Integrated Content Software for Building Drug Information Systems Quickly and Economically
Time to market can be critical to the success of your next- generation drug information products. Yet you're working under difficult constraints, such as accelerated schedules, cost-containment and scarce development resources. Now, with First DataBank's Drug Information Framework, you have a solution to these problems. The Framework provides a solid foundation upon which to build your applications.
Proven First DataBank Content
The Drug Information Framework was built on the foundation of NDDF Plus™ — one of the industry's most trusted and widely used sources of up-to-date drug information. NDDF Plus combines comprehensive drug attribute and pricing information with an extensive array of clinical decision-support modules. It encompasses medications approved by the FDA, plus information on alternative-therapy agents — herbals, nutraceuticals and dietary supplements.
The Framework also offers compatibility with First DataBank's International Drug Data Files™ (IDDF), for use in integrating country-specific drug content into health-care information systems.
Flexible Development Environment
The Framework is designed to accommodate the requirements of today's healthcare applications. It provides the functionality you need to rapidly satisfy the growing demands of the healthcare sector — without sacrificing performance or vendor product differentiation.
A Flexible Architecture
The Framework's design also accommodates a variety of systems that need to access drug information at multiple levels of a hierarchy, using a range of methods. Its architecture is based on modeling drug- and health-related concepts intuitively, in a way that has proven useful to system vendors and end-user developers throughout the healthcare field.
A customization layer allows the developer to categorize content in the Framework database, recognizing that most healthcare organizations have unique needs. By implementing this layer, the developer ensures that user-defined content integrates seamlessly into the Framework, without the risk of corrupting it during database updates.
Leveraging Today's Technologies
The Framework gives you a choice of development technology and RDBMSs; it adapts to most platforms, operating systems and development tools.
- Intuitive Application Development. Framework components enable programmers to avoid the details of database access and processing. This reshapes the learning curve and shortens development timeframes.
- Most Preferred RDBMSs. The Framework lets you choose the ODBC- or JDBC-compliant relational database management system you prefer. These include Microsoft® SQL Server®; IBM® DB2; and Oracle®, Sybase® and Informix® databases.
- Popular Platforms. The Framework's highly portable components are compatible with the most widely used development environments found in healthcare — Windows® and UNIX.
- COM and Java™ Versions. The Framework is available in both COM and platform-independent Java versions. It offers identical functionality, and provides interfaces for the Framework Foundation Classes. Framework components are easily accessible from popular programming environments, such as Microsoft Visual C ®, Microsoft Visual Basic®, Java and others.
Clinical Decision Support Modules
The Drug Information Framework encompasses a wide selection of database modules that enhance clinical decision support. These modules enable information system developers to offer their customers a wide range of drug screening information at the point of care within their customers' own pharmacy or hospital systems.
Built-in Service Highlights
Many Framework components help conserve scarce resources normally spent in developing your healthcare applications. Here are just a few highlights.
- Multiple Access Points™ (MAPs). The Framework components make your point of entry into the drug data as specific or general as you need for your application, including use of diverse set of identifiers.
- Intuitive Domain-Based Objects. The Framework models the drug domain with intuitive objects that represent familiar concepts in the healthcare space, for easier software familiarization.
- Programmatic Convenience. The Framework is designed to answer the questions developers are most likely to ask. Customization. A customization layer lets the developer tailor several of the clinical modules in the Framework database.
- Your Choice of Clinical Monographs. Once you have integrated drug monograph information, your clinical customers will no longer need to waste time switching between applications or mastering multiple interfaces.
Built-in First DataBank Quality
Each release of the Framework undergoes extensive and rigorous validation testing by our team of dedicated quality assurance analysts, using automated testing tools.