Electronic prescription systems

Abstract

The electronic prescription happened as a need of the continuing improvement of the health care services and to manage limited resources. Electronic health records are always in evolution. United Kingdom is the best example with 100% users of electronic records in primary heath care. In the opposite, United States has 15% of users. Actually in Portugal the implementation of electronic health records begins its generalization, but evaluation data is insufficient. Three electronic systems are operating in Portugal; they are designed as SAM, MedicineOne and VITACARE.All systems enable the prescription by International Common Denomination and by brand name. Differences about administrative efficiency and cost management of drugs are not substantive.The attractiveness of the evolutionary systems, like VITACARE, is to be centred in the patient including a teamwork philosophy. In the MedicineOne the prescription support was designed to aid the clinician with effectively functional and clinically relevant alerts on toxicity, interactions (drugs, disease, age, allergies). The system SAM, albeit more basic and with some limitations, is better than manual prescription. The advantages with the adoption of the electronic prescription supports for the management of health information are greater than disadvantages, mainly due with lack of informatics support and the change of behaviours it implies. The most attractive aspects of the electronic prescription are: efficiency, usefulness, information content, user-friendly interface and Clinical Practice Guidelines integration into the clinician workflow processes prior to delivering recommendations on time, at the point of care.