Prescribering

Prescribering is not a widely recognized term in medical literature. In most contexts, the activity it would describe is known as prescribing: the process by which a licensed clinician authorizes a medication or other treatment for a patient. Some writers or theorists have used prescribering as a neologism to discuss the systems, protocols, and decision-making surrounding prescriptions.

As a concept, prescribering encompasses the clinician's assessment, diagnosis, selection of therapy, dosing, duration, and monitoring. It includes considerations of patient factors, comorbidities, allergies, drug interactions, and the potential need for contraindications. It also refers to the documentation and communication of a prescription to a patient and to a pharmacy, often via electronic means.

Digital health has expanded prescribering to electronic prescribing (e-prescribing), pharmacy benefit management, and integrated clinical decision support within electronic health records. These tools aim to improve accuracy, ensure safety, and track prescribing patterns for quality improvement. Legal and ethical frameworks govern prescribering, including licensure, consent, privacy (such as HIPAA in the United States), and controls on substances with abuse potential.

Challenges include interoperability between systems, data entry errors, alert fatigue, and disparities in access. Proposals for improvement focus on standardized data formats, robust audit trails, patient education, and ongoing monitoring of therapeutic outcomes. Since prescribering is not a distinct standardized term, readers encountering it should clarify whether it refers to prescribing in general or a particular informatics framework.