National health systems are moving more and more towards electronic systems for medical prescriptions. The European Commission and EU countries have a common goal to ensure that these electronic prescriptions can be used safely in another Member State.
This is why the eHealth Network, made up of representatives of all 28 EU countries and chaired by the Commission, has been working jointly on ePrescriptions.
The guidelines that were agreed on, lay out the type of data needed to share prescriptions across borders. They also describe how the data should be transferred, provided the patient has given his or her consent to use the ePrescription service.
The guidelines can be used by Member States on a voluntary basis.
The 6th eHealth Network meeting in Brussels took place on 18 November 2014 and was chaired by Austria and co-chaired by the European Commission.