Functional Requirements of the Pharmacy Information Systems from the Pharmacists' Perspective: A Qualitative Approach

In the field of studying information systems, qualitative approach is one of the ways to extract the system requirements from the perspective of the users. Therefore, this study was performed to identify the functional requirements of the pharmacy information system from the perspective of the pharmacists using a qualitative approach.

This qualitative study was performed using conventional content analysis approach. In this study, 15 pharmacists who worked at hospitals affiliated to Fars University of Medical Sciences, were selected using purposive sampling. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews (30-40 min) in 2016. Data were analyzed using Graneheim and Lundman's method by MAXQDA v.10 software. Lincoln and Guba's criteria were used to ensure the accuracy and trustworthiness of the study

After analysis of the data obtained from interviews, five main categories and 13 subcategories were obtained. The main categories include the ability to accurately reconcile medication lists (medication reconciliation), update and flexible reporting, systems interoperability, integration with the decision support system, and access to the clinical information.

According to the results, evaluation of the systems before purchase and comparing them with the expected functional requirements of the users, are necessary. Also, in the case of intraorganizational design of these systems, skilled analysts who are familiar with health organizations should be employed to extract the users' needs.