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Doctors now have the ability to issue e-prescriptions through the mobile app eRx even when there is no internet connection. The new functionality, developed by Information Services, eases medical personnel and patients in home visits and emergencies, especially in hard-to-reach areas. In offline mode, the electronic prescription is saved locally on the medical professional's mobile device and when the Internet connection is restored, it is sent to the NHIS. The issued prescription immediately becomes part of the patient's electronic health record and can be fulfilled by any pharmacy, which saves doctors and citizens time and costs. Through eRx, doctors can issue an electronic prescription at any time and from any point, without access to a computer with medical software. The new version of the mobile app also includes interface improvements related to patient data, prescription medications, prescription medication instructions, and more.
The ability to use the eRx application in offline mode is another important functionality that the Information Service develops to promote social benefits of the public and ensures transparency, publicity and traceability of the processes. On the other hand, it increases the control over the disbursement of funds for medicines.
The mobile application for issuing electronic so called "white" prescriptions can be used by all doctors, dentists, paramedics and veterinarians. eRx can be used to issue e-prescriptions that meet the requirements of the National Health Information System (NHIS). For greater patient convenience, the National Reference Number (NRN) of the issued e-prescription can be shared with the patient via SMS or other short messaging application. So far, over 300,000 electronic prescriptions have been issued through eRx.
The Information Service team is in constant communication with the representatives of the professional associations that use the application, and in its next versions, the functionalities agreed with them for the existence of prescription templates will be added in order to facilitate and speed up the process of prescribing medicinal products. With the app upgrade, eRx will also be available for use by Emergency Medical Center staff in the coming months, which will further relieve patients. The possibility of chronological tracking of each issued electronic prescription will also be available. The app can be downloaded for free from the App Store and Google Play. For iOS mobile devices, a minimum operating system version of 14 is required, and for Android devices, a minimum version of 9 is required.
The Information Services` data shows that since the launch of the system, more than 47 million electronic prescriptions have been issued through the NHIS, and 1,762 million of them are so-called "white". Over 70% of them have already been fulfilled in the pharmacy network. Canceled "white" prescriptions consist only 3% of those issued through the NHIS. The data clearly shows that the electronic equivalent successfully replaces paper prescriptions.