軟件開發-Developing software
第一章
目標
這個項目的目標在于分析IT行業的需求并且為一個在印度工作的制藥批發商開發軟件。
摘要
這個項目的目的在于探討為制藥行業批發業務開發軟件的不同方法。除了記賬,維護股票,配售訂單,這也為股票提供了報告,以及顧客的訂單、銷售和生活費用，這是印度的零售藥品，藥品許可證。本項目將調查部門結算的具體要求，客戶服務，庫存維護，訂單細節和銷售細節。并開發了一個軟件系統，使制藥公司批發自動化，為商業帶來效益和生產力，盈利能力。這個項目也將評估客戶對于結算和服務的轉變的期望。
介紹
這個項目的目的在于探討為制藥行業批發業務開發軟件的不同方法。除了記賬,維護股票,配售訂單,這也為股票提供了報告,以及顧客的訂單、銷售和生活費用，這是印度的零售藥品，藥品許可證。在這一項目的主題是以信息技術為主要工具，提高藥品批發商的效率，為客戶提供優質的服務，并從中獲得最大的利潤時，使用該軟件的主要目的就在于提高系統的性能、透明性和穩定性。
根據Newswire.com [2007]，全國范圍的醫藥批發商缺少在網上做生意的工具。由于在業務流程中沒有自動化，因此交易在傳真和電話中進行，使用這些基本的技術可以追溯到因特網時代前的日子。隨著新的家譜法生效，批發商們正在拼命地尋找方法和手段，以保持他們的業務活躍。能夠利用技術在網上進行交易正是那張保持業務活躍并且良好的車票。
軟件開發-Developing software
第一章-Chapter 1
目的-Aim
The aim of this project is analyzing the IT requirement and developing software for a small pharmaceutical wholesaler working in India.
摘要-Abstract
The purpose of this project is to investigate different approaches to developing software for a wholesale business in the pharmaceutical sector. Apart from billing, maintenance of stock, placing orders, it also provides reports for stock, orders and sales and maintenance of customer details as well, that is retail pharmaceuticals in India, drug licenses. This project will investigate sector-specific requirements for billing, customer service, stock maintenance, orders details and sales details. And develop a software system to automate wholesale pharmaceutical company in order to bring effectiveness and productivity, profitability into business. This project will also evaluate customer expectations for billing and service turnaround.
簡介-Introduction
The purpose of this project is to investigate different approaches to developing software for a wholesale business in the pharmaceutical sector. Apart from billing, maintenance of stock, placing orders, it also provides reports for stock, orders and sales and maintenance of customer details as well, that is retail pharmaceuticals in India, drug licenses. When it comes the theme of this project that is increasing the effectiveness of drugs wholesalers by adopting Information Technology as the main instrument to provide quality of service to its customers and get maximum profits out of it. The main purpose of using such software is to improve the performance, transparency, consistency in the system.
According to Newswire.com [2007] pharmaceutical wholesalers nationwide lack the tools necessary to do business online. There is no automation in the business process, and as a result, transactions are carried out over fax and phone, using basic techniques that date back to pre-Internet days. With the new Pedigree laws taking effect soon, wholesalers are desperately seeking ways and means to keep their business alive. Being able to leverage technology to do business online is just the ticket to keep that business alive and well [10].
The wholesalers provide both stocking and distribution functionalities. It would be desirable for wholesalers to enable customers to get products easily. There must be trade association between manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers in order to provide in time and quality service to its consumers. The pharmaceutical wholesalers can also sale other related to products not only medicines. Other products related to medicine they can have some business. They can also provide technical information to people. They are equipped with the knowledge of various drugs and how to handle them and use them.
Pharmaceutical industry is controlled by the government. This paves way to good and healthy nature among the companies that are into this market. Small and medium software systems can help wholesalers and business holders provide good service to their respective customers. Customer satisfaction is the key for any business to grow. For this we have got new subjects like "Customer Relationship Management" (CRM) and eCRM. The wholesalers could be a part of SCM (Supply Chain Management). In this case they can use the common software for entire chain. Or else they can have different software with heterogeneous nature and still work under common interfaces. They can work together to achieve the business goals of business partners.
It would be desirable to find out how information technology enables pharmaceutical industry to work efficiently. IT could be used at various levels including whole sale market of the pharmacy industry. It promotes new ways of working and making business. It ensures quality of services thereby increasing overall productivity of business systems.
文學觀點-Literature Review
Indian Pharmaceutical Industry
According to Richard Gerster the Indian pharmaceutical industry is a success story providing employment for millions and ensuring that essential drugs at affordable prices are available to the vast population of this sub-continent [11].
According to Haritha Saranga1 & B.V.Phani the pharmaceutical industry in India is going through a major shift in its business model in the last few years in order to get ready for a product patent regime from 2005 onwards. This shift in the model has become necessary due to the earlier process patent regime put in place since 1972 by the Government of India. This was done deliberately to promote and encourage the domestic health care industry in producing cheap and affordable drugs. As prior to this the Indian pharmaceutical sector was completely dominated by multinational companies (MNCs). These firms imported most of the bulk drugs (the active pharmaceutical ingredients) from their parent companies into India. This led to a revision of Government of India's (GOI) policy towards this industry in 1972 allowing Indian firms to reverse engineer the patented drugs and produce them using a different process that was not under patent. The entry of MNC's was also discouraged by restricting foreign equity to 40% [1].
The licensing policy was also biased towards indigenous firms and firms with lesser foreign equity1. All these measures by GOI laid foundations to a strong manufacturing base for bulk drugs and formulations and accelerated the growth in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry (IPI), which today consists of more than 20,000 players1. As a result the Indian pharmaceutical industry today not only meets the domestic requirement but has started exporting bulk drugs as well as formulations to the international market [1].
During the early 1990s, markets were opened by removing restrictions on imports and in 1994 licensing was abolished for producing bulk drugs and formulations. Other than this FDI restrictions into this sector have been modified to allow 74% foreign equity through the automatic route. More favorable conditions are to follow in future particularly for MNCs as soon as 'Product Patents' and' Exclusive Marketing Rights' (EMRs) are permitted [1].
