Erecept

Erecept, or electronic prescription, is a digitally issued prescription created by a clinician and transmitted to a pharmacy or patient portal. It replaces paper scripts and is a core component of modern eHealth systems, aiming to improve efficiency, safety, and access to medicines.

How it works: A clinician enters the prescription into an electronic health record or dedicated e-prescribing system. The system checks for validity and safety issues such as interactions or allergies, then transmits the prescription via a secure network to a central hub or directly to the patient’s chosen pharmacy. The patient can receive confirmation and, in many systems, view the prescription details through a portal. The pharmacist dispenses the medication after verification.

Benefits and standards: Erecept reduces legibility problems, errors, and administrative burden while enabling real-time safety checks, audit trails, and better adherence monitoring. Implementations rely on standardized terminologies and formats (for example SNOMED CT, RxNorm) and secure transmission protocols to support interoperability across clinicians, pharmacies, and health records.

Adoption and challenges: Adoption varies by country. Many jurisdictions have nationwide e-prescribing and some mandate it for certain drugs. Challenges include protecting privacy and data security, obtaining patient consent, achieving cross-system interoperability, and covering implementation costs. User training and workflow integration are critical to success.

Outlook: Erecept is increasingly integrated with electronic health records, patient portals, and telemedicine. Ongoing work focuses on expanding cross-border interoperability, enhancing safety features, and ensuring robust privacy protections.