MedInfoSys®: Integration with other systems
Whilst medical information is a specialist area with particular requirements, MedInfoSys® necessarily integrates with other company systems and processes, such that medical information becomes a seamless component of the IT infrastructure.
XML Intake
Enquiries are increasingly received to (or via) other systems – CRM systems, MSL systems, web-forms, etc – and MedInfoSys® has a generic module for accepting XML data into the system ready to populate enquiries: the specifics of the data format, where it comes from, how it reaches the system, etc, all need specific configuration, but the broad capability is in place.
E-mail and Fax
Integrating MedInfoSys® with the corporate e-mail system is a two-way process and greatly increases efficiency in processing enquiries and in organising workflow.
Further to the previous section, enquiries are increasingly received by e-mail – including from MSLs and sales reps – and, when integrated with incoming e-mail accounts, MedInfoSys® can then present these ready for processing (i.e. either accepting into the system as an enquiry, or, for non-enquiries, moved elsewhere for dealing with).
Where appropriate, enquiries can then also be replied to using e-mail from within MedInfoSys®.
Integration with the e-mail system also allows for the sending of notification mails directing staff to work that they need to carry out, and reminding them when deadlines are approaching, e.g.:
- When enquiries are re-assigned, directing the new assignees to those enquiries.
- When enquiry deadlines are approaching or missed.
- When revisions of reference material are required, overdue or completed.
MedInfoSys® integrates with all common corporate e-mail systems (Microsoft, Lotus Notes, etc); equally, NIP can host incoming e-mail accounts for customers and/or use its own SMTP server to send e-mails.
Similarly, an option exists within the system for integrating with the corporate fax gateway for the sending of Responses in electronic Fax format.
Rep Data
It is often beneficial to record on an enquiry which rep is associated with it – either as the rep made the enquiry on behalf of e.g. a doctor, or such that enquiries can be later grouped/reported-on in terms of rep coverage.
Accordingly, MedInfoSys® contains the facility to upload a structured spreadsheet of rep data, containing names, contact details and other “meta” information (such as the territory they cover, their roles and responsibilities, etc). Such a spreadsheet can usually be readily produced from any system used to manage rep data and freshly-uploaded to MedInfoSys® when any details change.
Then, if the rep is to be e.g. copied in on any response, their contact details are available in the system – be this their e-mail address, fax number or postal address.
Other Integrations
It is natural to utilise other resources and systems in the enquiry handling process – either as an input source or output location
Adverse Events and Product Complaints
Enquiries frequently escalate into Adverse Events and/or Product Complaints, at which point users will need to both record further details and pass the information onto another department.
By selecting the appropriate MedInfoSys® enquiry category, dedicated sections and fields become available in the enquiry form to record the additional information. This can then be distributed to other staff and departments in any of four ways, and the choice here depends largely on the company’s compliance profile:
- It can be printed to paper in a simple summary of the enquiry screen.
- Cases can be exported to Excel (see below).
- PDFs can be generated and e-mailed.
- With the relevant system options enabled, e-mails can be sent to the appropriate departments, containing information “scraped” off the enquiry form (with the option of confirmed receipt in the case of Adverse Events).
Exporting to Excel
MedInfoSys® produces powerful reports that can be quickly and easily viewed on screen. Some companies may wish to perform further analysis and to be able to view and use the information within Microsoft Excel – for presentations, data manipulation, etc.
MedInfoSys® can export data in .csv format to make this possible.
This is also possible from views of enquiries within the system, allowing users to select which enquiry form fields should be exported to Excel for a set of cases.
External Databases
Not all the information relevant to answering an enquiry will necessarily be housed in MedInfoSys® – not least to prevent duplication with other systems – and there is therefore an optional feature to specify up to 5 external databases that MedInfoSys® can launch from appropriate places in the workflow.