The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency stated that U.S. drug regulators are close to permitting doctors to prescribe controlled drugs electronically rather than requiring only a written prescription.
Recent studies have found that while the new rules would make it easier for doctors to prescribe these types of medications, doctors are not adopting the electronic drug prescription system. A New England Journal study found that only 4% of doctors had adopted the fully functional system and another 13% have adopted a basic system.
Currently doctors are required to give patients a written prescription for some drugs such as attention deficit disorder drugs, some painkillers and others that fall into the "highly abusive" category. Others such as some sleep medicines can be phone into the pharmacy after the initial written prescription.
The new rule would allow doctors to send the prescription electronically to pharmacies however, exactly which drugs the ruling would apply to were not specified. The specific date of the new ruling was not announced either.
[Source: Yahoo News]
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