The teledermatology provider Onlinedoctor – which in Germany also works with the Professional Association of German Dermatologists – is the first Swiss company to start the pilot phase for the e-prescription. This means that people with a skin problem receive an e-prescription after a specialist’s diagnosis – if drug therapy is required. For this, Onlinedoctor uses the e-prescription solution from Documedis, which was developed by the software company HCI Solution. The provider HIN (Health Info Net) provides the electronic signature.
doctors and pharmacists
In Switzerland, Article 51 of the Swiss Federal Medicinal Products Ordinance (VAM) came into force at the beginning of 2020, enabling prescriptions to be submitted electronically. This already regulates the minimum requirements for an electronic prescription in terms of authenticity, data integrity and confidentiality (Art. 51 Para. 2 TPO; SR 812.212.21). In May, the Association of Swiss Doctors (FHM) and the Swiss pharmacy association PharmaSuisse announced a collaboration with IT service providers for e-prescriptions.
The doctors create the e-prescription in a web application approved for electronic signatures, sign it with their personal electronic HIN-ID and upload it to OnlineDoctor. In addition to the signature, there are other security features such as copy protection and protection against forgery. This should allow the signed document to be sent via Onlinedoctor. Unlike in Germany, no special hardware is required, such as connectors for secure connection to the telematics infrastructure.
Where’s the recipe?
The German counterpart is created in a practice management system, signed by the doctors with the electronic health professional card in a forgery-proof manner and transmitted via the telematics infrastructure to the servers of Gematik GmbH, which is responsible for digitizing the healthcare system. Patients can then call up the e-prescription in the e-prescription app and have it scanned in the pharmacy using a 2D code or send it to a pharmacy within the app. In the Swiss variant, the prescription is the property of the patient. The e-prescription is in the form of a PDF document with a QR code. An e-mail address and a smartphone or laptop are required for this.
The patient can then redeem the prescription at any local pharmacy or online. However, the pharmacy must meet the technical requirements for this. As soon as the pilot phase is over, all pharmacies in Switzerland can be connected to the infrastructure. According to Onlinedoctor, the health data is not stored by “external partners” during the entire process.
“In the past, there have been numerous attempts by providers to also issue prescriptions in digital space. The authentication of medical staff and secure transmission have so far posed major challenges,” says Dr. Tobias Wolf, co-founder of Onlinedoctor.
competition in Switzerland
While various companies can offer e-prescriptions in Switzerland, only Gematik is currently allowed to do so in Germany as part of a test phase for e-prescriptions. In Switzerland, on the other hand, other services such as Medi24 will probably start the test phase in the future. In the long term, it is planned that medical practices, pharmacies and telemedicine providers will be able to connect to the technology within the framework of a standard set in Switzerland.
