How Estonia has become a pioneer in e-Prescription

Smart Health uncovers the tech behind Estonia's cross-border ePrescription system.

Transcript

00:00 Estonia is an e-prescription pioneer.

00:05 An online service in the Baltic country allows patients to get their medication from a pharmacy

00:12 without a printed prescription.

00:14 It`s proving a game changer at both national and international level.

00:18 After setting up its own system, Estonia began working with Italy.

00:22 This initial cross-border project didn`t take off due to a lack of funding.

00:26 But then a new opportunity with Finland emerged thanks to EU money.

00:30 It meant Estonia`s health and welfare information agency could put in place a cross-border e-prescription service between both countries.

00:39 We started operating the cross-border e-prescription service with Finland in January 2019.

00:48 How is it going?

00:50 By now, by Finnish people, the service has been used around 15,000 times.

00:57 And by Estonians in Finland, it has been used around 5,000 times.

01:02 E-prescription is not only flexible, it also ensures continuity of health care for people when they are traveling abroad.

01:13 Moreover, the secure collection of this medical data should contribute to the development of better public health policy.

01:20 (upbeat music)

01:22 (upbeat music)