My (German) roomie’s father called us a while back to excitedly tell us that his doctor has digitalised. By digitalised he meant that the doctor will fax any prescription he issues to whatever chemist the patient requests.
Here in Sweden, I log on to 1177.se to refill my prescription, usually a nurse will call me with some general questions, then I can log on to any chemist’s website (both systems are tied to your national identity), and have the prescription delivered to my door the next day. I live in a small town of like 20k inhabitants too, so it’s not like it’s a big city only type thing.
We clearly have very perspectives on the term “digitalisation.”
In Germany, we have a health insurance card. Let’s say your insurer is Techniker Krankenkasse. They provide you a card with your photo and an NFC chip. You show this card in any doctor/hospital you visit, and your expenses are all paid. Today, as a new feature, your prescriptions are also stored to this card. You show the card in the pharmacy, get your medicine and the costs are all paid by the insurance company (minus the co-pay, 10 euros, which you pay by yourself).
Edit: To be clear, we don’t have public hospitals or doctors. They’re all private. But the insurance can be public, and the doctors and hospitals accept your public insurance and you don’t need to pay for them.
it’s just a UID. Any doctor or pharmacy or whatever can just look it up on the central database and dispense whether it’s been used and how many times et cetera.
Doctors love to print these as a QR-Code. I think there’s probably some therapeautic benefit to leaving your Drs office with a warm piece of paper entitling the bearer to some kind of magic beans.
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a physical prescription in real, ever. I’m 30 years old. It’s been digital as long as I can remember.
In Sweden we have public social security numbers, they are comprised of your birthdate and 4 unique numbers, so for example 19950927-2466. So in the past, before smart phones, you’d just give the social security number (or just an identifying document) to the chemist, and they’d give you your prescription. Now we can identify via BankID (which has been around since the early 2000s) so in many cases we don’t even need any ID documents.
BankID is essentially a certificate installed on your phone/computer that’s been issued by your bank, hence your bank is saying “yes this person is who they claim they are.” BankID is used for everything too. When I log on to my grocery store’s website, I use BankID, then I need to use BankID to verify whenever I want to use a debit/credit card to purchase anything.
My (German) roomie’s father called us a while back to excitedly tell us that his doctor has digitalised. By digitalised he meant that the doctor will fax any prescription he issues to whatever chemist the patient requests.
Here in Sweden, I log on to 1177.se to refill my prescription, usually a nurse will call me with some general questions, then I can log on to any chemist’s website (both systems are tied to your national identity), and have the prescription delivered to my door the next day. I live in a small town of like 20k inhabitants too, so it’s not like it’s a big city only type thing.
We clearly have very perspectives on the term “digitalisation.”
It’s always the late 1900s in Germany!
Nowadays you can get your prescription into your insurance card… Finally. You still need to walk to the doctor’s office though. But it is digital.
Insurance card?
Is this some american joke i’m too european to understand?
In Germany, we have a health insurance card. Let’s say your insurer is Techniker Krankenkasse. They provide you a card with your photo and an NFC chip. You show this card in any doctor/hospital you visit, and your expenses are all paid. Today, as a new feature, your prescriptions are also stored to this card. You show the card in the pharmacy, get your medicine and the costs are all paid by the insurance company (minus the co-pay, 10 euros, which you pay by yourself).
Edit: To be clear, we don’t have public hospitals or doctors. They’re all private. But the insurance can be public, and the doctors and hospitals accept your public insurance and you don’t need to pay for them.
https://www.thelocal.at/20210201/what-is-austrias-e-card-everything-you-need-to-know
This hits too close to home… I feel lucky my doctor accepts prescription requests per email.
ooh ooh here in Australia we have “e-scripts”.
it’s just a UID. Any doctor or pharmacy or whatever can just look it up on the central database and dispense whether it’s been used and how many times et cetera.
Doctors love to print these as a QR-Code. I think there’s probably some therapeautic benefit to leaving your Drs office with a warm piece of paper entitling the bearer to some kind of magic beans.
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a physical prescription in real, ever. I’m 30 years old. It’s been digital as long as I can remember.
In Sweden we have public social security numbers, they are comprised of your birthdate and 4 unique numbers, so for example
19950927-2466. So in the past, before smart phones, you’d just give the social security number (or just an identifying document) to the chemist, and they’d give you your prescription. Now we can identify via BankID (which has been around since the early 2000s) so in many cases we don’t even need any ID documents.BankID is essentially a certificate installed on your phone/computer that’s been issued by your bank, hence your bank is saying “yes this person is who they claim they are.” BankID is used for everything too. When I log on to my grocery store’s website, I use BankID, then I need to use BankID to verify whenever I want to use a debit/credit card to purchase anything.