Application of Computers in Pharmacy PDF

APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS IN PHARMACY INTRODUCTION Basically, the computer has different parts. These can be grouped into hardware and software. We can define software as programs or codes written by programmers that tell the computer what to do. We have different types of software. Operating S...

APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS IN PHARMACY INTRODUCTION Basically, the computer has different parts. These can be grouped into hardware and software. We can define software as programs or codes written by programmers that tell the computer what to do. We have different types of software. Operating Systems are software put in place to boot up and shut down the PC and also present other programs to the computer user e.g. Windows, Linux, Ubuntu, Android, Chrome OS etc. Utility software help computer users to manage their computer. These software assist in maintenance. Examples are scan disc and anti-virus software e.g. Macafee, Defender, Norton etc. Application software also called packages perform a specific function for the user such as word processing e.g. Microsoft word, spreadsheets (Excel or google sheet), presentation (Power Point) and database (Access packages). Artificial Intelligence is the branch of computer science that is concerned with the automation of intelligent behaviour. The main concern is the development of computer systems that produce results that we would normally associate with human intelligence. Expert or knowledge systems are intelligent computer programs that use a knowledge database procedure to solve problems that are difficult enough as to require significant human expertise for their solutions. A classical example is MYCIN developed at Stanford University to solve the problem of diagnosing and recommending treatment for meningitis and bacteraemia. Knowledge engineers are experts who replicate the behaviour of a specific expert when he is engaged in solving a narrowly define problem. Knowledge Engineers present the knowledge of an expert in a form that can be transformed into a software’s knowledge and heuristics. COMPUTERS IN PHARMACY Computers can perform the following activities in a pharmacy: 1. Prescription filling and re-filling: After the pharmacist has entered the patient and drug details, the computer can then print the drug label, calculates the price and discounts and prints the receipt. There are prototype systems that even count the tablets, fill the bottle and actually apply the label. 2. Patient counseling: On entering the drug prescribed to a patient the computer automatically prints a patient’s counseling handout that advises her on medication use and precautions including side effects. 3. Patient medication profile: The computer can maintain and automatically update a patient’s medication profile. It acts in such a way that it alerts the pharmacist to any allergies that the patient may have. 4. Drug interactions alerts are also presented to the pharmacist as he/she enters the name of the drugs prescribed to a particular patient for appropriate action. 5. Stock management: The computer can keep records of the movement of each drug item, it can also draw attention to items that need to be ordered. 6. Pricing: The computer can automatically fix a selling price for a product based on a formula when given the price at which the drug was bought from the wholesaler by the pharmacy. 7. Accounts: The computer is capable of preparing all forms of accounts for the pharmacy. This could be in form of daily, monthly and yearly sales records, debtors, creditors and even the profit/loss accounts. 8. Order medication. In a well linked system, items that are low in stock levels can be automatically ordered by email to supplies. CREATING A PHARMACY APPLICATION Some simple steps to follow in developing a pharmacy package are as follows: 1. Needs assessment: This task is simply done to elicit what the package or software should do for the pharmacy. Face-to-face meetings identify the requirements of the users. The users at this point tell the programmers if they need a drug-drug interaction built into the software or not. 2. Design: After determining what the program will do, the programmers will then identify the components that will be part of the pharmacy application and carefully organize these components. The blue print and the workability, including cost considerations are part of this planning stage of program development. 3. Prototyping: The graphical user interface (GUI) is designed and presented to the user for his input. His feedback is used  to revise the GUI until it is approved. This ensures that the program will be easy to use. 4. Coding: Once the end user approves the GUI, the programmers proceed to design the internal details of the pharmacy program/software. The actual code is written and the programming language used are usually of no interest to the end user. The application is usually constructed piece by piece and each module so created is tested. Each function in a pharmacy can represent a module e.g. prescription filling, accounts, drug interactions etc. 5. Implementation: The program is deployed at the work place of the user. The programmers train the users such as pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and assistants on how to use the software. 6. Evaluation: As the users make use of the pharmacy program in their practice, they may notice bugs or have additional needs or suggestions that can further improve the functionality of the software. The programmers will therefore use this information to rebuild or maintain the program. Questions that are answered in this stage include the following. a) Is the software actually doing what it is meant to do? b) Does it reduce staff error rates or complicates the workflow? c) What are the benefits from using the software from both humanistic and economic point of view? BENEFITS OF COMPUTERIZING A PHARMACY 1. Customer satisfaction 2. Saves time 3. Promotes patient safety 4. Cost reduction 5. Improves quality of consultations e.g product selection. INTERNET A network is two or more computers connected together which enable them to communicate and share data. The internet is a network of networks, all freely exchanging information. The internet is the world’s largest computer network. It has many uses such as. 1. Communication across continents 2. Access to information of any kind and for any purpose 3. Online chatting 4. E-commerce 5. E-learning 6. For entertainment 7. For recruitment purposes etc. The computers that are connected to the Internet: a) Use different hardware and software b) Exchange large volume of data c) Require speedy exchange of data d) Need to have secure systems to prevent unauthorized access. All networks including the internet have a client-server application. The server is a computer, which holds the data that can be accessed by other computers on a network. The server runs the server program. The client is a computer that accesses the data from the server. Electronic