Academic Literature on Requirements Analysis for Small Business Systems Pertaining To Pharmacy對小企業系統有關藥房需求分析學術文獻
Royal Pharmaceutical Society's article IT in Pharmacy opines that information technology is being used increasingly to support best practice in healthcare, and to enable the development of new services and new ways of working. Many healthcare professions have already begun to adopt new systems and technologies. Professional practice for pharmacists will be profoundly affected in future by the use of IT and now is the time for practicing pharmacists to evaluate the technologies that are being introduced to support the profession, to contribute to the design of new systems and to consider how IT can support future professional objectives. The three main areas that will have an immediate impact on future pharmacy practice are electronic transfer of prescriptions, hospital e-prescribing and information governance [12]. They are:
•Electronic transfer of prescriptions
•Hospital e-prescribing
•Information governance
The electronic prescriptions between prescribers and pharmacists improve the efficiency and quality of service. It allows various fragments of pharmacy related systems get connected seamlessly. [12]
The hospital e-prescribing programmed is used to support chain of activities like prescription, administration and supply of medicines. Information sharing is also possible among health related systems in the world [12].
According to Call for Paper of 2009 International Conference on Computer and Information Technology in Pharmacy (International Conference on Computer and IT in Pharmacy) Pharmacy concerns the design, evaluation, production and use of medicines. As such, it is a multi-disciplinary science of the medical, chemical, biological and computer sciences. The 2009 International Conference on Computer and Information Technology in Pharmacy (CITP 2009) will be held in August 14-16, 2009, in the beautiful city Wuxi, Jiangsu, China. The conference is organized by the School of Information Technology, Jiangnan University, China, and Fourth People's Hospital of Wuxi. The goal of this meeting is to present the latest development in computer information technology applied to pharmacy. In particular the conference will solicit work in drug analysis algorithm, pharmacokinetics, therapeutic monitoring, and pharmocoeconomics, electronic commerce for pharmacy, and drug analysis software tools and platforms. Following are the various software tools and algorithms that are related to pharmacy industry [7].
1.Algorithms for drug analysis
a.Numerical methods for pharmacokinetics (including distributed and high performance computing applications)
b.Medical data processing methods and data-mining
c.Data expression and visualization
d.Modeling and computing
e.Artificial intelligence and expert systems
2.Pharmacokinetics
a.Pharmacokinetics of new drugs
b.Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling
c.Population pharmacokinetics
d.Matabonomics / genomics
3.Therapeutic monitoring
4.Pharmocoeconomics
5.Electronic commerce for pharmacy
6.Software and platform for pharmacy [7]
IT department manager Karin Vercammen said, "It's essential that we offer our customers a secure network environment, first and foremost to safeguard sensitive patient information, but also to keep the total cost of ownership down. Before the WatchGuard architecture was put in place; our helpdesk was almost overrun with workstations clogged up with spyware and adware. Today, these problems are the exception rather than the rule, even though the number of workstations has grown exponentially to over 600. This is exactly why we chose Watch Guard's powerful firewalls [8]." The above excerpt shows the security concern of IT systems for pharmaceutical industry.
According to white paper Scientific Computing World [2003] the pharmaceutical industry has tended to be skeptical about the value of large-scale spending on computing. But in November this year, 250 or more senior executives from many of the sector's largest companies will be travelling to the World Pharma IT Congress in London to find out what their peers - heads of IT, knowledge management, informatics, e-business (or what you will) - are up to. Louisa Carson, conference organizer for Oxford International, said interest in the meeting is strong. 'Pharma needs to catch up with developments in information technology. It has been lagging behind [9].'
According to Bill G. Felkey, BS, MS, Professor, Pharmacy Care Systems, Auburn University, Harrison School of Pharmacy, Auburn, Alabama William Villaume, MA, MDiv, PhD, Associate Professor, Pharmacy Care Systems, Auburn University, Harrison School of Pharmacy, Auburn, Alabama [2004] most technology users employ less than 20% of the capabilities offered by both their hardware and software. This usually holds true whether one is considering personal computers (PCs), personal digital assistants (PDAs), word processors, or especially pharmacy operations management and documentation software. The appropriate use of technology requires a learning curve (usually ranging from a few hours to a few weeks) and many of us are neither patient enough nor committed enough to explore technology beyond that which is necessary to solve our most immediate problems. This means we will learn how to get a label out of the community pharmacy system or enter an order into a hospital system we purchased and then often stop right there. The inventory package to increase profitability or the key performance indicator reports is never discovered. In an everyday application like e-mail, once we learn how to answer emails and open attachments we are satisfied and move on to our next task. Unfortunately, we never learn the features and benefits offered by these and other technologies that will truly maximize our efficiency and effectiveness through their use in our practice [2].
According to Kevin T. Fuji Kimberly A. Galt [2008] Health information technology (HIT) has become a critical tool for pharmacists. The use of HIT is now an integral part of both pharmacy practice and management. Health information technology has been identified as one of the most prominent, contemporary catalysts for improving patient safety and reducing subsequent harm and injury to patients who are receiving health care. Socially, we see a bias toward adoption of HIT based upon the belief that such adoption leads to improved safety overall, often without evidence to support this assumption. Accumulating evidence also suggests that improvements in HIT and how it is used are needed in order to realize many of the potential safety outcomes. We now realize that the relationship between safety and HIT use is dynamic and evolving. A major focus today for pharmacists is to either conduct original research or translate new findings about the adaptation to, adoption of, and assessment of subsequent outcomes that result from HIT use in patient care [3].
According to Professor Nick Barber BPharm PhD MRPharmS FRSM and Dr Carl Martin PhD
What do these findings mean for the future of IT in community pharmacy? First, we must give caveat - that this was a small study of enthusiasts who were independents or part of a small chain; additional issues may well have emerged if a different sample had been taken or if the project had been continued for longer. Having said that, important and unexpected issues have occurred. We have shown that IT can, at least for some pharmacists, ameliorate problems of isolation, perceived lack of clinical knowledge, and self confidence. What is more, it seems to allow them to offer a better service to patients, making them more informed and, therefore, making them more autonomous. Wider communication generally failed, usually because those being communicated with were not at the same stage of IT development. At present there is a chance for CPs to influence the IT strategy in Primary Care Groups; however CPs prior beliefs may not allow them to achieve this [4].
