Information Technology (Microsoft Database Assessment)
Introduction
Mr. Drake, owner
and Managing Director of the pharmacy wants to introduce cancer drugs in his
range of medicines. As Cancer is being
diagnosed with the greatest frequency, pharmaceutical companies are introducing
many new anti-cancer drugs in order to boost their sales. Mr. XX wants me to create a database of all anti-cancer drugs so he can decide on the range of products to
stock and sell.
Issues
being faced by Mr Drake
A pharmacist
has to deal with a number of patients on a day to day basis. A Cancer hospital has come up very near to
Mr. Drake's pharmacy. Hence he needs to stock the right anti-cancer products in his
shop. There is a large range in the cost
of individual chemotherapy treatment as drugs differ in cost and duration of
treatment. The price of chemotherapy
drugs keep fluctuating as every year new drugs are discovered and introduced in
the market. Mr Drake wants me to create a
database listing all anti cancer drugs available in the market along with their
composition, brand name, price, FDA approved, availability and the type of
cancer it can be used for.
My job
and interview to be conducted
I need to
have a look at Mr Drake's existing database and software. Accordingly, create or update his system with
the information. he requires. I also
need to
•
look up various sites to list all available anti
cancer drugs and their details.
•
look up journals to get further information
•
Interview with at least one senior medical
oncologist to find out the most popular cancer drugs being prescribed
currently.
Interview
with Dr Mohandas, Medical Oncologist with Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata
1.
What are the most common type of cancers detected?
The most
common types of cancer in order of number of cases reported are
a. Breast
Cancer
b. Prostate
Cancer
c. Lung
Cancer
d. Colorectal
cancers
2. Can
one drug be treated for two or more types of cancers? (i.e. different
from FDA approved drug)
The choice
depends on the type of cancer you have. Some types of chemotherapy drugs are
used for many types of cancer. Other drugs are used for just one or two types
of cancer.
2.
Which are the most popular anti-cancer drugs being used
at present?
Please find a
table below which lists the most popular anti cancer drugs in 2013.( source :
Medscape medical News, June 12, 2014)
Table. Global Top 10 Selling Oncology Drugs in 2013
Drug
|
Sales (in billions)
|
Cancer Indications
|
Rituximab (Rituxan/MabThera,
Genentech/Roche)
|
$7.78
|
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, chronic
lymphocytic leukemia
|
Bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech/Roche)
|
$6.75
|
colorectal, lung, kidney, and
glioblastoma
|
Trastuzumab (Herceptin,
Genentech/Roche)
|
$6.56
|
breast, esophageal, and gastric
|
Imatinib (Gleevec,
Novartis)
|
$4.69
|
variety of leukemias and
gastrointestinal stromal tumors
|
Pegfilgrastim (Neulasta,
Amgen)
|
$4.39
|
febrile neutropenia
|
Lenalidomide (Revlimid,
Celgene)
|
$4.28
|
multiple myeloma, mantle cell
lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndromes
|
Pemetrexed (Alimta, Eli
Lilly)
|
$2.70
|
lung
|
Bortezomib (Velcade,
Takeda and Johnson & Johnson)
|
$2.61
|
multiple myeloma, mantle cell
lymphoma
|
Cetuximab (Erbitux,
ImClone and Merck)
|
$1.87
|
colorectal, head and neck
|
Abiraterone (Zytiga,
Johnson & Johnson)
|
$1.70
|
prostate
|
3.
Which treatment is suggested at first, oral or
chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy is the systemic (whole body) treatment of
cancer with anticancer drugs. The main purpose of chemotherapy is to kill
cancer cells. It can be used as the primary form of treatment or as a
supplement to other treatments. Chemotherapy is often used to treat patients
with cancer that has spread from the place in the body where it started
(metastasized), but it may also be used the keep cancer from coming back
(adjuvant therapy). Chemotherapy destroys cancer cells anywhere in the body. It
even kills cells that have broken off from the main tumor and traveled through
the blood or lymph systems to other parts of the body. Chemotherapy can cure
some types of cancer. In some cases, it is used to slow the growth of cancer
cells or to keep the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. When a
cancer has been removed by surgery, chemotherapy may be used to keep the cancer
from coming back (adjuvant therapy). It is also helpful in reducing the tumor
size prior to surgery (primary [neoadjuvant] chemotherapy). Chemotherapy can
ease the symptoms of cancer (palliate), helping some patients have a better
quality of life. Chemotherapy may be used as the first line of treatment or it
may be started after a tumor is removed. A variety of factors, including the type
and stage of cancer, will determine the type of chemotherapy used.
4.
Apart from the drugs listed in my excel file, are there
any popular, modern drugs still in trial and waiting to be approved by the FDA?
FDA has been
routinely approving anti cancer drugs. Please see the link below:
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/InformationOnDrugs/ApprovedDrugs/ucm279174.htm
My
objective
Create a
database with Microsoft Access 2016 which is a popular and well tested
software. It will help the employees of
Mr XX to enter all anti cancer drugs and access information relating to these
drugs easily. The staff will be in a
better position to help or to clarify the queries raised by customers. The database file will be user friendly so
that employees can easily add or delete data as and when required. The Company will have a good record of all
their products to help them maintain product flow, inventory and stock
requirement on a monthly basis.
The software
will be on a three month trial so that it can be tested by the employees. A
feedback can be provided to me regarding all issues faced by them . On my part, I will test the software myself
based on their data provided to me.
My research
plan
Primary
1.
Interview
managers of pharmaceutical companies to compile my data
2.
create questionnaire for cancer patients and
survivors for their opinions
3.
how to create different database templates for my
final product
4.
look at various anti cancer medicines in the
markets to gain information about them
5.
questionnaire to oncologists for their opinion
Secondary
Research
about different anti cancer drugs, their composition, manufacturers and what
type of cancer they are used for.
Read and
analyze different articles to gain knowledge about how a pharmacy should run
and the problems they face
Listen to
videos on You Tube on how to create a Microsoft Access database
Research Plan:
Research Plan:
Design brief:
Create a
suitable database with all relevant data right from name of the product,
manufacturer, packing, price, dosage, effects.
•
It can be easily
operated. It contains all the medical fields and other criteria in which
information can be easily added.
•
There are
buttons, hyperlinks, etc. which will allow you to go to different sections and
applications.
•
You can create
macros, reports, queries, etc. which can be used to organize medical data.
•
It does not
require any paper work allowing the user to work on an application instead of
doing it on paper.
•
It has a storage
capacity if 2 GB which means you can save a convenient amount of data.
•
You can also
access different templates online which will help you in creating this kind of
database.
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