Application of cloud computing in the Hospital Drug Information Center in Thailand

The Hospital Drug Information Center (DIC) is an essential unit in a hospital, providing critical information to support clinical services for virtually every department in the facility. Current hospital information systems (HIS) have not provided adequate functionality to support the services of the DIC, which are primarily focused on documentation and reporting. The software described here represents an important step forward to fill this gap. This cloud-based software platform using ASP.NET, SQL server as a database management system (DBMS) and a model-view-controller as an interface architecture, consists of five major components covering each of the elements of the DIC report form. Using cloud-based technologies enables the software to be easily accessible, have adequate and easily expandable space for information storage, and facilitate sharing information in the medical community. By utilizing this software, pharmacists can substantially reduce the amount of time needed to assemble and manage reporting, save resources by reducing the amount of paper used, and significantly improve the level of service to their internal customers.