In order for these benefits to be realized, several issues need to be addressed:
•There is a need for IT that supports the pharmacist in their functions, such as an adaptation of the Healix system. Computerized databases may require more development of the human-computer interface before they will be widely used. Support for business functions should be included to make the package attractive to CPs.
•IT suppliers and service providers must offer a consistent, high level of service, as problems in this area discourage users.
•There is a widespread need for training and continued awareness in this rapidly changing field. It is important that guidance is there from the most basic level upwards. As IT moves rapidly there may be a role for regular updating, such as articles in The Pharmaceutical Journal giving guidance on techniques and internet sites. The RPSGB may wish to develop its web site to help these functions.
•The issue of location may be limiting; IT suppliers should be encouraged to develop innovative solutions to this problem. The final issue is when to adopt IT. This was summed up for us by one of the participants in the final focus group: 'we need to think of the future ahead, when computer labeling came in some of the profession was reluctant to take it on board, we must not hold back this time or we may not take the full opportunity on offer' [4]
According to Robert M Balen, PharmD1 and Peter J Jewesson Most pharmacists believed they needed to upgrade their computer skills. Medical database and Internet searching skills were identified as those in greatest need of improvement for the purposes of improving practice effectiveness [5].
As per Grant H. Skrepnek; Edward P. Armstrong; Daniel C. Malone; Jacob Abarca; John E. Murphy; Amy J. Grizzle; Rick A. Rehfeld; Raymond L. Woosley [2006] The impact of information technology and automation on pharmacy practice has been discussed frequently in the literature. Numerous authors have stressed the need for practitioners to consider using information or automation technologies within community practice settings, emphasizing the potential to capitalize upon opportunities to increase counseling time or patient care services. Reports have indicated that improvements in medication error rates, employee utilization, inventory control, customer service, and cost may be afforded through the use of information technology and automation. However, a large resource commitment is often required to purchase and implement such innovations, and the benefits of these advances do not always justify the time and money involved. Given the potential for technology to have a profound effect upon the work environment, researchers have studied the changes in work-related activities following the implementation of new technologies in pharmacy practice [6].
According to John Klimek [2009] HER (Electronic Health Record) use plays a significant part in defining the role of the pharmacist in the 21st century. Traditionally, pharmacists have had very little to go on in assessing a particular disease state that a physician is treating. The growing use of EHRs specifically and the exchange of electronic data generally will give both physicians and pharmacists a unified view of the complete patient profile and enable pharmacists to provide greater assistance to physicians and patients in all care settings[13].
Legislative Framework Pertaining To Manufacture and Sale of Drugs in India
In the early 1990s, the drug industry in India was negligible and used to import drugs from other countries. Later the Indian government understood the situation and decided to introduce laws related to drug manufacturing and distribution. Gradually it ensured that industry is growing faster and introduced many other laws that govern the industry. At present in India the following acts and rules are present to control the manufacture, import, export and clinical research of medicines and cosmetics in India [13].
Regulatory Framework-Drugs Sector
Under the current Indian legal and regulatory regime, the manufacture, sale, import, exports and clinical research of drugs and cosmetics is governed by the following laws:-
•The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940
•The Pharmacy Act, 1948
•The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954
•The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985
•The Medicinal and Toilet Preparations (Excise Duties) Act, 1956
•The Drugs (Prices Control) Order 1995 (under the Essential Commodities Act.
There are some other laws which have a bearing on the manufacture, distribution and sale of pharmaceutical products in India. The important ones being:
•The Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951
•The Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958.
•The Indian Patent and Design Act, 1970
•The Factories Act.
The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 is legislation brought in force to protect consumers interests. Provisions under this Act include punishments & fines for misbranding drugs, confiscating of such drugs (sec 14), prevention of the import of such drugs (sec10) etc. It prohibits the sale of such drugs under section 18. It also provides for the setting up of Central Drugs Laboratory for testing batches of drugs. The Act also prescribes strict standards that are to be followed by drug manufacturers and importers. It also clearly defines a misbranded drug under section 17. Section 13 clearly states that whoever contravenes any part of this Act will be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or with both. If convicted again of the same offence then, in addition he shall be punishable with imprisonment, which may extend to two years, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both [14].
The responsibilities of the Pharmaceutical wholesaler •Pharmaceutical wholesalers provide distribution and stock holding functions.
•And for customers the products should be provided according to their daily requirements. So that avoiding customers having large stock.
•Retails pharmacists and dispensing doctors have to keep normal working medicine stock.
•The wholesalers have to efficiently supply on a daily basis or even within a shorter period after receiving the orders from their customers.
•Full line wholesalers can stock and sell a full range of pharmaceuticals.
•But Short line wholesalers should sell only fast moving products; they should not contain all the products stock.
•They can import these products from manufacturers or foreign wholesalers.
•According to the estimations of National Association of Pharmaceutical distributors (NAPD) almost 65% of supply is done by pharmaceutical wholesalers. And 25% of supply is done by manufacturers directly, and the remaining 10% is done by short line wholesalers. These products supply may fluctuate depending on the volume of parallel products.
•In addition to medications the pharmaceutical wholesalers also supply health related goods, but this proportion is very less in their profit.
•A pharmacist must also maintain stocks of very less demanded products.
•In UK the majority of wholesalers provide Monday to Friday, twice daily to the pharmacies they serve.
•And the important point here is around two third of the orders are placed through computer terminals and the remaining by telephone.
•Generally pharmacists place their orders before lunch time, with delivery during afternoon.
•To provide an effective service to the patient, the pharmaceutical wholesaler provide a wide range of products nearly 10000 items , twice daily.
•For the meet the quick demands in addition to normal supply there will be usually an emergency service.
