Conducting Interdisciplinary Research Evaluation of the ePrescription Pilot Scheme in Finla.pdfVIP

Conducting Interdisciplinary Research: Evaluation of the ePre- scription Pilot Scheme in Finland 1 2 3 1 Hannele Hyppönen , Pirkko Nykänen , Lauri Salmivalli , Marja Pajukoski , Pekka Ruotsalainen1 and Suvi Vuorela2 1National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Finland 2 Department of Computer Sciences, Tampere University, Finland 3Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, Finland hannele.hypponen@stakes.fi Abstract: This paper describes the evaluation of the national ePrescription system in Finland. It is based on a national ePrescription database. By the end of 2004, two hospitals had implemented the required technology and 300 ePrescrip- tions had been sent to the database. A multidisciplinary evaluation framework was used to help direct the design and implementation of the system, and for evaluating its impact from different stakeholders perspectives. The theoretical foundations of the framework are depicted in detail in another article by the authors (submitted). Keywords: Evaluation, e-Prescription, Interdisciplinary research 1. Background: the context and need health policy in the long run (Bell et.al 2004; Bast- for e-prescriptions in Finland holm et al. 2004; Boonstra 2003; Mundy Chadwick 2003). National spending on health care has been in- creasing over the past decades in most western In Finland, only pharmacies and subsidiary phar- countries. An increasing number of ageing people macies are allowed to sell medicines to the public, will escalate the demand for health c