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suppliers. In 1986, Pharmacy Guild Victorian Branch also commenced its own computer project, partly because the issue of security of software purchase and the continuing viability of firms supplying software had become a real factor to consider when purchasing a pharmacy computer system.5 Its modern day business Pharmacy Computers Australia and PCA Nu Systems would be a later success story.
As systems became more sophisticated, McConochie took the business to the next stage, claiming that front of shop point of sale systems were the key to the survival of pharmacies.
It is worth noting that most initial applications of new or information technology for commercial applications commenced with
some book keeping or accounting function. Pharmacy computerisation was almost exclusively driven by the delivery of a more comprehensive dispensing function. Individual patient records were maintained allowing significant reference to a patient’s history and cross checking with current drug information
to present a visible story to the pharmacist to use in constructing a patient counselling episode. Not all pharmacists used this information technology in the way the developers hoped or expected but more and more did so as time went on.
As the systems got better APPCo became interested. Both Ross Brown and Jack Thomas were interested
in APPCo investing in Amfac Chemdata because of their symbiotic relationship with the PP Guide. The Guild was supplying ranges of pricing data in accordance with the Trade Practices Act as were the wholesalers and at one stage it was suggested that Amfac join with the Guild.
By 1988 most pharmacies were computerised and the vast majority with Amfac Chemdata. Amfac
Australian pharmacy 1986
Chemdata was eventually sold in 1994 to the international information systems company IMS. Both Crook and Trevena sold their interests with more than some regret but in an industry where timing is everything and Amfac’s market share was under threat from Windows based systems, their timing was extraordinarily prescient.
Another first from the pioneers of dispensary computerisation was the Claims Transmission Scheme, the major players being Amfac- ChemData, the Guild and the HIC.
The first claim took nearly an hour to process and print; the program went through the file four times, picking one category at a time. The next
one sorted all four in one run. The computer was an NEC APC 3; with a 20 MB hard drive, even though some experts insisted that 10 MB would be adequate!
The HIC supplied a modem to pharmacies to transmit their claims, but many pharmacists refused
to use them because they were fearful of the Government ‘getting into my computer and seeing my information’.
Crook and Trevena in pioneering the work of dispensary and linked information systems in pharmacy had not only served their profession well saving pharmacists both time and money, but had also helped make Australia’s pharmacy practice
18 Pharmacy History Australia
volume 5 no 37 NOVEMBER 2009
Ted Crook dispensing at Mawson Pharmacy using the original ChemData system.