Methodology for Electronic Monitoring of Quality Drug Prescriptions in Phthisiopulmonology

Abstract

Significance of quality improvement of health care substantiates the need for developing electronic databases and software to support decision making in selection of drug interventions and to monitor the quality of clinical results. The purpose of the work was to apply system approach to structure information about basic characteristics of personal clinical diagnosis and concordant drug interventions in treatment of tuberculosis patients. Materials included federal standards of medical care in phthisiopulmonology, national clinical recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, scientific literature and patients’ charts. The system approach methodology to structure information about basic characteristics of personal clinical diagnosis according to the principle of discreteness of information vectors have been used. The study shows that basic characteristics of clinical diagnosis (stage, phase, severity, additional factors of causes and conditions affecting prognosis of clinical developments and choice of drug interventions, severity degree of clinical situation) still lack common definitions. Structure for basic characteristics of clinical diagnosis was presented and definitions were formulated. Each characteristic was represented by a discrete information vector making it possible to use digital codes to store personalized clinical diagnosis in electronic databases. The quality models made by the experts and the real prescriptions of drugs at definite clinical situations were saved in databases for monitoring the quality of clinical decisions. The system approach methodology for structuring information space of clinical situations and implementation of discrete information vectors of basic clinical diagnosis characteristics help to realize the enormous potential of information technologies to monitor quality of clinical decisions and enrich evidence-based data about quality treatment in phthisiopulmonology.