ABSTRACT
This project was
designed to solve the problem of patient’s inability to communicate (chat) with
doctors and book appointments using an electronic machine. The manual processes
of St. Vincent Clinic were critically examined and the flaws noted and. The project
went further to ret the different techniques used in implementing the newly
design software in order to facilitate a broader understanding of the design
software by any user. Real-time electronic consultation and medical
subscription software is used to chat with doctors online, get subscriptions
sent via mailbox. Notepad and MySQL were used to code and manage the database
of the software respectively. The methodology used to carry out this project
work effectively and efficiently is the structured system analysis and design
methodology.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
The
real-time electronic consultation and medical prescription system is an end
user support and online consultation project. Real-time e-health is a system
that connects patients to available doctors for online consultation and also
allows doctors to email prescriptions in printable format.
Now
more than ever, people have become more health conscious and are taking
necessary steps to ensure that they have a sound body and mind – that is why
every day and every time many people come to clinics or health facility for
checkups their health condition and treatments. And we all know that as the
number of patients continually increase managing a clinic can also become
increasingly difficult especially if everything is done manually, the solution
of these difficulties is the introduction of an online health system. In
today’s world there is no more space for paperwork with world countries trying
to move completely to the digital systems where they can share information and
patients’ data online, more easily and more effectively, among physicians and
medical institutions, as well as recording and updating every patient’s health
history, reports, analyses and rays. With the fast-paced development of
information and communication technology, world countries are in race to apply
digital health systems which promise better and improved healthcare services
for individuals and communities the development in digital electronics in the
last few decades have helped to develop hardware and software that can be used
to improve health service.
In
today’s modern age where cloud network has become a way of life, it is evident
that a majority of the developing country’s institutions still do not adapt the
high technology. Particularly in most medical clinic facilities, daily health
care transactions are still done on paper.
Nigeria
lacks robust health care infrastructures and policies for implementation of
information and communications technology. In the 2005 health data management
meeting, a survey of Chief Information Officers in attendance found 74% of
participants showing willingness to introduce online health systems in their
respective hospital practices as a top priority.
That
is why I am trying to introduce a real-time (synchronous) consultation and
medical prescription system that will basically allow patients or users chat
with an available doctor, telling them their problem and prescription can also
be sent to patient’s or user’s mailbox.
The
real-time electronic consultation and medical prescription is a web-based
system that will give access to a synchronous means of communication between a
user and a medical practitioner who is connect into a cloud network and can
give the user an assistance of a medical prescription. The prescription can be
sent via e-mail to the user to print. This user can also book an appointment
with the medical practitioner to be attended to as scheduled.
The
main reason why this project work is carried out was when I visited the case
study (St. Vincent clinic), I discovered that they do not have an official
website that will help users get information about the clinic and as such
prescription is made manually. This discovery was made known to me when I
accompanied my uncle, who is the CEO of the clinic. At the clinic he was
finding it difficult attending to patients and at the same time answering phone
calls on emergency cases. Having made research on e-Consult, I decided to
embark on this project work since it will solve the existing problem facing the
clinic so as to manage all medical related issues in the clinic. I also
integrated a research I made on real-time system, which will help provide a
one-on-one communication response between the patient and the doctor.
Basically
most health sectors in Nigeria does not have a platform where a user can
communicate to a medical doctor (at real-time) or a robot. In cases where there
is an emergency, a user may not have access to a doctor within their vicinity,
which may result to casualties or rather death. Consultation over the years has
been done manually unlike now in some developed countries where the systems are
being used frequently. Nigeria as a country has not fully embraced the
electronic method of medical related consultation. It is due to these factors
that I was motivated to carry out this system so as to help minimize medical
related casualties that may occur in cases like where there is no doctor.
1.2 STATEMENTS OF THE PROBLEM
The
problems of the existing system include;
1.
St. Vincent
clinic currently does not have an official website.
2.
Inability
of patients to communicate (chat) with a doctor at real-time.
3.
Manual method
of doctor’s prescription been administered to patients.
4.
Manual
method of booking appointment with doctor as scheduled.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aim of the study is to provide an organized
and easy avenue where patients can communicate (chat) with available doctor
online, get prescriptions and book for appointment as scheduled. The objective
of this study includes:
1.
To develop
a responsive and interactive web-based system for St. Vincent clinic.
2.
The
software that will enable patients search for available doctor(s) and
communicate (chat) with the doctor at real-time.
3.
The software
will enable doctor send prescription to patients via e-mail.
4.
The
software will enable patients schedule an appointment to see a doctor for cases
where the doctor needs to see the patients to run some tests.
1.4 SIGNIFICATCE OF STUDY
After successfully designing and implementing
this project work, I should be able to develop a website that will enable
patients chat with an online doctor at real-time, get prescriptions which can
be sent via mailbox and can also book an appointment with a doctor.
CASE
STUDY BENEFITS: An official website will be created for the
case study that will help reduce the risk of overcrowding the clinic and also
reduce stress and time.
ECONOMIC
BENEFITS: As users’ surf through
the website, money will be generated. Patients can also make payment for
consultation using their credit cards.
1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of the study covers the following
courses in computer science. This includes; web development, computer
maintenance, file organization and management, computer graphics and animation,
computer architecture, project management, database, system analysis and
design.
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The
project work is limited to a real-time electronic consultation and medical prescription
for patients or users who want to chat with online doctors in cases of
emergency. In the process of carrying out this research work, some factors
tried to hinder a free flow of the work the process of getting standard
information from staffs at St. Vincent clinic was not encouraging, as they find
it difficult explaining some certain procedures which is very relevant to
designing the new system.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
DATABASE: A
database is an organized collection of data. It is a collection of schemas,
tables, queries, reports, views, and other objects.
ELECTRONIC
CONSULTATION: Electronic consultation (e-consult) is a
mechanism that enables primary care providers (PCPs) to obtain specialists'
inputs into a patient's care treatment without requiring the patient to go to a
face-to-face visit.
HTML: Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for creating web pages
and web applications.
MEDICAL DOCTOR: A
physician, medical practitioner, medical doctor, or simply doctor is a
professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting,
maintaining, or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of
disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments.
ONLINE CHAT: Online
chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet that offers a
real-time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Chat messages
are generally short in order to enable other participants to respond quickly.
PHP: PHP
is a server-side scripting language designed primarily for web development but
also used as a general-purpose programming language.
REAL-TIME: Real-time computing
(RTC) or reactive computing is
a system that responds to events or signals within a predictable time after
their occurrence; specifically, the response time must be within the maximum
allowed, but is typically synchronous.
SQL: Structured
Query Language is a domain-specific language used in programming and designed
for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or
for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS).
PRESCRIPTION: is a drug preceding the signature, comprising
directions to be followed by the pharmacist in its preparation.
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