1. Introduction

1.1. What is the Medication Counseling Assistant?

•  The Medication Counseling Assistant has been developed as the first of its kind to make it easy for practicing pharmacist to counsel foreign-origin patients who are not proficient in English. The Medication Counseling Assistant contains translations of patient instructions and other words/phrases frequently used in pharmacy.

1.2. When can I use Medication Counseling Assistant?

•  You can use the Medication Counseling Assistant when you experience difficulty counseling a patient due to a language barrier. Using the website, you can find translations of patient instructions for different dosage forms, side effects, and other useful words and phrases. With the Medication Counseling Assistant, you can have your computer speak the word or phrases you want to tell your patient. These sound files have been recorded by native speakers so that the patient would have no problem understanding them.

1.3. Supported languages

•  Currently, the Medication Counseling Assitant can assist you with Spanish and Bosnian. We have completed translations in several other languages including East Asian languages but have not yet developed a web interface. Please email Jay Currie, Pharm.D. at jay-currie@uiowa.edu for more information.

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2. System Requirements

2.1. Windows 98/ME/2000/XP Users

•  The following is the system requirement for you to be able to use the Medication Counseling Assistant.
•  CPU: Pentium III equivalent or better
•  Operating System: Windows 98 or above.
•  Memory: 256 MB or more
•  PS/2 or USB Mouse
•  Broadband Internet Connection (e.g. ISDN, Cable modem, DSL, T1, T3)
•  Speakers
•  We also recommend that you have the most recent Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer to ensure proper display of the contents. You can download the most recent version of Windows Media Player from Microsoft's Windows Media Player site, and Internet Explorer from Microsoft's Internet Explorer site.

2.2. Other Operating Systems

•  We currently do not support systems running other operating systems such as Unix, Linux, OS2, and Mac OS.

2.3 For Netscape Users

•  Most parts of the Medication Counseling Assistant is compatible with Netscape 6 or above. However, the pages under Frequently Used Words are not compatible with Netscape. Also, you may find it harder to use the Medication Counseling Assistant with Netscape when you click on the Play button on Windows Media Player control. Please download Internet Explorer to take full advantage of the features that the Medication Counseling Assitant can offer.

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3. How to Use the Medication Counseling Assistant

3.1. Pharmacists

•  As a pharmacist, you can use the Medication Counseling Assistant when a patient comes into your pharmacy without no or little English proficiency. The text within each page is large enough to show your patient within 1 meter or 1 yard. We have found that many patients that come from underdeveloped countries, especially the elderly people, do not read their own language. The idea of recording the translated words and phrases came from this finding. You can find the page you would like to see using the search function if you are using the web version. In order to get to your desired page, you can search using keyword. For instance, "QD" for once daily instructions, or "ear" for otic dosage form instructions. However, CD versions have no included search functions at this time. Users are recommended to use the drop-down menu on the upper-right corner of each screen to navigate through the Medication Counseling Assistant.

3.2. Patients

•  The Medication Counseling Assistant is not to be used by patients.

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 4. Known Problems

• Systems that have Windows Media Player 7 or below may experience difficulty playing the recorded sound files and/or improper display of Windows Media Player control. To download the latest version of Windows Media Player, please visit Microsoft's WMP website.
• Users Browsing the Medication Counseling Assistant with Netscape have reported that they do not see the Windows Media Player controls on several page. This may be due to plug-in incompatibilty with Netscape. Downloading plug-ins from Netscape's plug-in page will not resolve this issue.
• Search functions do not come with a CD version. Currently, they only work on our website.

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5. Credits

• Pictograms used in this project have been taken from the United States Pharmacopeial Convention Inc. with permission. For licensing agreement information, please visit USP's website.

Thank you to the Community Pharmaceutical Care Clerkship at People's Pharmacy, Waterloo, Iowa and preceptor Mary Tasler, Pharm.D.
Project initiated during a College of Pharmacy Clinical Clerkship at The University of Iowa by Carrie Koenigsfeld, Spring 1998.