Primary
Health – Technical Outline
Primary
Health Limited (Technology Working Group)
Delivering Solutions
Overview
Primary Health is a distributed client/server information processing system. The main elements of this system are the two software applications – the pharmacy software (which is referred to here as Primary Health Clinician) and the query-and-report management software (Primary Health Manager).
These applications are complemented by an assortment of other software applications and libraries, support files, technical specifications and protocols that together make up the Primary Health system.
The following illustration shows the various parts of the system, how they interact, and how data/information flows through it.
The illustration also clearly shows the two main parts of the Primary Health system, Clinician (at the pharmacy end) and Manager (at the PCT).
Primary Health Clinician
The pharmacy part of the system centres around Clinician, the main Primary Health application. Clinician is an Multiple Document Interface (MDI) application for any Intel version of Win32, meaning it is compatible with all versions of Microsoft® Windows® from 98 onward, up to and including XP home and professional.
We use modern Microsoft design guidelines and principals to provide an interface that fits with both pharmacists needs and modern computer software design ideas.
The User Interface (UI) centres around the forms for the consultations. Primary Health uses a proprietary Java based Technology. This technology is tried and tested, and therefore stable and reliable, and allows us to retain maximum flexibility with module design. By designating responsibility for form creation and management to the module itself we ensure the best use of (possibly limited) system resources is made at all times.
Data storage and retrieval
Primary Health interfaces with two distinct databases: the
Local Store and the Central Store.
- The
Local Store remains on the hard-disk
of the computer running Clinician. This store is used in real-time to store
data and when searching data.
- The
Central Store is located on servers
managed by Pharmacy Health Ltd. The individual copies of Clinician synchronise
with the Central Store automatically each night (this schedule can be changed
to suit the needs of the individual pharmacy).
Primary Health Manager
Manager is the “back-office” part of the Primary Health system. Manager is used to query the data in the system, and generate reports from that data. The reports that can be generated are template based and therefore fully customisable. New report templates can be added, or existing ones changed, as and when required.
This allows the manager to easily track the system, predict future trends, follow-up any complaints, and easily handle invoicing and payment of monies due to the pharmacies involved. Reports for all of these things, along with many more, can be generated with a few mouse clicks.
Manager uses the same security and encryption technologies as Clinician, to ensure that there are no “weak links” in the system.
Primary Health has been developed in consultation with pharmacists and pharmacy managers to ensure that the application and the system as a whole respond properly to the needs and wishes of its intended end-users.