2020 Volume 21 Issue 3 Pages 164-169
The purpose of this study is to determine the status of and issues facing tuberculosis examinations performed at medical facilities in Japan and to develop versatile software for employees undergoing such examinations. Semi-structured interviews on tuberculosis examinations were administered to 10 nurses certified in infection control with experience in tuberculosis contact examinations at medical facilities in Japan. The interviews were conducted from October 25, 2016 to November 23, 2017 with the approval of the Research Ethics Committee of this university. Data fields to include in software for employees undergoing tuberculosis examinations at medical facilities were selected based on the interview findings, and the basic design of the software was undertaken.
The interview findings indicated that the tuberculosis examination data of employees on encountering infected person with tuberculosis is not converted into data usable for managing their health. To address this issue, we designed software in Microsoft Access 2016 for managing the information of those infected with tuberculosis linked with the information of personnel who perform contact examinations. The software enables history control for employees who perform multiple contact examinations during their employment. The fields in the software were selected from contact examinations list information of different medical facilities targeted for research. The software is versatile in that only a minimum number of fields need be completed, and the other fields are optional. This software will enable the ongoing support and evaluation of medical facility employees who provide contact examinations.
We developed versatile software for the ongoing support of medical facility employees who perform tuberculosis contact examinations. We will improve the software for practical use through repeated trials at medical facilities.
