The challenge of the internet for health care was how to embrace internet technology in a way that both protected the patient and had a future for health professions, Mr Ian Shepherd (head of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's information technology policy unit) told the IPMI/ YPG conference.
Mr Shepherd said that the internet was bound to change health care, because it had already changed virtually every form of business.
There were concerns in health care that the internet allowed patients to gain access to information that was "not in their interest" or to buy medicines that they did not need or that were not what they purported to be. It had been estimated that about 60 per cent of the Viagra supplied by e-commerce was counterfeit.
But how could one control internet services to protect the patient, when freedom from control was at the root of the internet? National regulations were of little use when the user could easily obtain medicines from sources world-wide.
Although governments expressed concern about issues such as safety, the biggest risk for the state was lost revenue. For every item that Customs and Excise failed to intercept, the United Kingdom Government lost its 17.5 per cent value added tax. And when the tax was levied, the cost of collecting it was high compared with having the UK retailer collect it on behalf of the Government.
Mr Shepherd then went on to describe the Society's professional guidance on internet pharmacy (PJ, January 1, p9), which had been produced after the launch of Pharmacy2u. The guidance set out standards for security and confidentiality, for handling requests for medicines, for providing information and advice and for record-keeping.
|
Ian Shepherd: health care is bound to change
|
