Doctors Embrace E-Prescription Elixir

The Internet is rapidly becoming the preferred delivery vehicle for placing medical prescriptions and tracing medication history, according to two current studies on e-prescribing. That spells good news for pharmacists who have long struggled with trying to read a hurried physician’s scribbling on a paper prescription pad.

A record 788 million prescriptions were routed electronically in 2012, according to the soon-to-be-released “National Progress Report on E-Prescribing and Safe-Rx Rankings,” by Surescripts, a national healthcare information network in Crystal City, Va. That's up from 570 million in 2011, with 69 percent of office-based physicians now using e-prescribing in their practice.
(See my complete blog on the topic at www.internetevolution.com)