New software for logging drug enquiries ready
- 13 September 2005
New software that helps pharmacists in local medicine information centres to record and audit clinician enquiries about medication has been released this week, offering potential future expandability to the NHS Care Records Service and an update to some of the older, DOS-based systems.
The MiDatabank system allows clinician enquiries about medication to be logged for future audit, and was developed in association with UK Medicines Information [UKMi), a network of 272 local, regional and national centres staffed with pharmacists that answer over half a million enquires per year from clinicians about medication.
The role of pharmacists working for UKMi is to answer enquriries from consultants, GPs, nursing staff as well as the public about medication best practice and dosage; for instance, a prescriber may wish to check the dosage of a drug for a patient with a kidney disorder or the suitability of a particular medication for a pregnant womant. Pharmacists staffing the lines have a variety of research to hand as well as their own expertise to draw upon.
"There’s general opinion that [MiDatabank] will be adopted as the national standard," said Steven Moss, managing director of CoAcS, manufacturers of the system. He added that a single widely-used piece of software would be easier for users. "When pharmacists have to move, they only have to learn one system."
People who answer the calls must document the question, the drug being enquired about, the answer and where the information had been researched from. An important feature of the new system, added Moss, was that it was paperless and relatively user-friendly, so large numbers of enquiries could be handled smoothly.
"It’s just providing a blank resource into which the information can be stored," explained Moss. "It has to be auditable and unchangeable." Linking the centres together with this database gives the impression of a virtual network, and allows all of the centres to work more closely together.
Moss told E-Health Insider that CoAcS had been working with the manufacturers of existing software, such as DiScan, to ensure compatibility. DiScan’s subscribers will be receiving a year’s free subscription to encourage them to transfer to the new system.
"Up until now a number of different systems have been used by MI pharmacists," explained Moss. "While these have served a useful purpose over the last decade, some were developed using software that is now technically out of date and no longer meets the standards required for healthcare applications."
The second phase of the MiDatabank system, which has a planned release date of June 2006, is due to feature links to electronic patient records held on the spine. The database structure has been designed to fit in to the NHS record formats when NCRS goes live. Moss explained such a record would probably consist of a note being uploaded to the centrally-held patient record showing a question had been asked, with a link to more details.
Future plans for the system also include a national archive of enquiries, possibly publicising anonymised frequently asked questions with other users of the system, a central backup database and an online version of MiDatabank, allowing pharmacists to remotely answer questions via a web form.
The system was informally announced in June at the UKMi Conference, but copies have just started being sent out this week. Moss said around six or seven centres had received the software but more orders were expected.
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