1.1 Introduction
Pharmaceutical E-Commerce Information System (PEIS) is an information system that is used to record relevant information relating to the patients. Also, the PEIS it is designed to improve accuracy and to enhance safety and efficiency in the pharmaceutical store. It is a computer based system which helps the Pharmacist to improve inventory management, cost, medical safety etc. The system allows the user to enter a manufacturing and expiry date for a particular product or drug during opening stock and sales transaction. It will also give report showing the list of products expiry after a specified date before the product eventually expires.
The PEIS enables authorized users to access, manage, share and safeguard patients’ medication. A PEIS can reduce prescription errors resulting in fewer adverse drug events (such as drug-to-drug interactions) and reduced hospitalizations. The prescribe drugs, bought drugs, sold drugs and available drugs are processed by the program. Anti-infective drugs are classified as antibacterial, antiviral, or antifungal depending on the type of microorganism they combat. Anti-infective drugs interfere selectively with the functioning of a microorganism while leaving the human host unharmed.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Due to the size and quality service of the pharmacy, the pharmacy has a very large customer base. These customers tend to visit the pharmacy for services mostly when they close from work. At this period, the number of customers that patronise the pharmacy is on the increase, thereby making the workload of the pharmacists much more tedious. This case makes it difficult for the pharmacist to attend to customers in a short period. Meanwhile the pharmacist has to ensure satisfaction in services to keep their customers. The factors mentioned above, results in delay of the services being rendered to the customers, thereby slowing down sales and risk losing valuable customers in the long run.
In this part of the world people are in the habit of taking drugs arbitrarily without minding the pharmacological effect, without thinking about the side effect, without self medication. Some of this has led to permanent disabilities. Pharmaceutical E-Commerce Information System (PEIS) supports the storage and retrieval of patient drug prescription and medication information, and may provide application services supporting dispensing activities, such as drug usage evaluation.
The challenges encountered that led to the execution of the research work is that, the existing system involves manual entry upon arrival of new batches of drugs and upon drug movement out of the pharmacy for a certain period, e.g. every month, the pharmacist may want to generate report for the movement of drugs in and out of the pharmacy, getting information about the drugs e.g. expiry date, date purchased, number of drug type left, location of a drug in the pharmacy. At present, manual system is being utilized in the pharmacy. It requires the pharmacist to manually monitor each drug that is available in the pharmacy. This usually leads to mistakes as the workload of the pharmacist increases.
It is against the background that the developments of this software to enable people have access to drug related information, so the software users should not give false information that is out of the software deeds. This research work is based on providing adequate information about drugs. At the end of this project, the drug information software will be able to provide adequate information about drugs.
The Disclaimer alert of the Pharmaceutical E-Commerce Information System is beyond under aged or unqualified personnel using the software for his/her personal health advantage. Ensure to read and ask qualified expert about any statement or fact that is not familiar or known to you, otherwise this software would not be held in contempt for any negative reason that is not within the scope of study.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Investigation revealed that the existing system is not meeting its objectives due to problem associated with it. These problems hinder the smooth operation of the system. The existing system is not flexible. The method of information storage and retrieval is very tedious. It does not make room for adequate modification of information.
The system does not prompt for notification of a particular entry when a re-entry is made. The system does not generate report in time. It wastes a lot of time in report generation. This hinders success decision by managers; directors or other head of councils.
Also, the existing system is very expensive to maintain and the operations are difficult to carry out. Due to the volume of data involved and the complex repots to tackle, the staff finds it difficult to produce accurate result.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of this study is to Design and Implement of an Online Pharmaceutical E-Commerce Information System. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and develop an application software that will:
- Eliminate the difficulties people face with manual method of monitoring products;
- Facilitate the services of the company to its customer and increase turn over;
- Eliminate the error involved with the manual storage of pharmaceutical products;
- Ensure adequate circulation and documentation of finished product; and
- Ensure that maximum pharmaceutical products appraisal and security check in the agency (NAFDAC).
1.5 Significance of Study
With the growth in information technology, the study offers numerous values both to any organization that deals on data/information. Huge files kept in the offices will no longer be there again because products information will be stored on the computer with the help of the Online Pharmaceutical E-Commerce Information System. Because of the easy to use nature of the proposed system, any organization can easily buy it to make use of them.
This system when completed and implemented it will help provide adequate information about most commonly used Pharmaceutical Products. This project will be beneficial to individuals such as students, pharmacist and drug prescribers by providing accurate and complete information about each drug or medicine before self medication takes place. Besides, the study will serve as reference material for subsequent researcher in the field or related topics.
1.6 Scope of the study
The scope of this research is focused on the Design and Implementation of an Online Pharmaceutical E-Commerce Information System using Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited in Lagos State as a case study.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
Drug
A drug is any substance (with the exception of food and water) which, when taken into the body, alters the body's function either physically and/or psychologically. Drugs may be legal (e.g. alcohol, caffeine and tobacco) or illegal (e.g. cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin).
Medication
A medication is a substance that is taken into or placed on the body that does one of the following things: most medications are used to cure disease or condition. (For example, antibiotics are given to cure an infection. Medications are also given to treat a medical condition).
Prescription
A prescription is a health-care program implemented by a physician or other qualified health care practitioner in the form of instructions that govern the plan of care for an individual patient.
