E-prescribing with iPhone

DrFirst has announced that its Rcopia™ e-prescribing system is now available to physicians using Apple iPhone. The development enables the company's electronic prescribing and medication reconciliation services to be accessed in real-time on a mobile browser through a WiFi or wireless carrier’s broadband connection.

To enable doctors to be able to access these services on mobile devices DrFirstcreated RcopiaMini, a version of its original Rcopia system, formatted for the smaller screen and allowing users to navigate a full-featured version of the software. The application provides real-time interaction between physicians, pharmacies, and health plans, so there is no need to update or sync the device to a PC. E-prescribing on the iPhone with RcopiaMini allows physicians to send new prescriptions and renewals electronically to the patient’s retail or mail order pharmacy. The application checks for patient insurance eligibility, formulary, and patient medication history. It also offers clinical decision support tools to check prescriptions for drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions and appropriate dosing. RcopiaMini is designed to be accessible to all staff members, to be highly configurable and to accommodate workflow features.

With the addition of the iPhone and iPod Touch, DrFirst provides physicians with a broad set of e-prescribing platforms, including Apple, Treo, and HP iPaq handheld devices as well as desktop and tablet systems. Rcopia is also available in standalone versions for MS Windows Mobile for PocketPC and Palm OS, providing physicians the ability to create prescriptions in the absence of an always-on WiFi connection.