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Ad campaign tells Congress to require e-Rx to prevent patient deaths

EHR Connection, November 19, 2007

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) is using a television and print advertising campaign that urges Congress to require e-prescribing in Medicare "before more people die," according to a November 7 press release.

In the television ad, Institute of Medicine (IOM) expert panelist Lyle Bootman, PhD, ScD, warns that thousands of people-many of them senior citizens- die annually because of preventable medication errors. A new print ad with the headline, "While You Wait," urges Congress to require e-prescriptions to prevent these deaths. Bootman chaired an IOM committee last year that recommended all physicians use e-prescribing by 2010 to reduce the estimated 1.5 million medication errors that occur annually in the U.S.

This technology helps consumers avoid medication errors by alerting physicians when dangerous drug interactions can occur the press release said. PCMA also cited a previously released study by the Gorman Health Group, a consultant in the Medicare marketplace, that found e-prescribing could save billions of dollars and prevent up to 1.9 billion medication errors over the next decade.

Click here to read the PCMA press release

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