•And other information provided by pharmaceutical wholesalers is providing technical information on matters relating to drugs they supply their specialization, marketing services, financial support and in-pharmacy computers.
Regulation of the pharmaceutical market
The department of health will control the pharmaceutical wholesale market. In addition to this two types of control which have an effect and the market. These are
•Wholesale dealers license
•And Pharmaceutical price regulation scheme.
Wholesale Dealers License
Under the medicine act 1968 and regulations made under that act, all wholesalers of ethical pharmaceuticals have to be licensed by the Department of Health. For these particular considerations will be taken into account such as storage space available for products, arrangements made for securing the sage products etc.
Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme
All pharmaceuticals are prescribed to the patient under the scheme of National Health Service (NHS) which bears the most of the cost. And PPRS is intended to prevent the pharmaceutical companies earning excessive profits. PPRS can decide the discount on some products depending on the usage of patient.
Pharmacy Checker.com [15] facilitates verifying drug prices online. It independently checks the credentials of online pharmacies and lets you easily compare drug prices. Its online pharmacy verification program is the largest and most accepted -- referenced by AARP Magazine, Smart Money, and Consumer Reports. Google, Yahoo! and MSN require PharmacyChecker.com verification of their online pharmacy advertisers.
Benefits and Risks:
Using an online or mail-order pharmacy (referred to below as online pharmacy) can save you a great deal of money and provide other benefits. However, there are also potential risks [15].
Benefits: •Lower prices — Lower drug prices in other countries, lower overhead costs compared to bricks and mortar pharmacies, and lower price mark-ups by discount and wholesale pharmacies often result in savings compared to local pharmacy prices. You can quickly shop around for the lowest prices online. Click here to compare prices across verified online pharmacies.
•Privacy/Anonymity — you may feel more comfortable purchasing or asking questions online (or by fax or phone) regarding certain medications. However, privacy can be compromised if an online pharmacy uses your information for unauthorized purposes so it is important that the online pharmacy has an appropriate privacy policy; this is one of the things that PharmacyChecker.com checks for you.
•Convenience — If you find it physically difficult to make it to the pharmacy, live in a remote rural area, or have a very busy schedule, online and mail-order pharmacies enable you to avoid travel and can save you time. Many online pharmacies will also remind you when you can order a refill to help you maintain your regimen.
•Medical information — some online pharmacies provide useful information about medications and diseases as well as links to medical resources such as universities, government agencies, and health associations.
Risks: •Some online pharmacies do not dispense drugs through licensed pharmacies.
•It is essential that you use pharmacies that are licensed. Licensed pharmacies require safe dispensing practices and the oversight of licensed pharmacies.
•Purchasing drugs from an unlicensed pharmacy greatly increases your chances of buying counterfeit and/or substandard products. PharmacyChecker.com verifies that a site is, or fills orders with, a licensed pharmacy.
•Some online pharmacies do not adequately protect your personal and financial information. It's important for an online pharmacy to include a privacy policy, one that promises not to share your personal information with third parties. Online financial transactions should be secured by the online pharmacy through adequate use of encryption technology.
•PharmacyChecker.com verifies whether privacy is promised and transmittal of financial information is secured.
•Some online pharmacies do not give their address and/or telephone number. If in the course of purchasing drugs from an online pharmacy you have a problem, question, or complaint, then it becomes very important to contact the company using its telephone number or address. Also, studies have shown that online pharmacies that do not publish adequate contact information are more likely to sell counterfeit products.
•PharmacyChecker.com verifies contact information and provides it in the Profile of each online pharmacy listed on this site.
•Additional fees are typically added to the drug price. There is almost always a shipping fee and there may also be a medical fee, order fees, and/or an account set up fee. PharmacyChecker.com shows you these fees and compares total costs.
•Prices can change quickly. Online pharmacies are continually changing their prices. Lowball prices are common in order to attract new customers, but these prices don't always last. PharmacyChecker.com regularly updates all prices.
•Some online pharmacies don't adequately safeguard your health. By failing to require a prescription, some online pharmacies might send you medication that could be dangerous to you. PharmacyChecker.com verifies that online pharmacies require a prescription.
•Some online pharmacies may sell medications that can be extremely dangerous, if not taken under medical supervision. In the U.S., these drugs are known as controlled substances, such as Hydrocodone, valium, or xanax. You should never order from a website offering to sell you controlled substances without a prescription or to write you a prescription for them based on your responses to an online questionnaire. Other drugs, known as restricted distribution drugs, such as such as accutane, mifeprex or thalomidare, while not controlled substances, are also very dangerous if taken without the appropriate medical supervision [5].
Types of Online and Mail-order Pharmacies:
Online pharmacies, also called Internet pharmacies, are businesses that sell and market prescription drugs and other pharmacy products over the Internet and send them to consumers by mail [15].
PharmacyChecker.com estimates that there are 300-400 U.S., Canadian and other legitimate online pharmacies that market and sell their products throughout the United States. These are licensed pharmacies and their affiliates that accept prescription orders online and require a valid prescription from the customer.
Prescription Requirements [15]
Online pharmacies fall into different categories based on their prescription requirements:
1.Traditional (Rx based on in-person examination)
2.Remote Consultation (Rx based on an online or phone consultation)
3.None (Rx not required to order prescription medication. These are "rogue" sites)
Traditional Online Pharmacies
Most legitimate online pharmacies require you to provide your original prescription -- the one obtained from an in-person examination with your doctor. Prices at online pharmacies that have a traditional prescription requirement are often lower than at online pharmacies that offer or accept prescriptions based on remote consultations (as described below) or that require no prescription at all. Pharmacies in this category include major national chains, neighborhood pharmacies in the U.S. and Canada, and large mail-order prescription fulfillment centers. Most pharmacies with a traditional prescription requirement carry the full stock of prescription drugs you would find in your neighborhood pharmacy [15].
Remote Consultation Online Pharmacies
Some consumers wish to purchase prescription drugs without having to visit their physicians to obtain a prescription. There are online pharmacies, generally known as online consultation pharmacies, remote consulting pharmacies, or prescribing pharmacies, that work with physicians who review a patient's self-reported medical history and then write a prescription if deemed appropriate. Often this is done for medications referred to as "Lifestyle" drugs that are non-addictive and less likely to require physician monitoring [15].
