Traditional Prescription Goes Digital in Veneto Region, Italy

From today, in Veneto Region the traditional prescription will make room for the digital one. The prescription drug will no longer be delivered to patients by general practitioners on the traditional "red prescription", but through a memo printed on white paper. With this reminder citizens will, as usual, go to the pharmacy and pick up the prescribed medication. A minor change to the user that implies a great evolution for health services of Veneto. Indeed, the infrastructure needed to implement the regional Electronic Health Record, essential tool to both regional and national health care system for the improvement of services to citizens, has been created thanks to the dematerialisation of pharmaceutical prescriptions. To achieve the objective the process of dematerialisation of production and delivery of prescriptions has been completed thanks to the telecommunication network that connects physicians, Local Health Authorities, pharmacies, Region and the Ministry of Economy. This goal was achieved by Veneto Region in collaboration with all the regional Local Health Authorities and the support of Arsenàl.IT, Veneto's Research Centre for eHealth Innovation, that has as its members the LHAs and hospital trusts of the Region and coordinates the initiative within the project regional Electronic Health Record.

The system is ready for the green light on September 1. As of today in fact, 98% of GPs and paediatricians who work in the Region send already digital prescriptions, while 97% of the regional pharmacies are capable of delivering drugs according to the new mode.

However it should be pointed out that, in order to enable the continuity of service, it is still possible for physicians to use the traditional prescription during home medical examinations and in some exceptional cases, while a specific series of drugs is excluded from the digital prescription process at the moment.

It is important to underline that the transition to digital prescriptions allows significant savings to the health system. Arsenàl.IT has calculated that due to the dematerialization of pharmaceutical prescription (about 40 millions per year) Veneto will save € 3,244,901 per year.

Citizens will be informed of the change through a communication campaign titled "Cambia il colore, aumenta il valore" (The colour changes, the value increases) that provides for the distribution of information materials in the offices of general practitioners and pharmacies.

About Arsenàl.IT, Veneto's Research Centre for eHealth Innovation
Veneto's Research Centre for eHealth Innovation, Arsenàl.IT aims at enhancing the clinical processes and the assistance offered to citizens by means of a collaboration among associated members, an optimization of involved resources, a reduction of costs and a facilitation of the change management.

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