title: A comprehensive e-prescribing model to allow representing, comparing, and analyzing available systems.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Even though ePrescribing systems are now available in many healthcare systems and have been a crucial milestone of the roadmaps towards eHealth in the last years, there is still a large heterogeneity among functionalities and performances of different systems.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this paper, we propose an updated comprehensive model for the ePrescribing process able to represent, analyze, and compare current systems and to support the design of new, more general, systems suitable also to sustain the ePrescription process in National Healthcare Systems.
  
  
  METHODS
  After a preliminary literature review, we identified six main phases of the ePrescribing process, namely Assign, Transmit, Dispense, Administer, Monitor, and Analysis Decision. Each phase produces a digital object characterized by formal properties that ensure the collection of appropriate data and information and works as input for the next one. The impact, in terms of benefits, of ePrescribing on governance, drug surveillance, and quality of care at the individual, territorial, and governmental levels are related to the formal properties of the digital objects created at the end of each phase.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The model-based implementation of each phase has an impact on the quality of care, the access to care, and the effectiveness of care delivery. The model does not cover cost evaluation, but the benefits identified can be used as basis for cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness analysis of heterogeneous systems.
authors.affiliation: e-Health Lab, Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. sara.marceglia@polimi.it
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marceglia
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mazzola
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonacina
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tarquini
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Donzelli
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pinciroli
mesh_terms: D055695:Electronic Prescribing / Q000592:standards*; D005060:Europe; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D011358:Product Surveillance, Postmarketing / Q000379:methods*; D011787:Quality of Health Care