Arsen Torosyan Discusses the Implementation of Electronic Prescription System

Arsen Torosyan, a member of the National Assembly from the ruling Civil Contract faction and former Minister of Health, has addressed the implementation of the electronic prescription system.

"I could not remain indifferent to the decision on the prescription release of a number of medications that came into effect on March 1, since this decision, adopted back in 2017 at my initiative, had been postponed at least twice (in 2018 and 2019) until our healthcare system (both healthcare workers and electronic infrastructure) would be ready to introduce it as smoothly as possible. The decision that many medications should only be released from pharmacies with a prescription is a well-founded decision, much like in many countries around the world. Beyond other purposes, this decision has two main goals: to prevent citizens from self-medication, which can harm them, and to avoid the emergence of antibiotic-resistant microbes due to the misuse of antimicrobial (antibiotic) medications, which would no longer be affected by existing antibiotics.

At the same time, I cannot fail to note that the introduction of this system was once again carried out without proper preparation. There are numerous alarms from both our citizens and healthcare institutions as well as pharmacies regarding systemic problems that do not allow us to consider the implementation of this crucial system smooth. The issues are both regulatory and infrastructural: Many pharmacies are still not connected to the ARMED electronic health system, which should have happened by the day the decision came into effect. It would have been preferable for pharmacy staff to undergo retraining courses.

There are many complaints about when the electronic health system becomes inaccessible to healthcare workers and pharmacies, likely due to the capacity of the system's servers. The servers should have been strengthened before the implementation of the system.

Many have reported that doctors are spending an excessive amount of time on issuing a single prescription, resulting in long queues purely for prescription issuance. The prescription issuance system should have been as accessible (user-friendly) as possible for healthcare workers, and all healthcare workers should have undergone retraining courses on how to use it.

The system and regulations should allow the doctor to issue a prescription without the patient's visit, as is the case in many countries that have electronic health systems. If the doctor knows the patient's disease, especially in cases of chronic illness, no problem should arise from such prescriptions.

There are reports from pharmacies that they do not have access to a unified list of medications prescribed, to quickly understand how to act without unnecessary effort. There are also reports that some medications prescribed are not imported into the ARMED system.

A significant gap exists regarding the accessibility of medical confidentiality for pharmacy staff and other healthcare workers, as the patient would often not want to provide information about their condition to third parties. However, at this moment, pharmacy staff can find out what disease the patient is going to purchase the medication for, which is simply unacceptable.

There are other issues, but I believe these are the most critical ones I have received information about. These issues either need to be addressed very quickly, or the launch of the system must be postponed once again. P.S. It is because of these issues that many pharmacies have no choice but to continue selling prescription medications without a prescription, and no one can blame them for such activities as long as the aforementioned and many other issues remain unresolved.