mail (e-mail) is one of the most popular facilities of the internet. People can send and receive messages within a few minutes across continents. It can be used for both business and personal correspondence and exchange of information. Any type of computer can receive or send an electronic mail using an e-mail client and individuals must have a unique e- mail address. The format is: username@domainname. The username is the identity of the user who have the e-mail address. The symbol ‘@’ is pronounced as ‘at’ while the domain name is the unique name of the e-mail server. Example: Username Domain name [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] The e-mail service provider is an organization that maintains a computer that runs the e-mail server such as google (gmail) and yahoo. E-mail clients are programs on the user’s computer that can be used to compose, receive and send mail e.g. outlook express. It can also be used through a browser e.g. gmail. World Wide Web (WWW) or the web is a system that has made it possible to access any type of document on the Internet. It has also made looking for information easier and faster. On the WWW, information is displayed in the form of web pages that can hold formatted text, pictures, audio and videos. This makes the information attractive and easy to use. Web pages may also contain hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are text or other objects e.g. pictures that are linked to other pages that hold related information. Text that is hyperlinked to another document is underlined and the pointer usually becomes hand-shaped when it hovers over tests or objects that are hyperlinked. Clicking on the hyperlink takes the computer user to another page. Web pages must be accessible to all on the internet and are stored on special computers called web servers. Each web server has a unique address of the format: www.name of site. type of site. country code www.yahoo.co.uk The ‘name of site’ is the name of the organization whose page we are trying to access. The ‘type of site’ refers to the nature of work the organization does e.g..com for commercial..edu for educational sites. What does these.biz ,.net.org.net.info.ng.za.ca-stand for? The site address is also referred to as the URL or uniform resource locator. Web servers based in the USA do not need the country code. Browser is a software that is used to view web pages. Graphical browsers allow users to access sound, movies and texts. Clicking on a link opens the specified page in the browser. Example of browsers are firefox, edge, chrome and opera. Search Engines: The vastness of the WWW makes the finding of relevant information difficult hence the development of search engines. Search engines are software on the web that help the user to look for specific information. The search is conducted on the basis of certain keywords specified by the user. The result of the search is a list of documents that contain the keywords. To narrow down the search, several options are available. If you type “Benefits of Pharmacists” with the quotes, this will ensure that documents that contain the phrase “Benefits of pharmacists” are given priority. A search using + “Benefits of Pharmacists” will ensure that only documents that contain the exact phrase “Benefits of Pharmacists” will be retrieved. Some popular search engines on the web are: Yahoo: www.yahoo.com Google: www.google.com Infoseek: www.infoseek.com Excite: www.excite.come Webcrawler: www.webcrawler.com Electronic commerce (e-commerce): with the internet, the customer can browse through the available products in an online store (e.g. Jumia, Konga, Amazon and Alibaba), select what he wants to buy and place an order for it. The customer enters his address and credit card details in order to complete the transaction. The goods are then delivered to the customer’s doorstep after payment is confirmed by the credit card company e.g. visa, MasterCard, American express, etc. There are two types of payment cards, credit and debit card depending on if your bank is giving you a credit facility to cover your purchases while you pay later (credit card) or if you must have money in your account before you can buy anything with the card (debit card). There are other means of payment such as paypal. The internet meets the need of businesses that are online in various ways such as 1. Advertising and marketing 2. Research and development 3. Customer support 4. Taking orders 5. Recruitment All forms of companies such as oil, pharmaceutical, publishing, financial and haulage firms are represented online. DATA BASES A database is any collection of information. Examples of database packages are Access, FoxPro, structured query language (SQL). Your telephone numbers in your GSM handset is a database. One can store information in a computer database such as Microsoft access. For instance, if you keep a list of all your classmates in an Access database you can: 1. Print out a list of all your classmates who passed pharmacology. 2. Sort your classmates’ information based on sex and height and weight. 3. Create a simple on screen data entry form to make data entry easy. 4. Import data from Microsoft excel. In access, the first thing you do is to create a database file. The file so created holds everything you create for that database such as tables, forms and reports. Each database file can have many tables, forms and reports. Access is a relational database. A primary key is used as a unique identifier of the records in the database. A primary key in one table may be a foreign key in another table and helps to correctly retrieve more information relating to a specified record from other tables. TABLES: A table in access is like a spreadsheet. Access stores each record in its own row. Each type of detail is kept in its own column and is referred to as a field or attribute. The intersection between a row and a column is called a cell. FORMS: A form is an interface that is used to enter data into an access database. It makes data entry more convenient. A single form can be used to enter data into several tables at once. REPORTS: Reports are designed to be printed. Reports are specially formatted collections of data organized according to your specifications which you can display onscreen as print preview or you can print them out as hard copies. QUERIES: Are used to sieve out the information you need from a multitude of data. ASSIGNMENTS 1. Install Microsoft office into your computer and type a letter or an essay in MS Word. In excel, use formulars to add or subtract numbers. In PowerPoint, create a slide, insert picture and a video. Prepare a presentation on Drug Interaction. 2. Write short notes on input devices, printers, artificial intelligence, eCommerce and the internet. 3. Discus cryptocurrency and online payment platforms. What is the role of PLANING in the software development cycle. 4. List five programing languages and discuss which one of them you prefer and why. 5. Remember all we discussed in class that are not part of these notes. GOOD LUCK.