthrough builds one from scratch.

<iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/e_jwOw4lo8E" title="Awell Panels — build a panel from scratch" />

[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_jwOw4lo8E)

## Add the columns the team works from [#add-the-columns-the-team-works-from]

1. Open the column builder on the panel.
2. Describe the columns you want, in the words the team already uses — *patient name, last name first*,
   or *date of birth, gender and email*. Several at once is fine.
3. Check what the builder found before you keep it. It shows the values it would put in the column, so
   a wrong source is visible while it is still cheap to fix.
4. Accept the ones that are right and save.

The builder also picks a column type. A column with a fixed set of values becomes a select column, and
each of its values can carry a color, so a status reads at a glance rather than by reading.

## Correct the builder when it picks the wrong source [#correct-the-builder-when-it-picks-the-wrong-source]

A name can fit more than one field, and the builder will sometimes reach for the wrong one. A
*scheduled surgery date* is the usual example: it can be read as the start date of the care plan, when
the date the team means sits on the upcoming encounter.

Say where the value actually lives, such as "it's the start of the future encounter", and the builder
looks there instead. Check the values again, then accept.

Step 3 exists for this. The check is quick, and it decides whether a team trusts the panel or keeps
second-guessing it.

## Let the panel do the arithmetic [#let-the-panel-do-the-arithmetic]

Ask for the number the team acts on rather than the date they act from: *age in years*, *days until the
surgery date*. These are calculated columns, worked out from other columns every time the panel is
opened, so they are right today without anyone updating them.

A list sorted by *days until surgery* is a worklist. A list of surgery dates is a lookup.

## Arrange and filter until it is one team's list [#arrange-and-filter-until-it-is-one-teams-list]

With the columns in place:

* **Move a column** to where the eye needs it. The one that decides who to call first belongs near the
  name, rather than off the right edge.
* **Lock a column** so it stays in view while the rest scrolls.
* **Filter** down to the work in front of the team. A date column filters by period, so a pre-op list
  becomes *this week's surgeries* and stops being everything ever scheduled.

Filters set on the panel apply to every view built on it, and filters set on a view apply only there.
See [Panels and views](/docs/run-care-flows/panels-and-views) before setting one you didn't intend
everyone to get.

## Next steps [#next-steps]

**Next:** [Panels and views](/docs/run-care-flows/panels-and-views), to save the setup as views so one
panel serves the morning huddle and the follow-up queue without being rebuilt for each.