Health Information Technology
Doctors who use electronic prescribing applications were more likely to verify the accuracy of prescriptions than those who do not use e-prescribing, but research does not indicate that adoption of e-prescribing has been a boon to patient-physician communication, according to a study in the American Journal of Managed Care.
The authors found that e-prescribing can provide doctors with tools to educate patients, access accurate medication histories and verify whether patients pick up their prescription but that physicians are nonetheless unaware of many aspects of patients' medication use.
The study concluded that e-prescribing cannot effectively improve communication between patients and providers until more physicians learn effective methods for adopting the technology without jeopardizing routine care (Lapane et al., American Journal of Managed Care, November 2007).