A Mobile Solution to Drug Prescription and Dispensation with Privacy Protection for Developing Economies

Abstract

It is unarguable that many countries within the developing economies have not been able to reap many of the benefits from the innovations in Computer and Information Technologies (CIT) as they pertain to the advances in healthcare delivery systems. The contributing factors to the problems in these countries are multifaceted, such as, ethnic, cultural, environmental, governance, and infrastructural. To address these problems, current efforts have focused mostly on the issues of disease control and management. However, insufficient attention has been given to the concomitant problems of medication (drug / prescription) management especially as they relate to information management between patients, physicians, and pharmacists. In most of these countries, the absence of integrated and reliable system for management and maintenance of a patient’s medical history exposes a patient to prescription and dispensation errors and/or mistakes by physicians and pharmacists, respectively. In this paper, taking cognizance of the infrastructural and other applicable impediments and deficiencies, the design and implementation of a mobilebased system (henceforth referred to as “iRx”) is presented. This system enables patients, physicians, and pharmacists to reliably interact in managing and maintaining an individual’s drug history. This management is subject to the patient’s authorization for anyone to access the applicable information.