The Bulgarian pilot project will include one municipality, three GPs and five pharmacies. During this phase, the main objectives will be to establish insurance status, and issue electronic prescriptions.
While the cards will primarily be used for identification, they may also carry digitally signed electronic prescriptions (the prescription itself is stored on a separate prescription server) from the doctor to a participating pharmacy.
Future functionality could include drug interaction and contraindication checks to reduce medical errors, the news report added.
The project traces its lineage to an ongoing health card project currently undergoing field testing in Germany, but adapted to the particular needs and specific workflows of the Bulgarian healthcare system, participants said.
The German project has recently started the first official field tests in two regions, and plans to add five additional regions with 10,000 patients each this year. Once completed, two more regions of 100,000 patients each will be added prior to full national rollout.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Emer Mullins
Quelle/Source: Irish Medical Times, 23.11.2007
