INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

MALAYSIA

Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons)

Semester 1

Information Acquisition and Analysis

Importance of Information and Statistics in the field of Pharmacy

Full Name : KHOR RUI EN

Student’s ID : 00000031833
Programme : BP119
Group : B
1.0 Title

Importance of Information and Statistics in the Field of Pharmacy

2.0 Abstract

Information and statistics are commonly being used and applied in our daily lives. Both of them
actually correlates with one another as the main purpose of information and statistics is to
provide better understanding of specific needs. Their roles differ in every field of career. For
example, in the medical field, primarily in the field of pharmacy, information is important for
health practitioners to monitor patients and for the correct dispensation of drugs while the
development and surveillance of new medicine is done through statistical analysis. With that
being said, this assignment is going to cover the roles of information and statistics and their
importance in terms of pharmaceutical health care.

3.0 Introduction

As we all know, the term “information” is defined as a piece of knowledge obtained through
researches and also commonly known as data or findings. On the other hand, it is also
something that the term “statistics” is highly associated with because statistics are often
portrayed as one of the examples of information. In any field of career, information and statistics
both play a huge part, not to mention in the field of pharmaceutical studies too where it is most
commonly used in research and reports. So, how does one truly define these two terms in
depth?

Information is often known as a set of data or knowledge concerning a particular topic or issue.
It can be gathered from a variety of sources either supplied to you through lectures, self-reading
or even through one’s findings. With the possession of information, any doubt can be easily
clarified and can be very useful to clear up misunderstandings, even to the extent of having an
effect on a certain outcome and in decision makings. Information is useful in many areas for
example, they are used by healthcare professionals in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment
of certain conditions of patients. Moreover, patient’s healthcare record is also often
documented to be used as a source of information for future references. For example, the
WebMD website, which is worldwide accessible, provides information about the usage of
medicine and drugs and the linking of certain symptoms to possible medical conditions. [1]

Statistics, on the other hand, are used in the interpretation and analysation of data in the form
of percentages or numbers in order to allow individuals to make evaluations based on it. It is
commonly displayed as charts, table and graphs. Information obtained are also sometimes
derived mathematically from statistics of various events. For example, manufacturing companies
uses statistical concepts to ensure the production of high-quality products as they cannot test
each and every one of them. Hence, statistics samples are used. Not only that, statistics also
played a huge part in drug prescription because a scientist must demonstrate a statistically valid
efficacy rate before dispensing any medications which is known as part of the biostatistics.
4.0 Methods

There are various ways where human perform their information collection. For instance, through
journals, books, literature searches, e-book searches and most commonly, internet surveys.

For this assignment, common search engines like Google Scholar and IMU E-library will be used.
Researches will also be done through reviewing already existing data sources from officialised
websites on the internet through Google search engine. In compiling information, only reliable
sources from credible and trusted websites will be used to ensure a valid academic research and
to avoid spreading misleading information.

5.0 Findings

5.1 Importance of Information in Pharmacy

Over the past decades, the use of IT has had a major impact on millions of people’s working
lives. Because of the advantages of automated information processing, many businesses
have adapted to the use computer technology in their daily lifestyles. [2] This allows
consistent accuracy in regular and monotonous jobs through standardised information
provided worldwide which can also cater to the needs of different individual.

In the field of pharmacy, the usage of IT has allowed pharmacists to store and standardise
patients’ record and help in the electronic prescription and dispensation of drugs and
medicines besides being able to acquire important information. It can also provide resources
to track the safety and efficiency of the drugs dispensed for instance. [2] First and foremost,
the information technology for health and healthcare delivery and applications is now widely
known as the Health Information Technology (HIT). [3] It promotes caregivers’ management of
information regarding health through computerised systems and can induce a safe and
secure database for the exchange of information among payers, medical practitioners,
patients and performance monitors. Following the evolution of usage of technology in
healthcare practices, several eHealth applications were introduced. The few examples are
the electronic health records (EHRs), mobile health (mHealth), electronic prescribing system
(EPS) and clinical decision support systems (CDSS). [4] Each and every application established
has shown its advantages and significance in the field of medical care including the safety of
patients over the past few years.

