The antibiotic cost calculator; an expert system for global antibiotic cost calculation.

An application to cost antibiotic therapy was developed using Object Vision, an object-oriented software development program. The application facilitates calculation of the cost of up to six antibiotics (three oral and three intravenous) in terms of acquisition, delivery, laboratory and complication components. The application consists of two files. The first file allows entry of basic cost data. The second file allows the user to define each antibiotic regimen and the management, and thus the cost, of complications relevant to the antibiotics being costed; costs are automatically calculated and displayed. The program also contains a help system; this comprises extensive explanation of each stage of the calculation process, a summary of recent literature on the percentage incidence of complications for commonly used antibiotics, and a bibliography. The summary and bibliography may be printed. The program is designed for use by hospitals, universities and pharmaceutical companies for calculation of total in-patient charges, marketing and research. It is a user-friendly system which dramatically reduces the inherent complexities of this area of medicine.