Computer Application in Pharmacy Unit-3

UNIT-III

Application of computers in Pharmacy – Drug information storage and retrieval,

Pharmacokinetics, Mathematical model in Drug design, Hospital and Clinical Pharmacy,
Electronic Prescribing and discharge (EP) systems, barcode medicine identification and
automated dispensing of drugs, mobile technology and adherence monitoring, Diagnostic
System, Lab-diagnostic System, Patient Monitoring System, Pharma Information System

Drug information storage and retrieval system

Information Storage & Retrieval
1. Drug storage and retrieval refers to a systematic process of collecting, cataloguing, and
retrieving data so that they can be located and displayed on request.
2. Computers and data processing techniques have made possible to access high-speed and
large amounts of information for government, commercial, and academic
purposes.

Storage system
1. It can refer to a place like a storage room where paper records are kept.
2. It can also refer to a storage device such as a computer hard disk, CD, DVD, or similar
device which can hold data.

Types of storage:
1. Hard Drive: It is always inside the computer. It stores all the programs that the computer
needs to work.
2. Floppy Disk: It is a portable storage medium.
3. CD&DVD: It is a portable storage.
3. USB Flash Drive

Information Retrieval system (IRS): Information retrieval is the process of obtaining

information from database.
In a simple word: The tracing and recovery of specific information from stored data.
1. Basic Retrieval Techniques
2. Advanced Retrieval Techniques

Components of information retrieval system (IRS)

1. Database: A database is an organized collection of data, generally stored and accessed
electronically from a computer system. Examples of drug databases: Embase, BIOSIS,
MEDLINE, Example of google database: Google cloud datastore
2. Search engine: A search engine is a software program that helps people find the
information they are looking for online using keywords or phrases. Examples of search
engines: Google, yahoo, bang.
3. Search mechanism: Entry of keyword, match of keyword with available database,
navigate to matching websites, display result from database in form of websites,
webpages, image, video, news etc.
4. Language: Information relies on language when being processed, transferred, or
communicated.
5. Interface: An interface is shared boundary across which two or more sperate
components of a computer system exchange information
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Advantages of a computerized data retrieval system

1. Save time, space, and money.
2. Save efforts and greater efficiency.
3. Different types of searches are possible.
4. Highly focused information is available.
5. Broadened perspective.

Drug information center (DIC)

Institution[s] dedicated to providing objective, independent, and current information on drugs
and their use, and communicating to the different categories of users for better understanding
and benefit of patients.
Function of DIC
1. Authentic drug information is required for rational use of drugs.
2. Collect information
3. Evaluate and compare drugs
4. Education for health care personnel
5. Promote safe and effective medication

Drug information center in India

Recognizing the need to provide organized drug information to health care professionals as well
as consumers, the WHO India Country Office in collaboration with the Karnataka State
Pharmacy Council (KSPC) is supporting the establishment of 5 drug information centers.
These centers have been established in
1. Haryana (Sirsa),
2. Chhattisgarh (Raipur),
3. Rajasthan (Jaipur),
4. Assam (Dibrugarh),
5. Goa (Panaji)

The objectives of DIC are:

1. To provide an organized database of specialized information on medicines and
therapeutics to meet the drug information needs of practitioners.
2. To educate pharmacy students to serve as effective providers of medicines
information.
3. To provide accurate and unbiased medicines information service to the pharmacists,
physicians and other health care professionals in the hospital and community.
4. To promote patient care through rational use of medicines.

Drug information:
1. Drug side effect
2. Drug toxicity
3. Drug interaction
4. Available formulations of drug
5. Clinical trial of drugs
6. Market research

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Users of drug information

1. Chemist
2. Biomedical Scientist
3. Patients
4. Health care professionals (Doctors, pharmacists etc)
5. Academician and Pharmaceutical Industries

Pharmacokinetic and Mathematical Model in Drug Design

1. Mathematical Model: mathematical concepts, they have developed a method of
discovering new drugs for a range of diseases by calculating which physical properties of
biological molecules may predict their effectiveness as medicines.
2. Mathematical models are frequently employed to guide product development.
3. These models incorporate two factors.
A. Pharmacokinetics Model
B. Pharmacodynamics Model

A. Pharmacokinetics Model: It means how the drug concentration increases and decays
over time as determined by its absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion.
B. Pharmacodynamics Model: The second is pharmacodynamics, describing the
relationship between the drug concentration and its therapeutics efficacy.

