by Leonard Konis

Created on: January 30, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

In July 2006, study by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences reported
1.5 million U.S. residents are injured each year, about 800,000 adverse drug reactions, occur annually at U.S. long-term health care facilities at a cost to hospitals of $3.5 billion a year, and more than 7,000 killed because of prescription errors. According to the Institute of Medicine, if a prescription is tied in with an electronic health record, it will be easier for clinincians to check it against a patient's record for allergies and potential drug interactions. The report recommends that all prescribers and pharmacies use e-prescriptions (electronic prescriptions) by 2010.

In January 2006, a coalition of technology vendors (Dell, Cisco Systems, Allscripts, Sure Scripts, Spring Nextel Incorporated, and Google. Content sponsors: Fujitsue Computers of America, Microsoft, Spring and Wolters Kluwer Health are also partners in the e-prescribing coalition.), and three major insurance's (Aetna, Wellpoint and Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey.) formed a $100 million alliance project, provide free electronic prescribing services to every physician in the United States. The Web-based prescription system, called The National ePrescribing Patient Safety InititativeSM (NEPSISM) is designed to offer physicians and health care workers many benefits, and security features: Prevents Medication errors often caused by illegible handwritten paper prescriptions. Eliminate handoff errors, occurs when a patient moves from a hospital to a doctor. System quickly generates a simple, safe, and secure electronic prescriptions that can be send computer-to-computer or via electronic fax to 55,000 retail pharmacies (Ninety-five percent of all U.S. pharmacies - via SureScripts.) The capability NEPSISM provides physicians instantly check for potential harmful interactions with a patient's other medications, using a real-time complete medication database provided by Wolters Kluwer Health. Offers physicians, targeted health related information for themselves or patients using a custom search engine designed by Google. Also, real-time notification of insurance fornmulary status from leading payers, plans and pharmacy benefit programs. Regarding security features: NEPSISM provides security against patient information from being stolen, even if a physician's computer or phone is stolen. The patient information is stored on remote servers in a secure location. Also, provides multiple

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