State government is planning to implement of using e-prescriptions in all government and private hospitals. This initiative is aimed to reduce paper wastage and reduce the margin of error with hand-written prescriptions.

Also, the TDP government had planned for a similar initiative and make e-prescriptions available on phones as the government wants the health industry to go paperless. A senior official of the health department said that the initiative would not only transform the medical industry but also help in preventing malpractice. He further said they are also planning a smartphone app-based prescription service to cut down the costs.

Though e-prescriptions are environment-friendly but they can create a financial burden on the State as the government have to equip hospitals with computers.

To make this move a success, doctors would have to use computers or tablets to write prescriptions and then e-mail it to the patients. The pharmacy or the pathology labs, who are opposing this initiative, would also need computers and staff to access the digital prescriptions.

IMA’s national member, Dr P Gangadhar said that this is actually a huge task and requires hospitals to reorganize their working procedure. A patient’s ID will play a key role and their Aadhaar card would be linked with prescriptions, which will help in reducing communication gap between pharmacists and doctors.