Upgraded Pharmacy Management Software awaits launch

To benefit retail medicine shops in Bangladesh, the BHB project developed Pharmacy Management Software (PMS) for owners to make available free of charge. The PMS tool provides sales information on the volume of each type of medicines, the proportion of prescription-only vs. over-the-counter drugs, and the proportion of antibiotics by WHO AWaRe (Access, Watch, Reserve) categories, etc. Owners can also use PMS to track expired medicines for disposal and their transactions and profit-loss situation. BHB maintains close communication with the medicine shops that use the software and guides them on its use and how to fix any problems. Based on user feedback, BHB engaged a software firm in September 2023 to add new features and upgrade the technology. Improvements to the process flow of shop registration, procurement, and sale of medicines and inventory management will minimise the effort and time needed for user transactions. The reporting dashboard is also being redesigned to provide a comprehensive and easy-to-understand picture of medicine shop operations. The upgraded version is expected to launch by the end of November 2023. BHB believes that this new version of the PMS will accelerate the DGDA’s accreditation initiative for Model Pharmacies and Model Medicine Shops in Bangladesh.