Page 1 of 4

Application of computer in pharmacy:

If I claim that there is no field in the world where the computer is not used, would not be wrong.
In the same manner the computer has a lot of uses and application in the field of pharmacy.
These applications are increasing day by day due to the advancement of the computer
technologies.
The following are the main applications of computer in pharmacy:

Role of computer in clinical pharmacy:

1. Patient profile.
2. Patient record management
3. Entries of medication order
4. Drug therapy monitoring and problem detection
5. Recording and screening of drug – drug interaction and ADR’s
6. Inventory control
7. Medical research

Patient profile:
• Patient profile generally consist of:
o Patient name
o Age
o Gander
o Mobile no.
o Marital status
o Address
• Pharmacist can update the patient profile whenever a new prescription is filled.
• Similarly if new symptoms are observed, it can be added, e.g. allergy, etc.

Patient record management:

• The clinical computer system must assure that the patient record database is continuously
updated to reflect the current status of all patients. It includes the patients recently
admitted, discharged or transferred.
• Similarly it may also include present diagnosis, allergies, weight, and height of the
patients.
• This record is managed by the pharmacist on regular basis easily through computer.

Entries of medication order:

• Medication orders should be entered regularly. The pharmacist must be able to check the
medication order before administration to the patient.
Page 2 of 4
• The medication order include the following things:
▪ Drug name
▪ Drugs generic name and strength
▪ Route of administration
▪ Drug schedule

Drugs interaction:
Computer system can automatically warns about potentially dangerous drug – drug interactions,
drug – food interaction, etc. This helps the pharmacist to note it easily and refer to the doctor.

Inventory record and control:

Inventory means “making detail list of property”.
• For annual auditing of pharmacy department, records of numerous items are required.
• They can be easily obtained by the computer database records.

• Inventory control means when a product is added to the stock or removed from the stock,
the computer system will be updated automatically.

Medical research:
Computer system can be used for medical research in two ways:
• Computerized testing equipments (blood chemistry analyzer, Ultrasound scanners, CT
scanner).
• Collecting the data from the computer system for statistical analysis and research
purpose.

Advantages of computer in clinical pharmacy:

• Reduced book keeping.
• Fewer Medication errors.
• Lowering cost in preparing bills.
• Reduce drug – drug interactions.
• Improved managing reports.
• Improved inventory management.

Role of computer in Community pharmacy:

1. Prescription processing:
Prescription can be easily processed with the help of computer software. Prescription
processing include the checking of name of drugs, their quantities, various
incompatibilities like drug – drug interaction, their pricing, etc. For example: there are
Page 3 of 4
softwares which screens for drug – drug interactions. Similarly they also automatically
calculate the price as well as discount over the product. So computer make the
prescription processing very much easy.

2. Inventory control:
Computer software make this job very much easy in pharmacy, that how much of the
drugs were sold, how much is remaining, how much drug should be purchased for the
pharmacy.
All these thing are just one click away from the pharmacist.

3. Accounting:
Accounting can be done easily, because all the list are already stored in the community
pharmacy computer. By processing that, we can calculate easily that the pharmacy is
going in loss or profit.

4. Research:
A lot of data can be collected through community pharmacy computer. This statistical
data can be use used for research purpose.
• For example: Which kind of disease is common in a particular area.
• Common causes of diseases in that area.
• Genetic problems can be detected.

Role of computer in Hospital pharmacy:

The department or services in a hospital which is under the directions of a professionally
competent (well qualified), legally qualified pharmacist and from;
• Where all medications are supplied to the nursing units and other services.
• Where special prescriptions are filled for ambulatory patients (emergency patients) and
out patients (OPD).
• Where pharmaceuticals are manufactured in bulk.
• Where injectable preparations are prepared and sterilized.

Patient record database management:

Hospital pharmacy computer updates the patient’s record database regularly, which helps in
reflecting the current status of the patient.
The following aspects of the patient record is updated;
• Admitting department
• Discharge
• Patient transfer
Page 4 of 4
The following details should be made which helps the patient identification, i.e. name, age, and
sex, room no, unit, present diagnosis, comorbidities, allergies, weight, physician details (name),
etc.

Medication order entry:

• Computer helps in rapid processing of drug order.
• Orders are entered by a technical person.
• This order is retrieved by the pharmacist for verification, before giving to the patient.
• Drugs order consist of the following components:
o Physician
o Drug code.
o Drug generic name and strength.
o Route of drug administration
o Start and stop date.

Drugs label list:

Computer generates the drug labels very much easily.
Drug label contain the following necessary details:
• Drug name and strength
• Route and method of administration.
• Dose frequency
• Precautions, etc.

Inventory control:
There are various systems to control how much of the drug is sold, purchased, present in the
stock. This is called inventory control. This is well established under computer softwares.

Perpetual system:
• It is highly sophisticated system.
• It involves maintaining running balance of all drugs in stocks.
• It involves all drugs received in pharmacy ---- entered into the database --- added
to the inventory level --- reflect the current stock level of each drug.

Research and educational purposes:

Computer is used for educational purposes to educate the patient with different paintings,
diagrams, video graphics, etc.