Pharmacokinetic data calculation by using software

The pharmacokinetic data mentioned below can be easily calculated and converted into graphs
quickly and precisely.

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Time (hr) Conc of drug in ng/ml

0 0
0.25 18.39924
0.5 45.64121
1 152.0022
2 78.34418
4 53.16248
8 10.60867
12 3.893283
16 2.850135
24 1.415557
Plasma Atr Concentration (ng/ml)

180
160 Series1
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

Role of computer in pharmacokinetics

1. Classically, long manual calculations had to be performed and semilogarithmic paper
was used for drawing plots.
2. Now computers can do complicated plots and semilogarithmic plots precisely and
quickly.
3. There are different approaches to pharmacokinetics using differential equations with
the help of softwares.
4. Pharmacokinetic analysis is basically carried out to get information on
• Renal clearance,
• Volume of distribution,
• Metabolic deposition,
• Absorption and multiple dosing of drug
• Creating a PK Model
• Fitting the Model to Data

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Example of software's for pharmacokinetics

NONLIN is the software that allows you to o perform statistical regression analyses to estimate
the values of parameters for linear, multivariate, polynomial, and general nonlinear
functions.
KINPAK is software used to obtain Area under the curve (AUC), Peak plasma concentration
(Cmax), and peak plasma time (tmax).
ESTRIP and STRIPACT are programs that are also used for mathematical analysis.
KINFIT, SIMbiology

Pharmacodynamic Model
1. Drug design, often referred to as rational drug design, is the inventive process of
finding new medications based on the knowledge of a biological target (receptor).
2. In the most basic sense, drug design involves the design of molecules that are
complementary in shape and charge to the biomolecular target with which they interact
and therefore will bind to it.

1. This type of drug design can be assisted by computer softwares.

2. Software will generate number of drug molecules depending upon the feed data and
among these; compound of interest can be developed and tested.
3. If such process is carried out manually then it will be time consuming and tedious. But
use of computer reduces time hugely.
4. Molecular modeling is the generation, manipulation and representation of three-
dimensional form of molecule.
5. Molecular graphics refers to the use of computer graphics to represent the molecular
structure.
6. In the past synthetic chemists have used molecular models, but computer modeling has
enhanced the detailed display of molecular structures.

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Traditional drug design Computer based drug design

Various types of softwares are available, like

1. AutoDock (The Scripps Research Institute),
2. CombiBUILD (Sandia National Labs),
3. DockVision (University of Alberta)
Application of computer in hospital pharmacy
A hospital pharmacy is a department within a hospital that prepares, compounds, stocks and
dispenses inpatient medications.
Hospital pharmacies usually stock a larger range of medications, including more specialized
and investigational medications, than would be feasible in the community setting.

Applications of computer in hospital pharmacy

1. Purchase and inventory control: the computer has the ability to manage stock once it
arrives at a warehouse, store or other storage location
2. Drug store: different kinds of activities could be maintained as records like list of
medicines, company detail, order form, billing and pricing, payment detail etc.
3. Drug distribution: entire drug distribution system could be followed by maintaining,
ward pharmacy record with charge & non charge floor stock drug system.
4. Hospital formulary: it is advantageous to keep the formulary in the computer because
any update could be made easily without incurring any cost.
5. Patient medical record: records like case paper, and other record like test report,
diagnosis & treatment detail which comprise the history of the patient.
6. It is an important tool for a pharmacist involved in DRUG INFORMATION SERVICES.
7. Help in Patient monitoring with regard to diseases like asthama, TB, diabetes etc.
8. Community pharmacy: educative programs on health education like family welfare,
AIDS and other communicable disease.