Through the implementations of these websites and applications, it is predicted to be able to

expand the accessibility to effective and affordable health care, reduce human’s memory
dependence, minimise manual paper works, increase health care delivery’s efficiency with
minimal medical errors and to promote better worldwide understanding of diseases and the
diagnosis of it.[5] With the introduction of Electronic Health Record (EHRs) system,
pharmacists can now gain accessibility to worldwide electronic records about different
patients to better deliver pharmacy services. In the health care chain, patients often receive
treatments from their neighbourhood physician’s office and the prescribed medicine have to
be picked up at a drug store. However, patients often have minimal knowledge regarding the
medications and this has resulted in pharmacists having to call the physician’s office
timelessly simply to clarify the patient’s questions. Therefore, to minimise the disruption to a
pharmacist’s workflow, the EHRs is introduced for physicians to key in patient’s health
conditions and medical plans set by the physicians. The sharing of information this way is
vital for both pharmacists and patients as the healthcare plan can be easily modified by the
pharmacists without having to make numerous amounts of medication-related calls to the
physician’s office.[6] With this, a huge amount of time can be saved and work efficiency can
be improved. Eventually, in-depth information such as laboratory data and physician notes
are also recorded and documented into the EHRs of physicians.

Not only that, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website is also one of
the information-sharing tools in the health care community. This website provides the
information about SDOH, also known as the social determinants of health which helps
pharmacists to be able to diagnose diseases easily. As the patients’ living, learning and
working environment plays a major role in their health outcomes, the information about
patient’s socioeconomics which are recorded in the CDC website can help health
practitioners to gain better understandings and can promote easier intervention with certain
patients.[7] Hence, the cause of disease and its diagnosis can be easily identified. Moreover,
sharing of patient information can also reduce errors in medication dispensation and
readmissions of patients can be minimized.[8] More and more entities and health care
professionals are slowly engaging themselves in Health Information Exchange (HIE) to
enhance worldwide interoperability. All potential uses for data sharing are genomic
research, chronic disease registries, large-scale health monitoring, disease surveillance and
daily patient care. The HIMSS Director of Privacy and Security Lee Kim, JD, CISSP, CIPP/US,
FHIMSS once wrote in a blog post that “Information sharing is useful for all types of incidents
and threats,”. Furthermore, these databases are also predicted to broaden patient’s
engagement in their own health care. By doing so, pharmacists can readily gain information
on the patient’s previous medical histories, a better clinical picture of the patient and their
health conditions to improve the efficiency of their services. The Health Information
Exchange (HIE) system also allows nurses, doctors or pharmacists to be able to follow-up on
a patient’s medical appointment as the right information about the right patient at the right
time are available nationwide. Based on the Institute of Medicine’s 2000 To Err is Human
article, there appeared to be 44,000-98,000 deaths per year amongst patients which are
caused by iatrogenic diseases due to incorrect treatments provided. [9] In the HIE system, a
complete and accurate list regarding patient’s allergic reaction to certain drugs can be found
and this can ensure that caregivers dispense the correct medication to the patient. Drug-
dose information about patients is also important as different people have different
tolerance and require drugs in different amount due to the difference in their weight, age
and their daily activities. Information about patients on the health care system can ensure
that correct dosage of drug is given to provide therapeutic efficacy.[10]

Another way to improve the decision-making process by pharmacists is through Drug

Information (DI) databases. These sites provide full information about all the registered
drugs and their usage as a human mind is limited in memorising all the information about
the limitless number of drugs. Therefore, with these applications, pharmacists can prescribe
the best and most suitable medication with the correct dosage by doing researches on usage
of drugs through the DI database.
5.2 Importance of Statistics in Pharmacy

Statistics on the other hand, is vital in conducting hypothesis testing in pharmacological

research. It is based on experimental data to determine whether one drug’s pharmacological
effect is superior to the other leading to the development of more useful drugs. [11] Just as
important as a pharmacist’s knowledge and understanding on drugs, antibiotics and
antidepressants, pharmacists must also possess strong grounding in the field of
mathematical science (statistics) to be able to enhance their interpretation skills in
pharmacotherapy literature. Statistics was also one of the factors of the success in the
production of novel drugs by Dr. Pual Janssen. Many chemical compounds were created and
tested using rapid and economic pharmacological assays and its efficacy were tested using
statistical analysis.

Moreover, with the help of statistical information, evaluation of drug activity can be
performed. It can also be used to find out whether the changes produced by a drug is due to
chance or its own action. The different actions of two or more drugs, or different dosages of
the same drugs are often studied and analysed statistically. In addition, before a drug is
given its approval to be consumed, it must undergo clinical trials to test for its effectiveness
and safety.[12] When a new drug is introduced to the society, the effectiveness of clinical
actions carried out by health care practitioners regarding these drugs have become of the
highly brought up issues. Most of the time, when treating a new patient, their choice of
actions and strategies are determined by comparing the characteristics, drug effects and
conditions of the previous clients with the one whom they are currently intervening with.
Statistics is then used to link every patient with the more abstract concepts of clinical
entities, natural histories, clinical response and risks. All research works are done by
choosing specific characteristics of physical objects and segments in projects that will be
used as a representation of one research’s structures and processes. Abstract concepts of a
particular clinical institutions are then operationalised by such selected findings and turned
into measurements. Statistics share comparison and analysation of these operationalised
information. Certain aspects of measurements are used and one of it is the nominal scaling
which represents data that exist in one of two states. Examples of this will be the notation
that a disease is present or absent and demographic measures. Gender of patients, for
instance. Inferential statistics on the other hand is used to draw conclusions based on
observing one of more group of data through chi-squares and t tests. In reporting inferential
statistics, the data are calculated through descriptive statistics which includes the usage of
mean and median.[13]

