The adoption of ICT and robotic automation systems in the pharmaceutical industry

Background: South African pharmacies face challenges like cost reduction, inventory management, and employee efficiency. Balancing dispensing error rates and customer satisfaction, along with ensuring accurate medication dispensing, is also crucial. An effective solution to these challenges is adopting automatic robotic dispensing systems, which enhance stock inventory management, integrated systems, and accurate dispensing capabilities. Objectives: The study delved into IT and robotic automation in South African pharmaceutical dispensing, assessing current methods and advocating for integrated IT and Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems in retail and hospital pharmacies. Method: The research used a quantitative approach to gather data from public and private hospital pharmacy employees, aiming to understand their requirements and expectations. It assessed the potential improvements that could result from adopting a new system. Results: The study found that most government and private pharmacies in South Africa prefer automated dispensing systems to reduce errors, lower costs, improve customer service, and enhance inventory management. Benefits also included minimising medication errors, improving operational efficiency, and ensuring patient safety. Conclusion: The study holds importance as it underscores the necessity of integrating Information Technology (IT) and Robotic Automation in the pharmaceutical sector to address prevailing issues. It identifies factors contributing to medication dispensing errors and demonstrates the potential of automated robotic systems in mitigating these errors. Contribution: South Africa's pharmaceutical sector must enhance efficiency and competitiveness by adopting integrated IT and Robotic Automation Systems. The study identified key factors for future implementation and emphasized the need for clear pre-implementation policies outlining functions and benefits.

Design and Finite Element Analysis of a Novel Retrievable Vascular Stent / 医用生物力学

Objective In order to avoid early restenosis after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation, the retrievable structure of the NiTi alloy stent and its biomechanical analysis were studied. Methods The geometric models of the retrievable vascular stent and the retrieval system were established. The retrieval part of the stent consisted of four symmetrically distributed tendons, which were designed as circular meshes. The distribution of the maximum strain during stent compression and its uniformity during compression and self-expansion were analyzed, and the simulation experiments of the retrieval process were also performed. Results The maximum strain of the stent was 3.7% and the index of non-uniformity (INU) was 0.62% when the stent was compressed to the minimum size. While the IBU was 1.31% after the self-expansion process completed. The maximum strain was 1.2% when half of the stent was retrieved into the outer sheath. Conclusions The stent could be safely and successfully retrieved into the outer sheath as the strain was within the bearable range of the material and the compression and self-expansion process was relatively uniform. The research findings provide important references for structural design, biomechanical analysis and potential clinical applications of the novel retrievable vascular stent.

WebChemDB: An Integrated Chemical Database Retrieval System

WebChemDB is an integrated chemical database retrieval system that provides access to over 8 million publicly available chemical structures, including related information on their biological activities and direct links to other public chemical resources, such as PubChem, ChEBI, and DrugBank. The data are publicly available over the web, using two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) structure retrieval systems with various filters and molecular descriptors. The web services API also provides researchers with functionalities to programmatically manipulate, search, and analyze the data.

Development of Histopathological Breast Tumor Image Retrieval System Based on Internet Using a Content-based Retrieval Method / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVE: We have developed breast tumor image retrieval system using content-based retrieval method. It compares the breast tumor image with Fibrocystic Change images, Ductal Carcinoma in Situ images and Invasive Ductal Carcinoma images and find most similar one. Since the final diagnosis for breast tumor image is done only by pathologist manually, this system can provide the objectivity and the reproducibility for determining and diagnosing the breast tumor. METHODS: The breast tumor image features used in the content-based image retrieval are color feature, texture feature and texture features of wavelet transformed images. And the system can be accessed through the internet. We used Windows 2003 as an operating system, Internet Information Server 6.0 as Web a server and ms-sql server 2000 as a database server. Also we use ActiveX Data Object to connect database easily. RESULT: We evaluated the recall and precision performance of the system according to the combinations of feature types and usage of partial or whole image. Results showed that the use of multiple features and whole image gave consistently higher rates compared to the use of single feature and partial image. CONCLUSION: This retrieval system can help pathologist determine the type of breast tumor more efficiently. Also it is working based on the internet, we can use it for researching and teaching in pathology later.

Immunohistochemical Analysis of Pituitary Adenomas according to Endocrinologic Function

On the bases of the authors analysed 64 cases of pituitary adenoma, endocrinologic manifestations and immunohistochemical staining by both conventional means and the antigen retrieval system. The incidence of each type and there interrelationship was thus demonstrated. The endocrinologic results of 64 cases were as follows: Should the total number of each type of adenoma be included here. Prolactin-secreting adenoma(39.0%), nonfunctioning adenoma(26.6%), and GH-secreting adenoma(17.2%). Conventional immunohistochemical staining revealed the presence of null cell adenoma(48.4%), prolactinoma(21.9%), and GH-secreting adenoma(12.5%). All adenomas shown by conventional immunohistochemical staining to be null cell type were thus reclassified by the antigen retrieval system. On the basis of these results, the authors concluded that for the classification of pituitary adenomas, immunohistochemical staining by the antigen retrieval system is more sensitive than conventional immunohistochemical staining. In addition to avoid false-positive results, EM confirmation is required.

Semantic-based Full-text Retrieval of Electronic Care Records / 医疗卫生装备

Objective To research a more accurate retrieval algorithm of ECR, which will assist its development and utilization in the field of medicine effectively. Methods Based on