Development of an electronic prescription processing option: an aid for general practice.

An interactive computer-supported prescription processing system has been developed as an add-on to existing general practitioner information systems. The aim of the system is to improve the clarity, efficiency and economy of drug treatment choices and prescription writing. It enables the doctor to choose the best treatment from the system's formulary according to the patient's complaint, symptom or diagnosis. The selections are based on complaints and diagnoses from the International classification of primary care (ICPC). A prescription is printed and the potential exists for individualized patient instruction leaflets to be printed. Furthermore, the system may prove useful for retrospective and prospective statistical and epidemiological studies. This implies continuous adaptation, which is also necessary to keep the system updated. As well as an aid in daily general practice, the system is also designed to serve the needs of graduate and postgraduate training programmes.