Database application development

Upon an interest from senior officials of the Drug Policy and Planning Center "DPPC", one of the Egyptian Health and Population Ministry centers responsible for the registration of the health products in Egypt, and after several visits to the center our company, EBM has proposed a single coherent model for the Drug Policy Planning center information system which is the information infrastructure of the center that will achieve the following objectives:
1. Fulfill the information and automation requirements of the center.
    These requirements are set to ensure speeding up the cycle of drug registration, increase the level of transparency within the
    center, and increase the capabilities for better analysis and planning for the drug policies.
2. The information system will provide the necessary information needed to carry out The Egyptian Ministry of Health objectives
    for the drug policies.
    These objectives will ensure providing companies with quality market information to better plan their policies and better serve
    the market.
3. Form the foundation of the planned Drug Policy & Planning center website.
    The website will first provide the companies with market information online by subscription to the site.
    The companies will be able to apply for drug registration and to follow up the status of the drug application online.

► Project challenges:
Challenging difficulties: the system is very difficult to implement due to very complex issues in designing the drug data model. Even the W.H.O left some of these issues unsolved. There were previous attempts to develop this system since 1990 with no success.

► The completion of phase 1 of the implementation plan:
DPPC overall information system design
After extensive efforts and structured meeting sessions with DPPC senior officials, an outline plan of the information requirements was defined with a general design of the information system that meets these requirements, along with the detailed design of the human drugs part of the information system.

The following tough issues were solved during those prolonged meetings:
1. The drug data model:
    Classification issues, Generic definitions issues, drug attributes issues, etc.
2. The operation rules and work flow chart model:
    Exclusive determination and revision of the operation rules and work flow of the center.
    These rules determine the procedures of drug registration center policies. The operation rules and work flow model should
    meet the transparency requirements of the information system.
3. The system design to meet the highest state of the art standards, yet totally adapted to the expected users' quality standards.
4. The database architecture:
    The information system requirements versus the center capabilities
5. The quality of the personnel available in the center:
    The personnel will play a key role for the success of the information system:
    The system should compensate for the quality level with achievable skills development.

► Human drugs systems
EBM has successfully finished the human drug systems that handles the registration processes, the registered human drugs directory with full technical data for each drug, local quarter sales figures, yearly projected production and import plans with administration procedures to carry on these tasks. These systems have been developed delivered and currently deployed in the center.

EBM deployment consultation services

► The objectives of the consultation services are as follow:
1. Data and database administration objectives:
   • Data correction and completion plans
   • Data handling protocols
   • Data security against theft and intentional corruption
   • Data protection against viruses and malfunction
   • Data maintenance against corruption and fragmentation

2. DPPC operation flowcharts, forms and the human drug handling rules

3. Personnel:
   • Establish Users and Data entry teams
   • Skills development plan for each team
   • Assign members for each team
   • Develop those members skills according to the corresponding skills plan

4. Resources administration objectives:
   • Resources assessment: HW, SW systems
   • Resources upgrade plans for the implementation of the planned systems.
   • Resources preservation plan to secure uninterrupted operations:
                    - Preventive maintenance
                    - Maintenance and guarantees
                    - Upgrade plan
    • Network administration protocols:
                    - Security permissions
                    - User accounts
                    - Startup and shut down protocols
                    - Backup and virus protection systems
                    - Legalities

EBM services:

► Phase 1 of the project was implemented using the following EBM services:
1. EBM Database Applications Development Service.
2. EBM Database Applications Deployment Consultation Service.