Standard Tables and Prompting Systems

Abstract

A conflict always exists between providing timely and accurate computer reports and yet still being responsive to new or changing requests. Merck has undertaken two approaches to resolve this conflict and provide timely reports in a variety of formats. The first approach was to standardize the majority of NDA reports and their associated definitions, while providing a choice of formats where needed. The second approach was to develop a generalized table prompting system which provides a quick and accurate means of requesting these predefined reports. The end result is a front-end selection criteria system that greatly facilitates the generation of NDA reports. The chance of error is greatly reduced through the use of a formatted terminal screen with descriptive prompts. The system can be developed quickly for a new drug project because most of the reports are predefined and programmed.