Physicians' attitudes towards eprescribing: a comparative web survey in Austria and Sweden
<strong>Background</strong> The eHealth Action Plan required the member states of the European Union (EU) to provide online services such as eprescribing of pharmaceuticals by the end of 2008. So far, implementation activities and efforts of the member states have been uneven. While in A...
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doaj-e5746dc422f44daeafdab81f69f6d5262020-11-25T00:37:15ZengBCS, The Chartered Institute for ITJournal of Innovation in Health Informatics2058-45552058-45632009-12-0117424124710.14236/jhi.v17i4.743685Physicians' attitudes towards eprescribing: a comparative web survey in Austria and SwedenThomas SteinschadenGoran PeterssonBengt Åstrand<strong>Background</strong> The eHealth Action Plan required the member states of the European Union (EU) to provide online services such as eprescribing of pharmaceuticals by the end of 2008. So far, implementation activities and efforts of the member states have been uneven. While in Austria pilot projects and feasibility studies have been conducted, Sweden has always been one of the leading countries in the field of eprescribing. <strong>Objective</strong> To identify potential success factors for the implementation of eprescribing in Sweden, by comparing the attitudes of Austrian and Swedish physicians. <strong>Method</strong> In a web survey, we asked 1824 Austrian and 427 Swedish physicians within primary care and other disciplines to declare to what extent they agreed with ten statements regarding their attitudes towards eprescribing. We deployed the chi-square test for testing the relationship between the country of residence of physicians and their attitudes towards eprescribing. <strong>Results</strong> We demonstrated a relationship between the country of residence of physicians and their attitudes towards eprescribing (P<0.001) for all the responses. Of the Swedish physicians, 92% regarded eprescribing as time-saving, 88.1% as being safer and 96.0%as providing a better service for patients. Although less strongly supportive, the attitudes of the Austrian physicians were mainly positive. <strong>Conclusion</strong> We found that the major potential success factors for the implementation of eprescribing in Sweden were saving of time for the physician, improved safety and better service for patients. The mainly positive attitudes of the Austrian physicians may enable implementation of eprescribing in due course.http://hijournal.bcs.org/index.php/jhi/article/view/743Austriaconfidentialitydrug information serviceselectronic prescribingmedical informaticsSweden |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Thomas Steinschaden Goran Petersson Bengt Åstrand |
spellingShingle |
Thomas Steinschaden Goran Petersson Bengt Åstrand Physicians' attitudes towards eprescribing: a comparative web survey in Austria and Sweden Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics Austria confidentiality drug information services electronic prescribing medical informatics Sweden |
author_facet |
Thomas Steinschaden Goran Petersson Bengt Åstrand |
author_sort |
Thomas Steinschaden |
title |
Physicians' attitudes towards eprescribing: a comparative web survey in Austria and Sweden |
title_short |
Physicians' attitudes towards eprescribing: a comparative web survey in Austria and Sweden |
title_full |
Physicians' attitudes towards eprescribing: a comparative web survey in Austria and Sweden |
title_fullStr |
Physicians' attitudes towards eprescribing: a comparative web survey in Austria and Sweden |
title_full_unstemmed |
Physicians' attitudes towards eprescribing: a comparative web survey in Austria and Sweden |
title_sort |
physicians' attitudes towards eprescribing: a comparative web survey in austria and sweden |
publisher |
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT |
series |
Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics |
issn |
2058-4555 2058-4563 |
publishDate |
2009-12-01 |
description |
<strong>Background</strong> The eHealth Action Plan required the member states of the European Union (EU) to provide online services such as eprescribing of pharmaceuticals by the end of 2008. So far, implementation activities and efforts of the member states have been uneven. While in Austria pilot projects and feasibility studies have been conducted, Sweden has always been one of the leading countries in the field of eprescribing.
<strong>Objective</strong> To identify potential success factors for the implementation of eprescribing in Sweden, by comparing the attitudes of Austrian and Swedish physicians.
<strong>Method</strong> In a web survey, we asked 1824 Austrian and 427 Swedish physicians within primary care and other disciplines to declare to what extent they agreed with ten statements regarding their attitudes towards eprescribing. We deployed the chi-square test for testing the relationship between the country of residence of physicians and their attitudes towards eprescribing.
<strong>Results</strong> We demonstrated a relationship between the country of residence of physicians and their attitudes towards eprescribing (P<0.001) for all the responses. Of the Swedish physicians, 92% regarded eprescribing as time-saving, 88.1% as being safer and 96.0%as providing a better service for patients. Although less strongly supportive, the attitudes of the Austrian physicians were mainly positive.
<strong>Conclusion</strong> We found that the major potential success factors for the implementation of eprescribing in Sweden were saving of time for the physician, improved safety and better service for patients. The mainly positive attitudes of the Austrian physicians may enable implementation of eprescribing in due course. |
topic |
Austria confidentiality drug information services electronic prescribing medical informatics Sweden |
url |
http://hijournal.bcs.org/index.php/jhi/article/view/743 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT thomassteinschaden physiciansattitudestowardseprescribingacomparativewebsurveyinaustriaandsweden AT goranpetersson physiciansattitudestowardseprescribingacomparativewebsurveyinaustriaandsweden AT bengtastrand physiciansattitudestowardseprescribingacomparativewebsurveyinaustriaandsweden |
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