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Software used for inventory control

1. Retaileasy: Mobile billing, stock maintenance, increase sales with web order, expiry
return.
2. Sciencesoft
3. Inflow inventory

Application of computer in clinical pharmacy

Clinical pharmacy is a branch of pharmacy that involves the provision of patient cares with
the use of medications to optimize the health outcomes of patients. This includes
promoting wellness and preventing disease.
Function of Clinical Pharmacist :
1. Prescription monitoring
2. Prescribing advice to medical and nursing staff
3. Medication errors and adverse drug reaction reporting
4. History Taking
5. Patient education and counseling
6. Pharmacokinetics and therapeutic drug level monitoring
7. Professional and Clinical Audit The function
Function of computer in clinical pharmacy
1. Patient record Management : The Clinical computer system must assure the patients
record database is continually updated to reflect the current status of all patients.
• Record of patient admissions, discharges, patient transfers.
• Information about present diagnosis, Allergies, Weight, Height, Name of Attending
physician and any special note about the patient.
2. Entries of Medication Orders: Medication orders should be entered regularly and the
Pharmacist must be able to retrieve orders prior to administration to patient. Date must be
entered by use of codes for drug names, dose scheduling. All drug orders should contain
following : • Drug Name • Drug Generic Name & Strength • Route of administration •
Dosage schedule • Physician Data
3. Patient Medication Profile
• Proper dosage strength
• Proper administration time and schedule
• Potential drug-drug interactions
• History of drug sensitivities or allergies

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• Duplication of an active prescription with another for the same drug, or a drug with a
similar therapeutic effect
4. Drug Therapy Monitoring & Problem Detection : DRUG THERAPY MONITORING-
improves individualized dosing decision, allow multiple storage, precise dosing.
5. Record Drug-Drug Interactions & ADR’S: Computer systems helps in diagnosing DRUG
Interactions & warns potentially dangerous combinations of medications along with Drug-
drug, Drug- lab, Drug-Allergy interactions & Wrong Diagnosis automatically.
6. Pharmacy Automated drug interaction screening (PADIS) system
8. Building Data Base
9. Medical Research
10. Computerizing reports

Example of clinical pharmacy software

1. Miracle HIS
2. Oracle healthcare
3. Insta Practo

Electronic Prescribing System

Need of Electronic prescribing
1. In developing countries, most of prescriptions are pen and paper based, which is an error
prone process.
2. Errors-illegible handwriting,
3. Poor communication by phone or fax,
4. Duplication of data entry,
5. Wrong dosing,
6. Missed drug-allergy reactions-resulting in adverse events.

Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing or e-Rx)

E-prescribing is the computer-based electronic generation, transmission, and filling
of a medical prescription, taking the place of paper and faxed prescriptions.

Concept of e-prescription
1. E-prescribing allows a physician, pharmacist, nurse practitioner, to use digital
prescription software to electronically transmit a new prescription or renewal
authorization to a community or mail-order pharmacy.
2. It outlines the ability to send error-free, accurate, and understandable prescriptions
electronically from the healthcare provider to the pharmacy.
3. It is also one of the major reasons for the push for electronic medical records.

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Concept of e-prescription in India

1. In India some private hospitals started using electronic prescription.
2. But a major step was taken by government of West Bengal in August 2014 when they
started the process of issuing e-prescriptions instead of hand-written instructions in
top government hospitals.
3. The biggest advantage of the system is that a patient has all his medical data stored in
the server of state health department which can be referred to in future.
4. In the private sector number of companies have initiated to build software to support
Electronic Prescription in India. ERXPAD.COM is one among the pioneer player offer
cloud based electronic prescription software ( erx) in India.

Functions of e-precription system

1. Patient identification
2. Access to patient historical data.
3. Prescribe or add new medication.
4. This can involve viewing details of a medication, remove a medication from the active
medication list, change dose, etc., for a medication or renew one or more medications.
5. Printing prescriptions.
6. Electronically transmitting prescriptions to required place is possible.
7. Reduce prescribing and dispensing errors.
8. Decrease the work needed to execute a prescription.
9. Minimizing patient treatment costs, by showing low cost drug alternatives.
10. Educational capabilities (e.g., patient education, provider feedback).

