Online prescribing is no panacea

‘Legal Briefing’

Prescribing medication online is a particularly complex area, so it’s as well to know the pitfalls and perils. Christina Helden and Nabil Asaad outline the dangers.

Interfaces such as Amazon, eBay and Uber that utilise the internet, SMS and apps to deliver goods and services are popular because they save time – and savvy healthcare businesses realise that patients are no different.

They view time taken to make doctors’ appointments and queuing at the surgery as wasted time. Such businesses are capitalising on this perception by creating interfaces which allow patients to obtain prescriptions remotely: online, by SMS or app.