In practice, when the patients participating in the pilot need a prescription, their doctors send it to a central database via their computer. The only thing the patients need to do to have the medicines delivered at the pharmacy, is to provide their social security number to the chemist.
Digital prescriptions bring many advantages to those involved in the process. Patients can be more confident that they receive the right medicines, and the risks of misinterpretation of the prescription by the chemist and subsequent medical errors disappear. The prescriptions can neither be lost nor forgotten.
Moreover, patients can access a secure web service - MineResepter.no - where they can find useful information on their ongoing prescriptions; they can see part of the prescription and check how long it is valid. It is worth nothing that the pages have been made accessible to the blind and visually impaired.
The Directorate of Health, an administrative body under the Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion, is leading the efforts to develop and test digital prescriptions, with the support of the Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (DIFI).
DIFI explained that without a secure login solution, the MineRespeter.no service would have never seen the light. In order to access it, patients need to prove who they are by means of an electronic identity (eID) provided by DIFI.
Together with a private supplier, DIFI has tested what it says is 'the most secure ID solution', which is planned to be made available to all in November 2010 through the so-called 'ID port' - the common infrastructure for the use of eID in the public sector. Electronic ID with the highest level of security makes it possible to send sensitive health information while making sure that it cannot be read by unauthorised persons.
The purpose of the pilot phase is to identify possible weaknesses and make necessary adjustments. Since the pilot's launch, results have proved to be positive; physicians, chemists and patients expressed their satisfaction. After the municipality of Os, the city of Larvik (Vestfold county, south eastern Norway) is to join the testing phase soon. More pilots will take place during the autumn of 2010.
Further information:
- Original press release - DIFI (in Norwegian)
- MineResepter.no (in Norwegian)
- About electronic ID (in Norwegian)
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Quelle/Source: epractice, 12.08.2010
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