Physicians' attitudes towards eprescribing: a comparative web survey in Austria and Sweden.
BACKGROUND
The eHealth Action Plan required the member states of the European Union (EU) to provide online services such as eprescribing of pharmaceuticals by the end of 2008. So far, implementation activities and efforts of the member states have been uneven. While in Austria pilot projects and feasibility studies have been conducted, Sweden has always been one of the leading countries in the field of eprescribing.


OBJECTIVE
To identify potential success factors for the implementation of eprescribing in Sweden, by comparing the attitudes of Austrian and Swedish physicians.


METHODS
In a web survey, we asked 1824 Austrian and 427 Swedish physicians within primary care and other disciplines to declare to what extent they agreed with ten statements regarding their attitudes towards eprescribing. We deployed the chi-square test for testing the relationship between the country of residence of physicians and their attitudes towards eprescribing.


RESULTS
We demonstrated a relationship between the country of residence of physicians and their attitudes towards eprescribing (P<0.001) for all the responses. Of the Swedish physicians, 92% regarded eprescribing as time-saving, 88.1% as being safer and 96.0% as providing a better service for patients. Although less strongly supportive, the attitudes of the Austrian physicians were mainly positive.


CONCLUSIONS
We found that the major potential success factors for the implementation of eprescribing in Sweden were saving of time for the physician, improved safety and better service for patients. The mainly positive attitudes of the Austrian physicians may enable implementation of eprescribing in due course.
Steinschaden
Thomas
T
eHealth Institute, School of Human Sciences, University of Kalmar, SE-391 82 Kalmar, Sweden. thomas.steinschaden@gmail.com
Petersson
Göran
G
Astrand
Bengt
B
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001317:Austria; D003219:Confidentiality; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D055695:Electronic Prescribing; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D013548:Sweden