ASOURCE Navi

From January 26th, the operation of electronic prescriptions, which are digitalized paper prescriptions that are taken to pharmacies after medical examinations at hospitals, began. Although it has not yet spread nationwide, it is expected that by unifying patient medical data, it will be possible to avoid duplicate prescriptions and inappropriate prescriptions. In addition to the mechanism of electronic prescriptions, we have summarized the benefits for medical institutions and pharmacies, the benefits for patients, and the challenges for widespread use.

As for the mechanism of electronic prescriptions, the prescription data of patients examined by doctors is first registered in a management server installed by the government. When a patient presents their My Number card or health insurance card at a pharmacy, the pharmacist checks the patient's prescription data on the server and provides the patient with the prescribed medicine. Until now, medical institutions and pharmacies have individually managed patient prescription information, but with the introduction of an electronic prescription system, it will be possible to centrally manage it using a database.

Medical institutions and pharmacies will be able to know information on drugs that have been prescribed to patients in the past with the patient's consent in the database, so it will be possible to avoid duplicate prescriptions and inappropriate combinations of drugs. increase. According to Nihonkai General Hospital (Sakata City, Yamagata Prefecture), which has introduced electronic prescriptions as a model business, 13% of all prescriptions in the surrounding area in 2020 are duplicate prescriptions, and 0.4% are prescriptions for drugs that do not mix well. was occurring. For this reason, the introduction of electronic prescriptions is expected to improve medical safety and reduce waste in medical expenses.

The use of electronic prescriptions eliminates the need for patients to bring paper prescriptions to the pharmacy. In addition to My Number card users, conventional health insurance card users can also receive electronic prescriptions. I have. If you have a "minor health insurance card" that links your health insurance card information to your My Number card, you can receive a prescription just by presenting your card at a pharmacy. In addition, patients can use their My Number card to check various applications and personal information on the personal website "Mynaportal", which allows them to check their medication history for the past three years, so they can keep a paper medicine notebook. There is no need to record and save to Furthermore, when combined with online medical consultations and online medication guidance, it will be possible to receive everything from examinations to prescriptions at home.

However, from January 26, only 19 medical institutions and 148 pharmacies in 30 prefectures can start using electronic prescriptions, and it is not yet available everywhere. In order to operate electronic prescriptions, it is necessary for medical institutions and pharmacies to introduce a dedicated system, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is providing support such as subsidies for the introduction of the system. In addition, as of January 22nd, 67.3% of the population is using My Number Cards, of which 57.6% are registered as health insurance cards.