Range of Medications Sold By Online Pharmacies
Not all online pharmacies sell the broad range of prescription drugs that you would expect to find in your neighborhood pharmacy. The product range of online pharmacies typically falls into one of the following categories [15]:
•"Full" range of medication, including prescription and over-the-counter products, as well as testing supplies and other health and beauty products just as you would find in a large pharmacy.
•"Over 500 drugs" includes almost all prescription medication sold at your neighborhood pharmacy.
•"Between 250-499 drugs" covering those medications representing the majority of prescription sales.
•"Popular" medications, the 10 to 50 top-selling prescription drugs.
•"Lifestyle" medications, such as those used for sexual enhancement, hair growth, contraception, weight loss, herpes, and smoking cessation.
•"Specialized" medications for a single purpose, such as for pain, or specific medical conditions
I visited many existing web sites of businesses related to pharmaceutical and others associated to healthcare domain. I have observed the way the following websites are developed and their features.
1.Durgesh Enterprises [16] has been into manufacturing and supplying healthcare material. It is supplying measuring products, surgical products, dropper, rubber teats etc. However, it is not selling products online. It has provided an enquiry form that facilitates online users to communicate with manufacturers.
2.Globat Distributors [17] is a company whose primary business type is "merchant exporter and trader". They supply ayurvedic herbals and allopathic medicines and other products. This site has provisions to select required items and enquire about those products. There is not provision given for taking online orders.
3.RSM Enterprises [18] is a company whose nature of business is Merchant Exporters, Traders, Whole Seller Supplier & Services Provider. Its products include Pharma Tablets includes Finasteride Tablets, Dapoxetine Tablets, Sertraline Tablets, Sildenafil Citrate Tablets, Tadalafil Sublingual Tablets, Valacyclovir Hydrochloride Tablets and Vardenafil Tablets and so on. In this site too, we can't find online ordering. However, it provides an enquiry form for the visitors.
4.J.P. Biotech [19] is the company engaged in the supply and trading of all types of medicines and allopathic drugs. It is well known that the medical sector is intricately related to the lives of the patients. It also deals in wholesale allopathic medicines. There is an enquiry form only to get some data from customers online. No provision of online sales or order processing is given.
5.Jaishree Medical Stores [20] is a company that supplies the best quality medical equipments and allopathic medicines. The anti infective medicine is tested under various conditions to prove their reliability and effectuality. The medical surgery equipment offered by us is manufactured by well-known manufacturers and is fully sterilized so as to eliminate the risk of infection during the treatment. It also simply provides an enquiry form to bedizens.
6.M/S Empire Pharma [21] is engaged in manufacturing and exporting a wide variety of Generic Pharmaceuticals. Combining profound knowledge with advanced manufacturing practices, we bring forth an effective solution of various diseases. Prepared from the effectual base materials in WHO-approved Plants, our pharmaceutical products are 100 % result oriented. Safe for all age group, our pharmaceutical products are free from any kind of toxic chemical. It also provides an enquiry form only to get requirements of its customers and public in general.
7.Ambe Medical Group [22] is into pharmaceutical wholesale business. Its web application is providing a shopping cart where customers can choose products online and place orders. After choosing items, it takes customer details and shipping information that helps in delivering products.
8.Boots [23] is the UK's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer. Boots is a member of Alliance Boots, an international pharmacy-led health and beauty group. It is providing healthcare products and services to its customers. It has online shopping facility in its web site. Through this web site, its customers can place orders online. It is providing healthcare services as well as beauty related services to its customers online.
9.Lloyds Pharmacy [24] is a company that provides online doctor, medicines, healthcare services etc. It is providing online ordering facility that allows the citizens to place orders through this site and get the goods based on the requirements. However, it serves only UK people online. It says that it serves only UK people in case of order processing related pharmaceuticals and related services.
Research Methodology研究方法
For the Pharmaceutical wholesalers to sell the medicines in bulk quantity customers should have drug licence number (DL No). It is really difficult to store all the data manually and check it at the time of the order. Software is helpful to make the orders easier, quicker and for improving the customer service. The information is gathered from some wholesale pharmaceutical dealers to develop software.
Some of the representatives that has been contact
•PADMA AGENCIES
•KRANTI DISTRIBUTERS
•ASHISH PHARMA
•MAHESH AGENCY
After interacting with the representatives and employees of the wholesale pharmaceutical dealers, I came to know the billing, stock maintenance, orders and customers details etc.,
This is the most important phase to build a system. Failure of gathering right requirements may leads to collapse the entire system. So a single biggest requirement of a project may lead project failure also.
For gathering requirements I approached the clients and followed the fact finding techniques given below to analyze the present system and understand the need for proposed system.
1.Phone Interviews
2.Questionnaires
3.Inspecting system inputs and outputs
In this step first we analyzed manual functionalities of the system. We understood the problems and limitations of the manual system. We understood actual functional requirements of the proposed system.
More Details from clients •No data base is used to maintain the stock.
•There are different types of products and number of companies.
•The company salesmen (i.e., P&G, Dabour, Himalaya, etc) come to the shop and check the quantity with help of staff member and place an order for stock to them by guessing the quantity.
•Expiry and damage stock will be replaced by company, if the staff can find it and hand over to company.
•Some products (i.e., summer products, rainy products, winter products) maintain heavy stock by their seasons and demanding products.
Payments •All the payments done by cash and cheques on company name.
•If shop had a credit to particular company the M.D doesn't receive original receipt.
•The shop keeper get the original bill after he clear the payment, up to they had a duplicate.
Customer Placing Order •Customer visit with order form
•Customer can order by phone.
Delivery •Pickup the order forms from customers and serve the items to customer, after calculating manually and payment
•Taking the order from phone and packed in a handled care boxes and delivery by using transport facility.
Payment Methods
These shops accept by cash, cheques and D.D only.
