A medical infusion pump for delivering a medicament to a patient. The pump includes a user interface to display a choice of nominal medicament delivery rates. The user interface enables a practitioner to select one of the displayed nominal medicament delivery rates. It further enables the practitioner to enter a numerical multiplier factor, thereby creating a nominal delivery rate. It further enables the practitioner to create a custom alphanumeric string that the practitioner associates with a patient characteristic, enter a numeric value relating to the patient characteristic, and determine an actual delivery rate by modifying the selected nominal medicament delivery rate based on the numeric value relating to the patient characteristic. The pump mechanism is then controlled to deliver medicament from a reservoir to a patient at the actual delivery rate.