eScripts Are Certainly Seeing A Good Deal of Attention At Present.

 This appeared last week:

MedAdvisor Launches ePrescribing Across Australia

Staff Writers / September 21, 2020

Medtech company MedAdvisor has been approved by the Federal Government via the Australian Digital Health Agency and will be launching its ePrescribing functionality to help connect GPs, pharmacists and patients as they navigate the rollout of eScripts across Australia.

The Federal Government accelerated the rollout of ePrescribing after the COVID-19 pandemic restricted patients’ ability to access their prescribers or pharmacies. The utility this will provide to facilitate remote medicines management and accurate dispensing is important in the Australian healthcare market.

“MedAdvisor is delighted to be the first in the Australian market with a digital app solution that helps patients keep track of and organise all their eScripts. The national rollout of ePrescribing provides patients with convenience, access and choice — something we’ve been long-time advocates for,” MedAdvisor CEO and Managing Director Robert Read said.

“Recent studies in nations that already use ePrescribing show that more than 80 per cent of patients prefer eScripts to paper. By providing continued excellence in customer service, combined with hyper-convenient patient experiences, local pharmacists can strengthen their loyal customer base and better compete with online pharmacies.”

The MedAdvisor platform utilises tokens as a streamlined, private and secure way to handle eScripts. The rollout will commence imminently in Victoria before rolling out nationally later this month.

“With the rise of telehealth and digital consults during this COVID-19 pandemic and the changes to prescribing temporarily allowed by the Government, prescribers have needed to send digital images of scripts directly to pharmacies via fax or email, which adds significant administrative burden for both prescribers and pharmacies, and poses the risk of prescribers channelling patients to specific pharmacies,” Read said.

“The introduction of ePrescriptions will solve these issues and put the control back in the patient’s hands.”

Tokens via the MedAdvisor app represent a simple and secure way for patients to receive and manage their ePrescriptions. This has involved extensive work from both the software and healthcare industries and the Government to ensure they meet the appropriate privacy and security standards.

From a patient perspective, tokens are similar to paper scripts but accessed digitally via SMS, email or mobile application, thereby minimising the risk of confusion and medication misadventure. It also allows patients to remain in control of who is accessing their medication information.

More here:

https://which-50.com/medadvisor-launches-eprescribing-across-australia/

I am not sure I understand just where this solution / app fits and how it relates to the present script exchanges and the various plans the ADHA has for Advanced Script Lists and so on? Comments welcome to inform me and others.

We also had this release which is a bit future looking but signals some progress.

Media release - Electronic prescriptions available throughout Victoria following success in Greater Melbourne

24 September, 2020: All Victorians will soon have access to electronic prescriptions as they are made available to the entire state beyond the initial rollout in Greater Melbourne.

There has been significant uptake of electronic prescriptions since they were made available across Greater Melbourne in August. Since then more than 34,000 electronic prescriptions have been received by patients in Melbourne from around 1000 prescribers and 600 community pharmacies.

Nationally, more than 100,000 electronic prescriptions have been written since May when the Australian Digital Health Agency started implementing the new technology as a way to support Australians during COVID-19.

If a patient prefers to receive an electronic prescription rather than paper from their doctor, they will receive an SMS or email. The patient then sends or takes this to their pharmacy of choice.

The SMS or email contains a token that unlocks the electronic prescription from a secure, encrypted electronic prescription delivery service. Once scanned, the token allows the pharmacist to see and then dispense the prescription.

“The introduction of electronic prescriptions in COVID-19 lockdown Melbourne has been especially timely,” said Dr Steven Kaye, a busy Melbourne general practitioner. “Electronic prescriptions provide a new, secure convenience for both patients and GPs. Electronic scripts support my work, especially for telehealth consultations, and patients are responding positively. The immediacy of obtaining their prescription token on their mobile phone or email has been really well received by my patients.”

Australian Digital Health Agency Interim CEO Bettina McMahon said “When it became clear in March that COVID-19 was going to significantly impact the way Australians receive health services, we held a number of urgent meetings with technology providers and medical groups. Everyone was enthusiastic to speed up innovation to make prescriptions available electronically and many people worked tirelessly for months to make this happen.”

“From the first electronic prescription in May, we tested the system in over 20 locations across Australia which gave us confidence that we were ready to do this in August across the whole of Melbourne. We’re thrilled that all Victorians will soon have access to electronic prescriptions, with the rest of Australia to follow.”

“Technology in health has never been more prevalent, from having access to your health records in one secure place, to telehealth consultations via phone or computer and now electronic prescriptions.”

“Electronic prescriptions have always made sense – they are stored securely, are available online and via mobile phone and they reduce paperwork while still giving the consumer choice about which pharmacy they go to. They also support the current and future use of telehealth and ensure continuity of healthcare during public health emergencies such as COVID-19,” said Ms McMahon.

People should check with their pharmacy to make sure they are ready to dispense electronic prescriptions.

More here:

https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/news-and-events/news/media-release-electronic-prescriptions-available-throughout-victoria-following-success-in-greater-melbourne

I note that this is still based on the single token system – as I suspect the ASL is undergoing a reathink!

On all prescriptions we also have these changes coming.

Active ingredient script changes

Sheshtyn Paola 23/09/2020

New legislative changes, requiring active ingredients to be included on most PBS and RPBS prescriptions, will be mandatory from 1 February 2021

The 2018-19 Budget announced the Federal Government’s commitment to active ingredient prescribing, with the aim of empowering patients to better understand their medicines.

Under new legislative requirements, which are mandatory from 1 February 2021, prescribers must include active ingredient names when preparing prescriptions for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Repatriation PBS (RPBS) medicines.

From this date, all eligible PBS and RPBS prescriptions will need to include the active ingredient, followed by brand if the prescriber believes it is clinically necessary, says the Department of Health.

There are some exceptions—the new regulations do not apply to:

• Handwritten prescriptions;
• Paper-based medication charts in the residential aged care sector;
• Medicines with four or more active ingredients; and
• Medicines that have been excluded to protect patient safety or where it is impractical to prescribe the medicine by active ingredient.

Consumers will start to notice active ingredient information on their PBS and RPBS prescriptions over the coming months, says the department. The changes mean most medicines will be prescribed by their active ingredient, not the brand name.

Active ingredient information will not only appear on prescriptions, but on medicines packaging, pharmacy dispensing labels and in My Health Record Shared Summaries.

“This latest initiative supports other government activities that help encourage general awareness around active ingredients, such as the TGA initiative to make active ingredient names on medicine packaging easier to locate and read,” explains NPS MedicineWise.

“The changes will also support greater consistency around how people see medicines information.”

NPS MedicineWise says this can lead to safer and more appropriate use of medicines by making it easier for patients to:

• check if they are taking the same active ingredient in more than one prescription medicine – to prevent accidental double dosing;
• check that they are not taking an active ingredient they’re allergic to;
• check that the active ingredient can be taken with medicines that have other active ingredients;
• identify suitable alternatives to their usual medicines when travelling overseas.

Research indicates that a substantial number of consumers only know their medicines by their brand name, and can easily double dose if they are inadvertently prescribed two different brands of medicine containing the same active ingredient.

This risk is exacerbated for elderly or chronically ill patients who are often required to take a number of medicines.

More here:

https://ajp.com.au/news/active-ingredient-script-changes/

So there seems to be a lot going on! Note an apparent impact in the myHealthRecord Shared Summary. Are all the current ones obsolete?

David.