eRx Script Exchange has announced plans to launch its first smartphone app to connect Australian consumers with eRx’s national eScripts network in October.

eRx Express is a smartphone application that will allow customers to scan and pre-order their medicines from their regular pharmacy or other pharmacy of choice. The app works by scanning the QR code that will begin to appear on prescriptions, replicating the eRx barcode information on each script. Customers can then collect their medicine at a convenient date and time, safe in the knowledge that all privacy and safety issues are being addressed. 

Customers hand over their paper script at the same time that they collect, ensuring that all PBS requirements are met.

The National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Kos Sclavos, said: “This is an important and exciting development for health care consumers and for pharmacies. It is a step forward in terms of both convenience and safety for patients, and will be able to be integrated into pharmacy workflows with seamless software facilitation. I congratulate eRx on this significant technological advance, reflecting the increasing relevance and benefits of eHealth to Australian consumers.”

According to Paul Naismith, CEO, Fred IT Group, “This is an important innovation in bridging the

convenience of the mobile world and the privacy and security of the national eHealth network. With the explosion in the use of mobile apps over recent years, we are pleased to be launching applications that provide consumers with the mobility and convenience that they want. Our primary concern has been in ensuring that we provide this flexibility whilst also ensuring that this and any future apps integrate with and uphold the security and privacy standards of other pharmacy and health applications, including integrating with pharmacy dispensing systems.”

Because the app uses individual QR codes which replicate the eRx barcode information on each script, script requests sent via eRx Express will:

• safely and securely link into the eRx Script Exchange’ national eScripts network

• integrate directly into the pharmacy dispensing system, saving time as there is no re-keying of data

• ensure that the benefits of improved patient safety through more accurate and efficient dispensing records are automatically applied to eRx Express users.

The app also has the potential to revolutionise the dispensing workflow, as Paul Naismith describes. 

“Innovations such as eRx Express also have real potential to help smooth out the peaks and troughs of the dispensing workload, distributing the dispensing workload across the day. Ultimately, apps such as these can reduce queue times in pharmacies, which benefits our customers and staff, and frees up pharmacy to spend more time helping customers with their healthcare needs.”

The eRx Script Exchange is Australia’s first national electronic prescriptions exchange and led by the Fred IT Group in collaboration with over 25 of Australia’s leading GP and pharmacy software vendors.