Linked to EAHP Statements:
Section 5: Patient Safety and Quality Assurance

ACPE UAN: 0475-0000-16-011-L04-P. A knowledge based activity.

Abstract

E-health is more than a technology deployment; it's rather a commitment to a networked, patient-centred and accessible health-care system. E-health offers hospital pharmacists a way to improve patient's safety, to improve new patient-focused services, to improve interdisciplinary collaboration within the health-care team and to improve the quality and ensure continuity of the care.

Electronic prescribing and m-health (mobile health) represent examples of new technologies where the pharmacist's role should be non-interchangeable. Electronic prescribing is one of the examples of practices supported by electronic process and has the potential to endorse the medicine use process, provide management of prescriptions and also enable immediate access to medicines information. It has been shown that electronic prescribing can systematically reduce drug errors and prevent adverse drug effects in comparison to handwritten prescriptions. The pharmacist can play a key role in this process by identifying drug related problems and proposing interventions. However, there are still many hospitals without electronic prescribing systems or just planning to launch this practice in their settings. During this seminar, we will look back on the process of the implementation of the electronic prescribing, on the pros and cons of this kind of prescribing, on how to avoid mistakes when implementing electronic prescribing and we will show how pharmacists can be employed and be useful throughout the whole process.

Mobile communication technology is another example of e-health technologies. Many chronically ill patients are accustomed to using medical monitoring equipment in their daily lives. Many of these devices include products that people frequently purchase in pharmacies today. Thus for pharmacists, mHealth monitoring systems present an opportunity to improve the health of patients while gaining a way to become a more integral part of their healthcare teams. An example of pharmacists' involvement in m-health will be presented in this seminar.