With the usage of statistical measures like graphs and pie charts, a more efficient drug
dispensation method can be carried out and analytical time needed to treat a disease can
also be shorten as statistics can increase the efficacy of allocation of research by health care
practitioners. In different countries, different medical diseases are treated differently and
the potential of different drugs on the diseases can be concluded through statistics into
simple pictures to be understood more easily.

The drug development process, on the other hand, includes a few steps before a drug can be
released out and observed for its efficiency in a span of 10 years. First and foremost,
identification of disease and its treatment must first be carried out. Then, preclinical test
that involves the testing of drugs such as pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic drugs will
 be carried out for 3-5 years by using animals as samples. Testing of drug effects on human
can be divided into 3 different stages which begins at testing on a small population, all the
way until the last stage where it is tested on a large number of clients. Throughout this
process, the recording of data must be performed to enable statistical measurements. Line
graph, bar chart, pie charts are examples of diagrams used in the study of statistics. [14] With
that being said, all caregivers must be taught simple analytical techniques to help them in
resolving conclusions from the statistical data provided.

6.0 Conclusion

As a conclusion, both information and statistics are important in the expanding field of health
care, without it, the efficacy rate of medical treatments will not be increased and advancement
of medical care will not be possible. However, healthcare professionals must understand and
respect patients’ information and should never misuse it. Through statistical analysis, many
more new and improved drugs can be produced and monitored within a click of the finger.
Hence, all healthcare practitioners must abide by their responsibilities in providing accurate
information to the databases so that correct and proper decisions can be made with the
provided data leading to a healthier and disease-free society.

7.0 References

1. About WebMD [Internet]. WebMD. WebMD; [cited 25 Nov 2019]. Available from:
https://www.webmd.com/about-webmd-policies/default.htm
2. Smith SG. Examining the role of new technology in pharmacy: now and in the future. The
Pharmaceutical Journal. 2017Feb11.
3. The Role of Information Technology in Advancing Pharmacy Practice Models to Improve
Patient Safety [Internet]. Pharmacy Times. [cited 25 November 2019]. Available from:
https://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/health-system-edition/2013/january2013/
the-role-of-information-technology-in-advancing-pharmacy-practice-models-to-improve-
patient-safety
4. Fadahunsi KP, Akinlua JT, O’Connor S, Wark PA, Gallagher J, Carroll C, et al. Protocol for a
systematic review and qualitative synthesis of information quality frameworks in eHealth.
BMJ Open. 2019;9(3).
5. Webster L, Spiro RF. Health information technology: A new world for pharmacy. Journal of
the American Pharmacists Association. 2010;50(2).
6. Keller ME, Kelling SE, Cornelius DC, Oni HA, Bright DR. Enhancing Practice Efficiency and
Patient Care by Sharing Electronic Health Records. Perspect Health Inf Manag.
2015;12(Fall):1b. Published 2015 Nov 1.
7. Riley B. Pharmacy data-sharing will enable future of value-based care provision [Internet].
Drug Store News. [cited 26 November 2019]. Available from:
https://drugstorenews.com/pharmacy/pharmacy-data-sharing
8. Snell E. Benefits, Challenges of Secure Healthcare Data Sharing [Internet]. HealthITSecurity.
HealthITSecurity; 2017 [cited 26 November 2019]. Available from:
https://healthitsecurity.com/features/benefits-challenges-of-secure-healthcare-data-sharing
9. Donaldson MS, Corrigan JM, Kohn LT, editors. To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health
System. illustrated. Vol. 6. National Academies Press; 2000.
10. Kaelber DC, Bates DW. Health information exchange and patient safety. Journal of
Biomedical Informatics. 2007;40(6).
11. Spina D. Statistics in Pharmacology. British Journal of Pharmacology. 2009;152(3):291–3.
12. Barkan H. Statistics in clinical research: Important considerations. Annals of Cardiac
Anaesthesia. 2015;18(1):74.
13. An Introduction to Biostatistics. Radiology. 2002;225(2):318–22.
14. Langlotz CP. Fundamental Measures of Diagnostic Examination Performance: Usefulness for
Clinical Decision Making and Research. Radiology. 2003;228(1):3–9.