Abstract
Purpose: The HIV Therapy Scheduler (HTS) is intended for pharmacists, physicians, and other health care professionals who manage patients with HIV and AIDS-related diseases. The software was created to provide authorized users with a tool to help develop customized drug regimen schedules for their patients, to screen for limited drug interactions within an individual patient drug regimen, and to store computerized records of patient medical histories and drug allergies/intolerances.
Methods: The project team consisted of two pharmacists with expertise in HIV disease who were re sponsible for compiling the database, a computer programmer, and a medical interface designer. The project consists of three phases, of which phase two is now complete. In the first phase, a prototype of the software was developed incorporating rudimentary functions. Following a period of pilot testing, the second phase of the development served to convert the prototype into a fully functional computer program. The third phase will incorporate any additional features, and future updates of the program's content and drug database.
Results: To date, phase two of the project is complete. The software has been available nationally to health care providers in both French and English since March 1997. Since the preliminary program has been very well-received, potential for international distribution exists. The authors are also recipients of a national pharmacy award for innovations in the development of patient compliance tools.
Conclusions: To address the issues of drug interactions and medication compliance in HIV-positive individuals, interactive computer software was developed in order to enhance patient compliance and to minimize the risk of side effects secondary to drug interactions.
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