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Disadvantages of e-prescribing system

1. Software is necessary and comes at a cost; costs associated with use: start-up,
maintenance, and transaction fees.
2. Doctor and Pharmacists must learn how to use the software.
3. Electronic prescribing cannot be used during power outages and may be difficult in rural
areas with poor internet connections.
4. Errors associated with e-prescriptions are not always detected by the pharmacist,
which can result in decreased safety, as well as patient harm.

Software's for e-prescription

1. e-Prescribing
2. AdvancedMD
3. DrChrono EHR
4. NextGen Healthcare

Electronic Discharges System (EDS)

Discharge procedure at hospital
1. Registration in hospital, bed occupancy
2. Diagnosis of disease
3. Treatment of disease
4. After complete treatment, Discharge process will initiated by caretaker
5. Collection of diagnosis documents from various department (pathology, radiology)
6. Payment of bills
7. Insurance paper work
8. Medication chart
9. Discharge summary

Definition: Electronic discharge system tracks a patient from the moment they enter to the
moment they leave hospital.
1. It allows patients to be discharged with discharge letters and medications where
appropriate.
2. It automatically inserts information from the patient's drugs chart, investigations and
case-notes to save clinician time.
3. Discharge medications can be cross-checked by the e-discharge system.
4. Automatic filling in of diagnoses, medications, procedures, important results fields.
5. EDS allows for patients to opt to pay for and have their medications delivered to their
home by pharmacist.
6. Fully-auditable, and can be used to display real-time bed occupancy status.

Benefits:
1. Reduce average length of stay as patients can get discharged faster.
2. Reduces litigation bills (court cases) by eliminating medication errors.
3. Saves bed time and money by option to offload pharmacy dispensing to community
pharmacy.
4. Saves clinicians time by auto-filling in important data.

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5. Doctors will be able to get patients discharged in minutes from any computer or
tablet in the hospital.
6. Display the most relevant information for GPs and community carers with customisable
specialty-specific templates.

Software’s for e-discharge system

AdvancedMD: AdvancedMD is an integrated medical software suite for independent practices.
DrChrono HER: DrChrono’s iPad and iPhone compatible EHR and medical billing platform
allows users to manage patient intake, clinical charting, billing, and revenue cycle
management.
Kareo Billing: Kareo is a web-based medical billing and practice management solution used
by medical practitioners and physicians across the United States.
Medisec eDischarge

Barcode medicine identification

1. Barcode is a rectangular image that consists of parallel lines with differing widths and
lengths.
2. Products are printed with barcodes that can be used for storing information that can be
used to identify them in the future.
3. Keeping track of inventory and invoicing details are common uses of barcodes in retail
stores and warehouses.

A barcode system is a network of hardware and software, consisting primarily of mobile,

computers, printers, handheld scanners, supporting software, desktop.

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Bar Code system in medicines

1. In February 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had ruled that barcodes
must be used on certain human drugs.
2. Barcode information on these items must include the National Drug Code (NDC)
number of the drug, an 11-character identification number for the medication.
3. The NDC contains the name of the medication, dosage and drug company that
produces the medication.
4. Additional information that may be included in medication barcodes may include the
expiration date and lot number of the medication.
5. This is to ensure that counterfeit or expired drugs are not being administered to patients.

Benefits of barcode identification system

1. Using a barcode rather than a barcode allows for the more precise and convenient
processing of manually entered data and prone to errors.
2. There is little or no training needed for scanners since they are so easy to use.
3. Improved inventory control
4. Real-time availability of the drug
5. Instant Billing
6. Easy to calculate discounts and offers
7. Time-saving
8. One-time investment leads saving money in business.