Selling
•The goods are sale only who have a drug license No(i.e., only for Retail Pharmaceuticals)
•Every product had a price on them i.e., called maximum retail price (M.R.P.).
Present Mode of Operation現行運作模式
They are selling all the products by whole sale price, now the present system is totally manually i.e. billing on a paper and calculating with calculators, stock maintenance is just by guessing. Price checking is maintain in a book and items are 6000-8000 different types of items they maintaining.
The present system is manual and has the following drawbacks.
•Is a semi-automated at where the information is stored in the form of excel sheets in disk drives.
•The information storage and maintenance is more critical in this system.
•Tracking the salesman activities, customer activities and progress of the work is a complex operation.
•Existing system cannot provide the facility of accepting cheques.
•Very less security because of file systems.
•Very less customer satisfaction as quality of service is less.
•Time consuming process because of manual report generation.
•Management of stocks may not be accurate.
•Prediction of drugs demand, based on seasons is complex.
Requirements and Design需求與設計
Requirement Specification
Is a complete plan to solve the problems of software which provides complete process to build good software. In this we designed a hierarchy for each functional requirement decomposed into pieces of hierarchal step wise statements with more detail. Example, for pharmacy billing when the system is started, it should authenticate user before providing its functionalities
•The output bill should appear as containing the shop name, address, phone number and drug license no.
•It contains which system time, date, receipt, quantity, product name price per single and total price quantity, and the end grand total for all products , if vat is applicable then vat summary.
Once the functionalities of Pharmacy system are classified then we grouped the related functionalities as a module, in this totally we got 3 modules, like
1.Stock Maintenance
2.Ordering
3.Billing.
4.Reports
After this we designed software architecture to develop this system, because based on schedule, cost, and quality the software architecture returns highest returns on investments.
In this project I'm going to use 2- tier architecture to build the system.
In our project I'm going to use Java Swing API to develop GUI based user interfacing to interact with the system. Back end database is Oracle 10G. In the back end database we are going to maintain billing information, Order Details and customer information, Stock details information and payment details (cash/ cheque..Etc).
To interact with the back end data base system, from GUI interface we need JDBC API to perform database relevant query operations towards the underlying database.
In this software design we considered many aspects according to our project. Compatibility of backend and platforms, designing software etc, Extensibility we ensure the system design even to add new enhancements in future like to make as web based system. The coding is to be developed in such as way that it can be used with either GUI application or web based application. It does mean that coding part remain same no matter what user interface we use.
I design the system with required security. Only authenticated users can access the system. I'm going to have different roles in this system. Admin role and Employee role.
Approach And Methodology
The model that is basically being followed is the WATER FALL MODEL, which states that the phases are organized in a linear order. First of all the feasibility study is done. Once that part is over the requirement analysis and project planning begins. If system exists one and modification and addition of new module is needed, analysis of present system can be used as basic model.
The design starts after the requirement analysis is complete and the coding begins after the design is complete. Once the programming is completed, the testing is done. In this model the sequence of activities performed in a software development project are: -
•Requirement Analysis
•Project Planning
•System design
•Detail design
•Coding
•Unit testing
•System integration & testing
Here the linear ordering of these activities is critical. End of the phase and the output of one phase is the input of other phase. The output of each phase is to be consistent with the overall requirement of the system. Some of the qualities of spiral model are also incorporated like after the people concerned with the project review completion of each of the phase the work done.
WATER FALL MODEL was being chosen because all requirements were known beforehand and the objective of our software development is the computerization/automation of an already existing manual working system.
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: •Pentium-IV Processor
•RAM 128 MB
•HDD 20 GB Hard Disk Space
•Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor.
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS: •WINDOWS XP or Linux
•Jdk1.5 Software
•Oracle10g.
•Jar files related to Jdbc Type-IV Driver(ojdbc14.jar)
Software Description
爪哇島的簡介-INTRODUCTION TO JAVA
About Java:
Initially the language was called as "oak" but it was renamed as "java" in 1995.The main usage of this language is to develop platform-independent applications. That could be executed in any machine irrespective of their system configurations and Operating Systems.
•Java is pure object Orineted Programming language
•Java is platform independent and robust language.
•Java is Multithreaded programming language
Java can also be embedded into the Hardware devices by using J2ME API. (Java 2 Micro Edition).
Finally Java is to Internet Programming where c was to Procedure Oriented Programming.
Importance of Java to the Internet
Java has had a profound effect on the Internet. This is because; java expands the Universe of objects that can move about freely in Cyberspace. In a network, two categories of objects are transmitted between the server and the personal computer. They are passive information and Dynamic active programs. in the areas of Security and probability. But Java addresses these concerns and by doing so, has opened the door to an exciting new form of program called the Applet.
Java Architecture
Java architecture consists of pc compiler, mactonish compiler, SPARC compiler they provide high performing environment for development of applications. Java achives platform independency by genarationg the class files. These class files can converted to machine code by the intrepreters. From java2 there will be a JIT compiler (Just In Time Compiler) which improves the performance of program execution. JVM contains class loders which can load the class files. JRE (Java Runtime Environment) provides the Environment to execute Java programs.
Compilation of code
Java Softwares might be different for different Operating Systems. The JVM is supposed to executed the byte code. Java Virtual Machine. is the machine which compiles code for one machine and interpreted on all machines.
Simple:
Java was User friendly programming Language easy to learn and develop applications effectively. If any one is having experience or good knowledge on C++ then learning Java will be more easy for them. Learning Java is nothing but learing the Object Orineted features of C++. Most of the Concepts of C++ which are confusing are removed in Java. And implemented in a good and Efficient manner.
Object oriented
Java is pure object oriented programming language. Java cannot be compared with any other programming language. In the real sence java is not pure object oriented programming language because of primitive data types. That is why the wrapper classes were introduced to make java as pure Object oriented programming language. The Java object model is simple and easy to extend. Java provides the concept of packages which contains the buitin classes and interfaces which are very useful to develop applications.
