Using SOA with Web Services for effective data integration of Enterprise Pharmaceutical Information Systems

Abstract: Medicines exist for combating illnesses and drug stores provide an outlet for consumers to gain access to these drugs. However, due to various factors such as cost of production, accessibility and legal issues as well as distribution factors, availability of these drugs at any location cannot be guaranteed at all times. There is need for individuals and organizations such as hospitals to be able to locate required drugs within given geographical vicinity. This is of immense importance especially during emergencies, travel, and in cases where the drugs are uncommon. This research work is aimed at solving this problem by designing a system that integrates all drugstores. The integration of the drug stores will be based on SOA concepts with web services via a central service bus. The database systems of the drug stores will be integrated via a service bus such that drugs can easily be searched for and the results will be displayed based on its availability. Drugs can easily be searched for within geographically distributed pharmaceutical databases as well as consumption of drugs with relation to geographical locations can easily be monitored and tracked. This will make it easy for health institutions to research on drug consumption patterns across geographical areas and also control their usage.