Recip-e: a leap ahead for patient care
Dirk Broeckx, pharmacist and Secretary General of the APB
Pharmacists and doctors see a number of advantages for the patient through the electronic prescription of medicines (and in the future also other types of care): fewer reading errors, less paper administration, a greater exchange of information and therefore better cooperation among care providers.
The doctor will be able to send electronic prescriptions to other healthcare providers and obtain feedback on its execution via the ‘Recip-e’ platform. The project uses basic eHealth services, where the patient data nonetheless fully remains under the control of the care providers. Pharmacists see many advantages here: more time for the patient through the automation of administration, preventing medicines-related problems through IT support and smoother communication and cooperation within the care team. In a nutshell, there is better quality of care, and where the patient is centrally important.
ICT in healthcare is currently being developed along three tracks, which will be linked to each other in the near future. On the first track, work is being done on better reference databases with product information, basic e-Health services and a link-up to MyCareNet to call up insurability and reimbursement certificates, among other items. Message transmission between care providers is being developed on the second track. Prescriptions and feedback can be exchanged with its help. The third track contains the building blocks for sharing electronic patient files among the various care providers.
The pursued target is more efficient patient care where more health is produced in relatively less time and preferably in the most economically way possible.
