E-drug: Re: Drug inventory control software (contd)
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Dear E-druggers,
After reading several point of view, I would like to share my experience in
this field with others.
Three key ideas:
- Computer software are only tools but not finality; thus the software
should be adapted to the structure and the specificities of the company.
- In terms of computer software all the solutions are valid until and unless
there are compatibility with your objectives.
- Objectives are depending of your internal constraints(company
characteristics ...) and external (environment technostructure ...)
Now after saying that, your choices must be oriented towards technical
solutions compatible with your objectives.
I can distinguish three families of software:
THE HOME- MADE THE READY-MADE THE HAND MADE
The HOME MADE:
They can be processed in the company itself through software like Access
Paradox Approche ...
The main advantages are the development of handmade software corresponding
to certain specific needs of the company and also can be never ended (very
evolutive).
The main constraints are a need of a long term know how in the company
itself and the difficulty of training all users to a software internally
developed.
You get cheap software as Gaut underlined it, but cost is high in terms of
time passed.
During these 3 last years we developed (myself along with some friend) three
softwares (vertical programme drug store house management / management of a
hospital's pharmacy/ follow up of drug distribution scheme) along with these
tools, but my conclusion is that they are very limited for certain
functionalities for example traceability, FIFO, logistic (internal and
external) ...
We realized these softwares through Access 2 (language basic) and Access 7
(visual basic NOT COMPATIBLE with Access 2 developed software!), these two
products do not perform very well and like most of Microsoft products are of
low quality (too many bugs).
The only one with which we have very good experience is the management of
the hospital's pharmacy (done in Access 2) because we added a function to
the software to follow the rational use of drugs. (average cost per
physician/ drug family cost or use by units ...). The two others would have
been more efficient (cost + efficacy) with another choice (ready made or
hand made)
The READY MADE :
They can be bought from the market, their price is varying from 5000 $ to
25000 $, so their cost is not negligeable. Moreover the general setup and
the parameters setup can be extremely costly.
Their main advantages are the very good functionality (as Daniel underlined
it), the simplicity, the ergonomy of the system and the "nobugs" system
which is very very confortable for the poor daily victims of Uncle Bill
(Gates) cf. Access Excel ...
I experienced this kind of software whilst managing a pharmaceutical lab. in
a developing country. My main conclusion is that the non specific software
is quite limited for certain functionalities (traceabilty, follow up of the
quality of the procurement, decision making help ...), moreover the major
difficulty is that it is quite difficult to integrate existing database on
drugs.
The HAND MADE:
They are several, I never experienced myself one of these softwares in terms
of managing a procurement unit, but I worked with a specific software (same
family) for the management of the pharmaceutical sector (visa and import
licenses, drugs outlets licenses ...). I appreciated very much the
appproach. Moreover I have seen these kinds of software functioning for
procurement units. Thus I am convinced that we need specifical
functionalities (we are not handling
green peas) integrating the duality that a procurement unit needs on the one
hand to function as a private company, BUT on the other hand a specific tool
for implementing National Drugs Policy. Moreover we need to integrate in the
software plenty linkable information already existing in several database
(Vidal, SEMP, Martindale ...) or database of the regulatory authorities.
The main constraints are the qualification of the "producers" ...
Dr Michel LALOGE
CT/DLP MSPAS Mali
BP 115
Bamako, Mali
Tel & Fax 00 223 23 24 63
mlaloge@datatech.toolnet.org
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