Robust
The multi-platform environment of the web places extraordinary demands on a program, because the program must execute reliably in a variety of systems. The ability to create robust programs. Was given a high priority in the design of Java. Java is strictly typed language; it checks your code at compile time and runtime.
Java virtually eliminates the problems of memory management and deal location, which is completely automatic. In a well-written Java program, all run-time errors can and should be managed by your program.
Garbage Collection
One of the difficult jobs of C++ is GarbageCollection. In java Garbage collection is done for free whenever the Objects are no longer referenced. There is no need of calling delete command which is there in C++.
Java Swings
Swing, provide improved components that enhance the look and functionality of GUIs. Swing can be used to develop Standalone swing GUI Applications. It is developed on model/view design architecture. Swing's are platform independent where as AWT's are platform dependent because they use some native libraries to develop the GUI.
In Swing Model/view design,the "view part" is implemented with a component object and the UI object. Where as "model part" is implemented by a model object and a change listener object.
Swing is not the replacement for AWT(Abstract window tool Kit). Swing is built on top of AWT and is completely written in Java, using AWT's lightweight component support. The Swing components can customize both their appearance and behavior with their architecture. Components from AWT and Swing can be mixed, AWTs allow us to add swing components. For example, swing components like JButton JTextField and JCheckbox could be used with standard AWT labels, textfields and scrollbars programs. You could subclass the existing Swing UI, model, or change listener classes without having to reinvent the entire implementation. Swing can have the capability of replacing these objects dynamically.
In Swing's GUI components that represents classes have their names beginning with the letter J. for Ex: JButton, JLabel, and JSlider. This swings Api is twice the size of AWT Api.
Java Swing class hierarchy
The classJComponent, is the main class for most of Swing's user interface components.
Java Swing Components: •JPanel: Itis the Swing's version of AWT Panel that uses the same default layout, FlowLayout. JPanel is inherited directly from JComponent.
•JFrame:It is Swing's version of Frame. The components which are added to the frame can be called as its contents. These components were managed by the contentPane. To add a component to a JFrame, we must use its contentPane instead.
•JInternalFrame: It is confined to a visible area of a container it is placed in. It can be layered, maximized ,iconified.
•JWIndow: It is Swing's version of Window. It uses BorderLayout by default.
•JDialog: It is Swing's version of Dialog and is inherited directly from that class. It also uses BorderLayout by default. Similar to JFrame, JWindow, JDialog contains a rootPane hierarchy including a contentPane, and it allows layered and glass panes. All dialogs are modal, which means the current thread is blocked until user interaction with it has been completed. JDialog class is intended as the basis for creating custom dialogs.
•Jlabel: Inherited from JComponent, It is used to create text labels.
•JButton: The abstract class AbstractButton extends class JComponent and provides a foundation for a family of button classes.
•JTextField:Allows user to give input values, editing of a single line of text. New features include the ability to justify the text left, right, or center, and to set the text's font.
•JpasswordField:A direct subclass of JtextField. This can suppress the display of input. Each character entered can be replaced by an echo character.
This is used to keep the data confidential. Mainly used for passwords, By default, the echo character is the asterisk, *.
•JtextArea: Allows for entering multiple rows of text. JTextArea can be used in conjunction with class JScrollPane to achieve scrolling. Mainly used for entering address data. JscrollPanes can be used if necessary in the TextFields.
•JRadioButton: It is similar to JCheckbox, except for the default icon for each class. A set of radio buttons can be associated as a group in which only
•one button at a time can be selected.
•JCheckBox: It is not a member of a checkbox group. A checkbox can be selected and deselected, and it also displays its current state.
•JComboBox: It is like a drop down list. You can click on the drop-down arrow and select an item from a list. It is mainly used to take country as input value. Then one has to use this ComboBox.
•Jlist: Itprovides a scrollable set of items from which one or more may be selected. JList can be inhabitaed from an Array or Vector. JList does not
•support scrolling directly, unless it must be associated with a scrollpane. JList actions are handled using ListSelectionListener.
•JTabbedPane: It contains a tab that can have a tool tip and a mnemonic, and it can display both text and image.
•JToolbar: It is similar to standard tool bar of MsOffice. It contains a number of components which is similar to some kind of button which can also include separators to group same components together within the toolbar.
•FlowLayout: It arranges swing components from left to right until there's no more space available. Then it begins a new row below it and moves from left to right again.
•BorderLayout: It places swing components in the North, South, East, West and center of a container. You can add horizontal and vertical gaps between the areas.
•GridLayout: It is a layout manager that places container's components in a rectangular grid. The container is divided into equal-sized rectangles, and one component is placed per rectangle.
•GridBagLayout: It is a layout manager that lays out a container's components in a grid of cells with each component occupying one or more cells, called its display area. The display area aligns components vertically and horizontally, without requiring that the components be of the same size.
•JMenubar: It can contain several JMenu's. Each of the JMenu's can contain a series of JMenuItem's that you can select. Swing provides support for pull-down and popup menus.
JDBC
What is JDBC?什么是JDBC？
Any relational database. One can write a single program using the JDBC API,and the JDBC is a Java Api for executing SQL,Statements(As a point of interest JDBC is trademarked name and is not an acronym; nevertheless,Jdbc is often thought of as standing for Java Database Connectivity. It consists of a set of classes and interfaces written in the Java Programming language.JDBC provides a standard API for tool/database developers and makes it possible to write database applications using a pure Java API
Using JDBC, it is easy to send SQL statements to virtually program will be able to send SQL .statements to the appropriate database. The Combination of Java and JDBC lets a programmer writes it once and run it anywhere.
What Does JDBC Do?
•Establish a connection with a database
•Send SQL statements
•Process the results
•JDBC Driver Types
•The JDBC drivers that we are aware of this time fit into one of four categories
•JDBC-ODBC Bridge plus ODBC driver
•Native-API party-java driver
•JDBC-Net pure java driver
•Native-protocol pure Java driver
An individual database system is accessed via a specific JDBC driver that implements the java.sql.Driver interface. Drivers exist for nearly all-popular RDBMS systems, through few are available for free. Sun bundles a free JDBC-ODBC bridge driver with the JDK to allow access to a standard ODBC,data sources, such as a Microsoft Access database, Sun advises against using the bridge driver for anything other than development and very limited development.
