Prescription Generation Validation And Tracking

摘要

Medical prescriptions may be produced in electronic form and carry a plurality of encoded, encrypted data sets. The first data set may represent a unique prescription identifier and the second data set a patient identifier such as a PIN: Both data sets are encrypted and printed on the item, for example encoded in a data matrix. The patient may present a printed prescription to a chemist at which point the data matix symbol is canned to retrieve the encrypted data sets. The data set including the unique identifier may be sent to a remote location for decryption and comparison against a stored identifier to verify the prescription as genuine. The second data set may be decrypted and compared locally to verify that the person presenting the prescription is the patient or an authorised representative of the patient. If both data sets are vertified, the chemist maydispense the medicine. Further data sets may include details of the prescription and prescription history, and details of the doctor and the chemist. The latter two can be sent to local health authorities for payment. The doctor can be notified when the prescription is validated and the patient's records updated accordingly. Different encryption may be used for the two data sets.