Following steps have been taken to improve the system of online prescription system in India:
i. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare notified the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Standards for India in August 2013. The EHR Standards include standards for Disease Classification, Medicine and Clinical terminology, Laboratory Data exchange, Digital Imaging and Communication, unique identifiers for patients- preferably linked to Aadhaar etc. for interoperability.
ii. Computerization of District/Sub-district hospitals & Community Health Centres (CHCs) to implement the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) for creation of Electronic Health Record and online prescription is being undertaken in a phased manner with the purpose of better delivery of services to patients and improvement in efficiency of processes at hospitals/ health care institutions. Financial support has been provided to Chandigarh, Himanchal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu during the current year.
iii. Online Registration System (ORS) is being implemented in various hospitals in States/UTs and Central Govt. Hospital/Institutes to provide online registration, online appointment services to citizens along with online viewing of medical reports on ORS portal by citizens. So far it has been implemented in more than 56 State/ central Government Hospitals.
iv. Under National Telemedicine Network scheme Primary Health Centres(PHC)/CHCs providing primary healthcare facilities & District/ Sub District hospitals providing secondary healthcare facilities are being interlinked with the Medical Colleges and Super Speciality Hospitals providing tertiary healthcare facilities for providing Tele-Consultation & Tele-Follow-up services with specialist through on-line prescription/ e-Prescription with the purpose of reaching out to rural & remote areas. Financial support has been provided to Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tripura during the current year.
v. Recognition to medicine prescriptions through telemedicine call centres is under consideration of the Medical Council of India.
vi. National eHealth Authority is being set up as a statutory body for promotion/adoption of eHealth standards, to enforce privacy & security measures for electronic health data, and to regulate storage & exchange of Electronic Health Records.
