Drug Information Systems example essay topic

Intranet is an internal organizational Internet that is guarded against outside access by a special security feature called a firewall (which can be software, hardware or a combination of the two). The primary characteristic of an intranet is that people outside the organization can't access it. Employees must have a user name and password in order to logon to a company intranet. The intranet is an invaluable tool for supporting information through out the organization. An intranet increases employee productivity by promoting information sharing and a central location where employees can go to look for information. The intranet hosts all kinds of company-related information.

Each department has its own Web page on the company intranet for departmental information sharing. The use of the internet rapidly gained momentum in the mid 1990's and even those who were skeptical about its value soon realized that the internet and associated developments were here to stay. It was quickly realized that internet technology could dramatically improve the way that people worked and communicated. Following quickly on the heels of internet awareness and use people began to realize the potential value of what was regarded as an in-house internet, namely the intranet. For an organization to operate efficiently and successfully, the way information is handled and the ability of the organization to communicate reliably and fast are essential factors. Pharmacy and healthcare on the intranet, hospitals pharmacist provide a wide range of professional services and in many cases the intranet can help provide these services better, faster and more comprehensive.

The pharmacy department plays a critical part in the patient care. There is a range of information that can be found related to pharmacy, such as IV policy and monographs, prescribing guidelines, hospital drug formulary, pharmacy bulletins, trust policies on medicines, drug information systems, trust status of newly marketed drugs, forth coming events, summaries of conferences and seminars, shared -care guidelines, use of unlicensed drugs, clinical trials information, therapeutic drug monitoring and physiological levels and lab results. In terms of utilizing the intranet, the first major advance made by the pharmacy department was providing access to the electronic Martindale, the web-enabled British National Formulary (We BNF) and Drug dex (a Micromedex database) to pharmacy units, and staff at ward and clinic levels. Doctors for the first time had the ability to access the latest versions of these medicines information systems sources while on the ward. It also meant that Pharmacist had ready access to these systems rather then having to go call the medicine information centre. With the development of the intranet, the traditional role of medicine information service has changed.

There was a growing need to train staff in the use of systems available on the intranet and to ensure the information retrieved was applied appropriately, ensuring not only the best information is used, but the actual problem is correctly determined. The benefits of having a formulary system on an intranet, is the ease of maintenance and updating. In the past local formularies printed in the form of a book and republished annually at best. Between editions there was no way of communicating additions, deletions and other changes.

Then an attempt was made to solve the problem and the drug formulary was produced in a ring binder but it was not successful because of the 600 pages, when new pages were inserted on rare occasions the pages were not inserted in the right places and having staff update the book was an inefficient use of time. Such problems do not arise with a formulary on the intranet. Once a decision is made to change, add, or delete anything the pages are amended and then uploaded directly from the author's computer in the pharmacy information department on to the server. This means that the new version is available to all computers on the intranet immediately.

Ensuring that "real-time" information is accessed and used at all times. There are several medical software systems that are being used, but two of the most popular systems are Mega Source and Pyxisvisulmed. Both are modular state-of-the-art computerized Physician Order Entry and Pharmacy Formulary systems that integrates physician, pharmacy, and nursing clinical decision-making with data maintained in the electronic patient record. The system reviews all MD prescriptions and suggests alternate courses of therapy based on individually modified decision trees. Prescriptions are legible and dosages are calculated on the basis of individual patient parameters. Doctors find laboratory results easily, charts don't get lost and all members of the clinical team have concurrent access to the same information.

Key Advantages o Provides a patient safety environment that reduces medication errors and preventable adverse drug events at the point of prescription o Supports " evidence-based medicine" that allows physicians, and other clinicians to have data readily available at the time a decision is being made and to focus on patient care o Improves communication between physicians and all clinical support areas, especially nursing and the pharmacy o Helps reduce health care cost through improved efficiencies Works Cited Tugwell, C. "Information Technology Taking Pharmacy Services to a New Level with the Intranet" Hospital Pharmacist June 2001: Vol. 7 Pyxis". Pyxisvisulmed". 1 November 2003. Haag / Cummings/McCubbrey. "Intranet" Management Information System for the Information Age 2002: 10

Bibliography

Tugwell, C. "Information Technology Taking Pharmacy Services to a New Level with the Intranet" Hospital Pharmacist June 2001: Vol.
7 Pyxis". Pyxisvisulmed". 1 November 2003.
Intranet" Management Information System for the Information Age 2002: 10.