JDBC drivers are available for most database platforms, from a number of vendors and in a number of different flavours. There are four driver categories
JDBC Drivers
Type 01-JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver
Type 01 drivers use a bridge technology to connect a java client to an ODBC database service. Sun's JDBC-ODBC bridge is the most common type 01 driver. These drivers implemented using native code.
Type 02-Native-API party-java Driver
Type 02 drivers wrap a thin layer of java around database-specific native code libraries for Oracle databases, the native code libraries might be based on the OCI(Oracle call Interface) libraries, which were originally designed for c/c++ programmers, Because type-02 drivers are implemented using native code. in some cases they have better performance than their all-java counter parts. They add an element of risk, however, because a defect in a driver's native code section can crash the entire server
Type 03-Net-Protocol All-Java Driver
Type 03 drivers communicate via a generic network protocol to a piece of custom middleware. The middleware component might use any type of driver to provide the actual database access. These drivers are all java, which makes them useful for applet deployment and safe for servlet deployment
Type-04-native-protocol All-java Driver
Type o4 drivers are the most direct of the lot. Written entirely in java, Type 04 drivers understand database-specific networking. protocols and can access the database directly without any additional software
JDBC-ODBC Bridge
If possible use a Pure Java JDBC driver instead of the Bridge and an ODBC driver. This completely eliminates the client configuration required by ODBC.It also eliminates the potential that the Java VM could be corrupted by an error in the native code brought in by the Bridge(that is, the Bridge native library, the ODBC driver manager library, library, the ODBC driver library, and the database client library)
WHAT IS The JDBC-ODBE Bridge ?
The JDBC-ODBC Bridge is a Jdbc driver, which implements JDBC operations by translating them into ODBC operations. To ODBC it appears as a normal application program. The Bridge is implemented as the sun.jdbc.odbc Java package and contains a native library used to access ODBC.The Bridge is joint development of Intersolv and Java Soft
Oracle
Oracle is a relational database management system, which organizes data in the form of tables. Oracle is one of many database servers based on RDBMS model, which manages a seer of data that attends three specific things-data structures, data integrity and data manipulation.
With oracle cooperative server technology we can realize the benefits of open, relational systems for all the applications. Oracle makes efficient use of all systems resources, on all hardware architecture; to deliver unmatched performance, price performance and scalability. Any DBMS to be called as RDBMS has to satisfy Dr.E.F.Codd's rules.
Features of Oracle:
Portable
The Oracle RDBMS is available on wide range of platforms ranging from PCs to super computers and as a multi user loadable module for Novel NetWare, if you develop application on system you can run the same application on other systems without any modifications.
Compatible
Oracle commands can be used for communicating with IBM DB2 mainframe RDBMS that is different from Oracle, which is Oracle compatible with DB2. Oracle RDBMS is a high performance fault tolerant DBMS, which is specially designed for online transaction processing and for handling large database applications.
Multithreaded Server Architecture
Oracle adaptable multithreaded server architecture delivers scalable high performance for very large number of users on all hardware architecture including symmetric multiprocessors (sumps) and loosely coupled multiprocessors. Performance is achieved by eliminating CPU, I/O, memory and operating system bottlenecks and by optimizing the Oracle DBMS server code to eliminate all internal bottlenecks.
Oracle has become the most popular RDBMS in the market because of its ease of use
•Client/server architecture.
•Data independence.
•Ensuring data integrity and data security.
•Managing data concurrency.
•Parallel processing support for speed up data entry and online transaction processing used for applications.
•DB procedures, functions and packages.
Dr.E.F.Codd's Rules
These rules are used for valuating a product to be called as relational database management systems. Out of 12 rules, a RDBMS product should satisfy at least 8 rules + rule called rule 0 that must be satisfied.
RULE 0: Foundation Rule
For any system to be advertised as, or claimed to be relational DBMS should manage database with in it self, with out using an external language.
RULE 1: Information Rule
All information in relational database is represented at logical level in only one way as values in tables.
RULE 2: Guaranteed Access
Each and every data in a relational database is guaranteed to be logically accessibility by using to a combination of table name, primary key value and column name.
RULE 3: Systematic Treatment of Null Values
Null values are supported for representing missing information and inapplicable information. They must be handled in systematic way, independent of data types.
RULE 4: Dynamic Online Catalog based Relation Model
The database description is represented at the logical level in the same way as ordinary data so that authorized users can apply the same relational language to its interrogation as they do to the regular data.
RULE 5: Comprehensive Data Sub Language
A relational system may support several languages and various models of terminal use. However there must be one language whose statement can express all of the following:
Data Definitions, View Definitions, Data Manipulations, Integrity, Constraints, Authorization and transaction boundaries.
RULE 6: View Updating
Any view that is theoretical can be updatable if changes can be made to the tables that effect the desired changes in the view.
RULE 7: High level Update, Insert and Delete
The capability of handling a base relational or derived relational as a single operand applies not only retrieval of data also to its insertion, updating, and deletion.
RULE 8: Physical Data Independence
Application program and terminal activities remain logically unimpaired whenever any changes are made in either storage representation or access method.
RULE 9: Logical Data Independence
Application programs and terminal activities remain logically unimpaired whenever any changes are made in either storage representation or access methods.
RULE 10: Integrity Independence
Integrity constraints specific to particular database must be definable in the relational data stored in the catalog, not in application program.
RULE 11: Distributed Independence
Whether or not a system supports database distribution, it must have a data sub-language that can support distributed databases without changing the application program.
RULE 12: Non Sub-Version
If a relational system has low level language, that low language cannot use to subversion or by pass the integrity rules and constraints expressed in the higher level relational language.
Oracle supports the following Codd's Rules •Rule 1: Information Rule (Representation of information)-YES.
•Rule 2: Guaranteed Access-YES.
•Rule 3: Systematic treatment of Null values-YES.
•Rule 4: Dynamic on-line catalog-based Relational Mo
