The national e-medication approaches in Germany, Switzerland and Austria: A structured comparison.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies show that many patients are harmed due to missing or erroneous information on prescribed and taken medication. Many countries are thus introducing eHealth solutions to improve the availability of this medication information on a national scale (often called "e-medication"). The objective of this study is to analyse and compare the national e-medication solutions just being introduced in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. METHODS: Information on the situation in the three countries was collected within an expert group and complemented by an analysis of recent literature and legislation in each country. RESULTS: All three countries formulate comparable goals for the national eHealth solutions, focusing on improving medication safety. All three countries do not have a national e-prescription system. In all three countries, the implementation process was slower than expected and e-medication is not yet fully available. Differences of the three countries exist regarding chosen architectures, used standards, offered functionalities, and degree of voluntariness of participation. CONCLUSION: Nationwide e-medication systems and cross-border harmonization are acknowledged as important goals towards medication safety, but they develop slowly mainly due to privacy and security requirements, the need for law amendments and last but not least political interests.

Research in the field of drug therapy safety management.

In August 2011, the Coordination Group for the implementation and continuation of the agenda for improving medication safety in Germany published a memorandum on the development of research in the field of drug therapy safety management (Memorandum on Drug Therapy Safety Management Research). The memorandum highlights the need for research into this field for the German health care system. It describes current research objectives, thematic priorities and the characteristics of the methodology of drug therapy safety management research. After presenting the current state of research into drug therapy safety management, suggestions are made regarding further necessary activities.

[Definitions related to pharmacovigilance and drug safety]. / Definitionen zu Pharmakovigilanz und Arzneimitteltherapiesicherheit (AMTS).

Terms and definitions for drug safety management have changed and are not used uniformly. Due to the different use of definitions many studies cannot be compared directly. After the amendment of the EU Directive on pharmacovigilance in 2012 a proposal for using these terms und definitions now exists. However, some definitions and terms are imprecise. Furthermore, the authors make suggestions regarding a more detailed version of the terms in pharmacovigilance in order to have a better differentiation for types of medication errors.

[Drug safety research]. / Forschung auf dem Gebiet der Arzneimitteltherapiesicherheit (AMTS).

In August 2011 the Coordination Group for the implementation and continuation of the agenda for improving medication safety in Germany (1) published a memorandum on the development of research in the field of drug therapy safety management titled "Memorandum for research in drug therapy safety management". This memorandum highlights the need for research in this field for the German health system. It describes current research objectives, thematic priorities and the characteristics of the methodology of drug therapy safety management research. After presenting the state of research on drug therapy safety management, the kind of research activities needed will be outlined. (As supplied by publisher).