Building a 'one-stop-shop' database for medical drug warnings

See below for an interview I did with the University of Sydney regarding the project.

What was your capstone unit?

For our Information Systems capstone unit (ISYS3888), we completed CS36 - Improving Access to Regulatory Safety Warnings on Medicines - Creation of a searchable Database

What was your project?

Our project was a 'one-stop-shop' for all drug warnings and advisories. After a drug is made, it undergoes many extensive tests to ensure its safety for use. However, once it is released to the public there is no easy way for medical professionals and users of a drug to find out any newly found impacts of the drug.

Some of these impacts can only be found after five, ten, or even 15 years after the drug was first released. It is therefore vital that people who have and are currently using it are aware of these adverse health effects.

We aimed to centralise this information and working with the Charles Perkins Centre (CPC) to create this online database provided us with the ability to transfer our well-developed technical skills into a real-world issue. The team at the CPC provided us with great domain knowledge and professional guidance.

The first thing we completed was to establish a clear scope of work with the client, which included gathering further requirements not specified in the initial document. This was to provide a clear expectation of what the final prototype would look like.

Once this baseline was established, we worked on an iterative design phase to figure out the design and functionally of the prototype. We then worked on implementing the frontend and backend code that would be required to implement the requirements.

The most difficult task was importing all the original data into our newly designed database schema. Throughout development, we would continuously update our live site so our client and associates could review development and changes, providing them the ability to make new suggestions and tweaks.

This occurred iteratively over multiple weeks until we came to the final prototype for handover. We believe we met the initial set of requirements as the client is now looking for ways to use this initial codebase for future use in their original project purpose.

What have you learned through this project?

Our team had to learn a lot in order to complete this project including learning new frameworks to support the site, registering and hosting a domain, and running routine server maintenance.

Working with representatives from the Charles Perkins Centre was an extremely rewarding experience. They provided us a real sense of purpose and direction that wasn’t only technically related, but also socially and culturally.

This project exposed to our group what it meant to work in a team and how the ‘real’ world works in a now online environment.

Link to the original post from the University of Sydney