Automated Drug-dispensing System (ADDS)

1. Automated dispensing devices (ADDs) are increasingly present in healthcare

organizations.
2. The use of automated drug distribution because the system frees pharmacists from
labor-intensive distribution functions.
3. Those pharmacists then begin to share responsibility for drug inventory with nurses,
which improves the accuracy and timeliness of drug availability and enhances
patient care .
4. The regular dispensing mechanism in hospital

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Automated dispensing devices (ADDs) are computerized systems use to store and dispense
medicines near the point of care while controlling and tracking drug distribution.
They also are called unit-based cabinets (UBCs), automated dispensing devices (ADDs),
automated distribution cabinets or automated dispensing machines (ADMs).
Three broad categories of ADDS exist:
• Centralized ADDS (System available in central pharmacy)
• Decentralized ADDS (System available near to ward)

Centralized systems
Steps in the centralized ADDS system
1. Prescription is received online/or by a caretaker in the pharmacy
2. The prescription is validated by the pharmacist and entered into a software program
3. Potential interactions or adverse outcomes are evaluated by software
4. A drug package is generated automatically
5. A label is printed
6. The label is attached to the package
7. Maintain of records

Decentralized System
Decentralized systems often exist outside the ward or department. Automated drug
dispensing cabinets (ADDC) are used to dispense the medicines.
Steps
1. Prescription is uploaded by the caretaker on ADDC
2. The prescription is validated software
3. Potential interactions or adverse outcomes are evaluated by software
4. A drug package is generated automatically
5. A label is printed
6. The label is attached to the package
7. Maintain of records

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Benefits of ADDS
1. Patient safety by providing accurate medication error
2. Cost effectiveness due to one-time investment
3. Reduces pharmacist time in dispensing
4. Increases efficiency of hospitals
5. Helpful in infectious diseases such as COVID (reduces the chance of infection).
6. Expired are flagged at the point of issue to warn against usage.
7. Enhanced security access prevents supplies loss and drug diversion

Mobile technology and adherence monitoring

1. Medication adherence can be defined as the extent to which a person-taking
medication adheres to a self-administered protocol.
2. In other words, medication adherence refers to the medication-intake behavior of the
patient conforming to an agreed medication regimen specified by the healthcare
provider with respect to timing, dosage, and frequency.
3. From another point of view, non-adherence refers to the failure of taking medication
as prescribed, including in-consistency, missing doses, and failing to re-fill the
medication.

Medication Adherence Monitoring

Maintaining strict medication adherence is required that deems maintaining administration
timing, dosage quantity, and frequency
Methods that have been utilized for measuring medication adherence so far can be broadly
divided into two categories,
• Direct method
• Indirect method

1. Direct method: Direct methods of measurement of adherence include direct

observation of the patient while taking the medication, and laboratory detection of
the drug in blood or urine. Very accurate and highly costly.
2. Indirect method: Meanwhile, the patient’s self reporting, pill-counting, assessing
pharmacy refill rates, and using electronic medication event tracking systems are
examples of indirect methods of measuring adherence. Indirect methods are less
expensive and provide good estimation of the medication adherence.

Medication Adherence Monitoring Systems

S.No Technology Types Example

1 Sensor- a. Fixed sensors are tied to Eg: Smart Pill Container: Pillboxes and pill
Based minimally mobile objects bottles equipped with sensors have been
Systems such as pillboxes or developed for monitoring the medication-
pillbottles. taking activity.

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b. Wearable sensors are Eg: Wrist-Worn Sensors: Samsung

lightweight, have high data Electronics were employed to predict pill
fidelity, and mobile devices bottle opening, pill removal, pill pouring
that are attached to the into the secondary hands, and water bottle
user’s body. handling activities.
Eg: Wrist-Worn Sensors
Neck-Worn Sensors Eg: Neck-Worn Sensors: skin motion
during pill swallowing and generating
voltage as a response. Acquired data is sent
via Bluetooth to a mobile phone.
c. Ingestible Biosensors: MyTMed is the digital capsule
Ingestible devices are
miniature capsule-
looking devices that are
digested and swallowed
when taken through mouth
like solid medications.
These devices travel
through the gastrointestinal
tract and digestive system
and collect data about
specific physiological
parameters.
Connected with mobile
phone
2 Proximity This system tracks pill Eg: Smart Drawer with RFID (Radio
Sensing removal activity and is Frequency Identification) reader, pill bottle
Systems connected to phone. with RFID tag.

