The use of electronic health records is emerging across North America, but adoption of this tool has been slow. 1 A US survey conducted in 2008 revealed that 100% of pharmacy departments were computerized, but only 10% were using electronic health records. 2 A Canadian survey conducted in 2009 revealed that only 6% of departments were using this type of medical record, 3 even though the Canada ...

Identifying the factors and components of an electronic prescription system is of utmost importance in effective designing and implementation of this system. In this regard, the current study was conducted to determine the main factors affecting the national model of electronic prescription from the physicians’ point of view. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical research carried ou...

Advances in information and communication technology and in particularly the development of new mobile devices with user-friendly interfaces, broadband communication and wireless networks technology, offer new approaches to encouraging physician adoption of new technology applications. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) study “To Error is human: building a safer health system”, over o...

OBJECTIVES Adverse drug events (ADEs) are common and cause significant morbidity and mortality. Patient safety groups advocate the implementation of electronic medication order entry systems to reduce ADEs. However, these systems are costly, and there are limited data on their effectiveness. We conducted a study to examine the costs of introducing an electronic medication ordering and administr...

OBJECTIVE To conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of a hospital electronic medication management system (eMMS). METHODS We compared costs and benefits of paper-based prescribing with a commercial eMMS (CSC MedChart) on one cardiology ward in a major 326-bed teaching hospital, assuming a 15-year time horizon and a health system perspective. The eMMS implementation and operating costs were obt...