“In a testament to how the federal government can change what happens in a physician’s exam room, the number of prescriptions that were routed to pharmacies electronically increased by 181% in 2009 compared with in 2008, according to a group formed by the pharmacy industry to promote this technology.
Although it has yet to become standard practice in medicine, electronic prescribing — aggressively pushed by the federal government — accounted for 18% of all prescriptions except those for controlled substances in December 2009 compared with 6.6% at the end of 2008. Furthermore, the number of physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants who prescribe this way more than doubled in 2009 to 156,000, representing 1 in 4 office-based prescribers.”
Article
Robert Lowes, Medscape, 5 March 2010