3 Vision based Tracking of bottle opening, Eg: Camera installed in area

system pill picking, pill swallowing,
bottle closing activity

4 Fusion based a. Proximity-senor system Eg: RFID tag pill bottle + wrist watch
system b. Proximity-visual system
c. Visual-sensor system
Eg: Smart drawer + camera

Eg: Camera + wrist sensor

Challenges and Future Trends

1. System Accuracy and Data Fidelity
2. Energy Consumption and Lifetime
3. Acceptability and User’s Comfort
4. Tampering, Authentication, and Active Non-Compliance

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Diagnostic System
A medical diagnosis deals with a disease or medical condition. A medical diagnosis identifies
the disorder, disease, or cause of symptoms.
Types of diagnosis
1. Radiology diagnosis: A diagnosis based primarily on the results from medical
imaging studies. Example: MRI, CT scan, ultrasound.
2. Laboratory diagnosis: A diagnosis based significantly on laboratory reports or test
results. Example: testing of blood, urine
3. Tissue diagnosis: A diagnosis based on the macroscopic, microscopic, and molecular
examination of tissues such as biopsies or whole organs. For example, a definitive
diagnosis of cancer is made via tissue examination by a pathologist.

Role of Computer in diagnostic system

1. Computer-aided detection (CADe), also called computer aided diagnosis (CADx),
are systems that assist doctors in the interpretation of medical images.
2. Eg: Imaging techniques in X-ray, MRI, and ultrasound diagnostics yield a great deal of
information that the radiologist or other medical professional has to analyze and
evaluate comprehensively in a short time.
3. CT, MRI, US, computed radiography, management and storage (PACS-picture archiving and
communication system), and reporting (RIS-radiology information system) of medical
images is well established.

Step1: Hospital Information system (HIS): radiology services begins with a

test order from the treating physician, commonly called the referring physician.
Step 2: Radiology Information system (RIS): is a software system for managing medical
imagery and associated data. PACs will help for data recording and billing.
Step 3. Dicom Modalities: It is used in storing and transmitting medical images enabling the
integration of medical imaging devices such as scanners, servers, workstations, printers,
network hardware

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Step 4: Reporting workstation: Radiologists use primary diagnostic display workstations

to view and interpret images for patient diagnosis.

Examples of CAD:
1. In the diagnosis of lung cancer, computed tomography with special three-dimensional
CAD systems are established and considered as appropriate second opinions.
2. CAD is available for detection of colorectal polyps in the colon in Computed
tomography (CT) colonography. CAD detects the polyps by identifying their
characteristic "bump-like" shape. To avoid excessive false positives, CAD ignores the
normal colon wall, including the mucosal folds.
3. CAD is available for the automatic detection of significant (causing more than 50%
stenosis) coronary artery disease in coronary CT angiography (CCTA) studies.
4. Diabetic retinopathy is a disease of the retina that is diagnosed predominantly by
fundoscopic images (fundoscopy-An exam that uses a magnifying lens and a light to check
the fundus of the eye). Imaging is used to recognize early signs of abnormal retinal
blood vessels. CAD has been employed to enhance the accuracy, sensitivity, and
specificity of automated detection method. The use of some CAD systems to replace
human graders can be safe and cost effective.
5. Bone densitometer to diagnose osteoporosis, bone disorders etc.

Bone densitometer MRI

Ultra Sound
CT Scan

Lab-diagnostic System
Laboratory diagnosis: A diagnosis based significantly on laboratory reports or test results.
Example: testing of blood, urine, feces
Laboratory diagnosis is carried out in a medical laboratory where clinical pathology tests are
carried out on clinical specimens to obtain information about the health of a patient to aid
in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.

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That functionality can roughly be divided into five laboratory processing phases, with
numerous software functions falling under each:
(1) The reception and log in of a sample (blood, urine) and patient data recording.
(2) The assignment, scheduling, and tracking of the sample and the associated analytical
workload
(3) The processing and quality control associated with the sample and the utilized
equipment and inventory
(4) The storage of data associated with the sample analysis
(5) The inspection, approval, and compilation of the sample data for reporting and/or
further analysis.

