(University of Nottingham)

Available in Windows and Web/Intranet Versions ISBN: 1 84211 003 9
Programmed by: Julie Calder
Subject Specialists : Stephanie Bridges,Nick Shaw

The eye disorders package is designed to teach pharmacy undergraduates about prescribing practices for a variety of eye complaints. The package is interactive, and simulates actual cases which may be presented in a community pharmacy. Each of five patients presents with a specific problem, which is shown as an image scanned in from a photograph and a spoken text. The specific eye complaints which are dealt with include a stye, a meibomian cyst, a subconjunctival haemorrhage and allergic and infective conjunctivitis.


[Screenshot]
A Screen from the Eye Disorders package

NOTE: Images of actual photographs are used in this package. To see the detail in these images, it is essential to run the computer in 256 colours.

Contents

  • Fred's Eye Picture: Fred's Treatment
  • Bob's Eye Picture: Bob's Treatment
  • Jack's Picture: Jack's Treatment
  • Jill's Eye Picture: Jill's Treatment
  • Sue's Eye Picture: Sue's Treatment
Before appropriate course of action is, the pharmacist ( i.e. the user ) must ask a number of questions, and make a decision accordingly. For each patient, the user moves through the following menu system:
  • Menu A - Questions to ask the patient
  • Menu B - Diagnosis
  • Menu C - General Advice
  • Menu D - Medication

Summary
Once the user has diagnosed the complaint correctly, he/she must give advice and choose suitable medication for that patient. After each choice has been made, an explanation is given as to why it was the correct or incorrect choice.

The package is structured so that the main menu consists of a list of patients, and the five submenus contain details of each patient's specific complaint. The user can choose at this point whether to return to the patient list ( i.e. main menu ), to refer the patient to a doctor or to consider treatment for that patient. Assuming the decision is made to treat, the user then moves to the main activity for that patient, which contains menus A to D ( as described above ) and the summary for that patient. Hence there are five main activities, each one corresponding to a different patient.

Hardware and Software Requirements

Windows Version
The package is supplied on a CD-ROM Installation Disc and can be installed to a local hard disc or network drive. The minimum requirement is a PC with 100MHz Pentium processor , 8Mb of RAM and a VGA monitor capable of displaying 16-bit color (65, 536 colors) at 640 x 480 resolution. The program is 32-bit and is compatible with Windows 95, 98 and NT.
Web Version
The package is supplied on a CD-ROM Installation Disc for installation to a web server. The software runs on PC clients only. The minimum requirement is a 200MHz Pentium processor with 32Mb of RAM and a Super VGA monitor capable of displaying 16-bit color (65,536 colors) at 800 x 600 resolution. The program is compatible with both Netscape Navigator 4.x and Internet Explorer 4 or better and requires Java and Javascript to be enabled on browsers.