Germany is lagging behind internationally in terms of the development status of e-prescriptions, as well as in their implementation, and in a comparative study #SmartHealthSystems, Germany came last in a ranking of 17 countries examined, including Austria, Switzerland and Poland. There are, however, countries that serve as role models, such as Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Portugal, to name but a few, from which we can learn in this country. When examining the three core components of an electronic prescription and subsequently evaluating them in the various countries, it was noticeable that Germany was among the bottom performers because the electronic transmission of prescription data („e-prescription“ as a core component) to a pharmacy does not yet work at all. Interoperability does not exist in any of the areas, not even in the electronic retrieval of a prescription and the subsequent dispensing of the drug to the patient. Core component two, the „E-Dispensation“, is therefore also not given, as well as core component three, the „Report“, which ensures that an electronic report of the dispensing information is made by the pharmacist after dispensing the drug. Also completely missing is the availability of an e-medication list, which has to be created slowly. However, this would require all drug information systems between doctors, pharmacies and hospitals to be merged so that a uniform overview of drugs can be created, from which the patient also benefits. Information about prescribed and actually delivered drugs is also important here. This enables pharmacists and doctors to see at a glance whether interactions between the various drugs are possible because then intervention can be carried out to increase the safety of the treatment. The Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung (Society for Communication and Technology Research), called empirica, which is based in Bonn, carried out the special evaluation „Electronic prescriptions: key factor connectivity“ of the study, published by the Bertelsmann Foundation, and also found out that the technical connectivity to the electronic patient file (ePA) must be given and developed in parallel so that everything functions smoothly, as the Danish e-prescription model shows. The Danish health platform sundhed.dk makes it possible to network all actors in the health system. Patients also have access via the app, which is also desired in Germany, because then the end-users would also be specifically involved in the cooperation (co-design), which in turn would lead to better acceptance of digital solutions. In addition, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) should be involved in partnership-based cooperation so that existing German drug banks can be used, the authors of the special evaluation suggested in a summary. In addition, it might be possible to consider an international drug register once European unification and standardisation have been completed.