Function of software for lab-diagnostic

1. Analysis of data: less time consuming
2. Easy transfer of reports
3. Easy billing and finance management
4. Lab software will keep you updated with real time analytics & reports to monitor
5. Manage sample life cycle effectively using barcodes & standardization and track in real-
time.
6. Access through phone
7. Can run on multiple computer

Softwares for lab-diagnostic system

1. https://creliohealth.com/
2. https://www.labsmartlis.com/
3. MocDoc LIMS

Patient Monitoring System (PMS)

1. Patient monitoring can be rigorously defined as “repeated or continuous
observations or measurements of the patient, his or her physiological function, and
the function of life support equipment, for the purpose of guiding management
decisions, including when to make therapeutic interventions, and assessment of those
interventions
2. Continuous measurement of patient parameters such as heart rate and rhythm,
respiratory rate, blood pressure, blood-oxygen level, and many other parameters
have become a common feature of the care of critically ill patients specially admitted in
ICU.
Classes of Patient Monitoring System
1. Single-Parameters Monitoring Systems
2. Multi-Parameter Patient Monitoring Systems
3. Single-parameters monitoring Systems: The single parameter monitoring system is
available for measuring blood pressure of a human body, ECG (Electrocardiograph)
monitor, SpO2 (Oxygen Saturation in Blood) monitor etc.

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4. Multi-parameter Patient Monitoring System: A multi-parameter Patient Monitoring

System (PMS) is used for multiple critical physiological signs of the patient to transmit
the vital information like Electro cardiograph, Respiration Rate, Blood pressure,
pulse etc.
Computer in PMS
Care of the critically ill patient requires prompt and accurate decisions so that life-protecting
and lifesaving therapy can be appropriately applied. Because of these requirements, ICUs
have become widely established in hospitals. Such units use computers almost universally for
the following purposes:
1. To acquire physiological data frequently or continuously, such as blood pressure
readings.
2. To communicate information from data-producing systems to remote locations (for
example, laboratory and radiology departments).
3. To store, organize, and report data
4. To provide clinical alerts and advisories based on multiple sources of data
5. To function as a decision-making tool that health professionals may use in planning
then care of critically ill patients.
6. To measure the severity of illness for patient classification purposes
7. To analyze the outcomes of ICU care in terms of clinical effectiveness and cost-
effectiveness

Uses of automatic CAD system

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Pharmacy Management Information System (PMIS)

Pharmacy Management Information Systems is divided into
1. Pharmacy Management System
a. Pharmacy Management System in Medical Store
b. Pharmacy Management System in hospital
2. Pharmaceutical Management System

a. Pharmacy Management System in Medical Store: PMS basically deals with the
maintenance of drugs and consumables in the pharmacy unit or retail shop.
• The system will ensure availability of sufficient quantity of drugs and consumable
materials for the patient.
• The system will help remove time wasting, save resources, allow easy access to
medicine, as well as bring on more security on the data compared to a manual based
system.
• Prescription management
• Billing and finance management
b. Pharmacy Management System in the hospital
A. Inpatient Pharmacy Information Systems (patient admitted in hospital): Inpatient
pharmacy information systems are used in the hospital setting. Uses of impatient PMS are
as follows:
• Prescription Management: Track all prescriptions passed through the system
from who prescribed the drug, when it was prescribed to when it was dispensed.
• Inventory Management: Pharmacies require a continuous inventory culture in
order to ensure that drugs do not go out of stock.

B. Outpatient Pharmacy Information Systems: while outpatient pharmacy information

systems are used in home settings for discharged patients, clinics, long-term care
facilities, and home health care. However, the outpatient PIS has a stronger emphasis on
medication labeling, drug warnings, and instructions for administration.
Functions of PMIS
1. Reduce medication errors
2. Increase patient safety, report drug usage
3. Track costs
4. Simplify and speed up complex tasks
5. Increase accuracy by checking spelling, calculations, and data integrity
6. Update and access information quickly
7. Generate timely reports

2.Pharmaceutical Management System: The PMIS based software is an organized system

for collecting, processing, reporting, and using information for decision-making. Function of
PMIS: Given in table

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Computer Application in Pharmacy Unit-3

Top PMIS Software Products

• FSI Pharmacy Management System
• ApotheSoft-Rx
• Medeil

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