Approaches to evaluating electronic prescribing.

Both researchers and policy-making organizations have identified electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) systems as a means to improve quality in healthcare delivery. However, there are documented risks involved in integrating such clinical systems into healthcare processes. These risks generally fall into two categories. First, new technologies may not accomplish what they are designed to do. Second, introduction of new technologies may lead to unintended consequences such as patient harm or misused resources. To determine whether they work as expected and without incurring risk, people and institutions implementing e-prescribing should evaluate their systems in the context of pre-existing processes.