[Application of the medicine profile in an ambulatory setting]

A person with a digital signature can access his or her own personal electronic medicinal profile (PEM) which can also be accessed by the person's prescribing doctors. The PEM provides an overview and contains an overview of the prescription medicine sold to the patient over the previous two years.

Randomly-selected geriatric ambulatory patients were included. Accordance between physicians' medication records and the PEM was calculated. Moreover, the prescribing ambulatory doctor and the patient's general practitioner were asked if the PEM could contribute with non-recognized information about patients' prescription medicine.

We found a 13-20% discrepancy between physicians' medication records and PEMs, involving 50-60% of the patients. In most cases, access to the PEM significantly corrected the discrepancies. Discrepancies were neither correlated to gender, age nor to the amount of prescription medicine. Discrepancies were judged to be serious or influential.

The PEM provides insight into unrecognized information about patients' prescription medicine and access to the PEM bridges the gap between primary and secondary health care. Easier access to the digital signature, inclusion of over-the-counter drugs, and improved protection against misuse would further improve the PEM and ensure access to updated drug information.