Cancer Clinic Needs Help With Calculating Chemotherapy Dose, Patient List

Name of Company
Innovating Health International

Job Title
OpenEMR/PHP developer

Job Description

The most basic things that we need PHP help with:

  1. To have the Body Surface Area (BSA) to auto calculate. Its based on height and weight that we enter.

BSA (m2) = Square root( [Height(cm) x Weight(kg) ]/ 3600 )
This is entered into our notes in the “Layout Based” notes for all of the chemotherapy notes. We would need to add the calculation on all of the chemotherapy notes.

  1. Dose of chemo to auto calculate. This is based on BSA and changes based on each drug. For example, doxorubicin dose= 60 mg/m2 x BSA. Cyclophosphamide dose = 600mg/m2 x BSA. Docetaxel=120mg/m2 x BSA. Paclitaxel = 175mg/m2 x BSA

  2. Calculate amount nurses need to draw up of each med based on dose calculated above. Since the amount per vial changes, this will change for each drug.

Doxorubicin = Dose in mg x 2mg/mL=amount in mL

cyclophosphamide=dose in mg x 10mg/mL=amount in mL (rebecca to verify)

We can give the dosage and concentrations, I have a spreadsheet available with this ifnromation.

  1. We need to be able to make patient lists. One list might be breast cancer patients in active chemo. One might be cervical or breast cancer patients who finished chemo and are awaiting surgery. We could pull some of the lists based on something we input (like cancer type) or we can simply do manually created lists. We just need a way to track them even if its extra work.

  2. Drop down menus. We’d love to have dropdowns for type of cancer, tests you can order in the lab, drugs in the pharmacy. They could also be searchable lists that you can only choose one of the options listed. We currently have free text boxes for those in the whole system. We use this system to track our pharmacy inventory so all the drugs are already entered. Bonus points if the drug is not an option when the pharmacy runs out of it.

Required Skills
PHP developer, OpenEMR familiarity

About Us

Innovating Health International (IHI) is a non-profit dedicated to treating chronic diseases and addressing women’s health issues in Haiti and Malawi.

What we do

Working with local partners, we aim to increase access to treatment and education services for chronic diseases such as cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and injuries. Current projects include a Women’s Cancer Center, a large cancer awareness program, opening a pathology laboratory, and helping to build a national comprehensive cancer program.

What Innovating Health looks like

Collaboration and discovery are at the heart of our practice and guide our organization’s ethos. Innovating Health means learning with others to bring our expertise in medical care, social engagement, community based research and problem solving into different contexts. We strive to create new and hybrid models of healthcare and engagement that do not seek to simply ‘build capacity’ but respond to local needs through constant iteration and consultation.

For more information
Please respond to this thread or email patrickhaley59@gmail.com if you can assist us.

2 Likes

Hi Patrick,
I am an experienced developer and I would be happy to help as this is well within my area of expertise.
You can reach me on andrewjohnson56782@gmail.com
Best Wishes,
Andrew