Download New Electronic Prescribing Guide

A recent conference on electronic prescribing hosted by CMS and supported by a bevy of organizations, including the AAFP, welcomed a sold-out crowd and generated a document that future e-prescribers will no doubt want to get their hands on.

"A Clinician's Guide to Electronic Prescribing" (43-page PDF; About PDFs) is available as a free online download to physicians.

Steven Waldren, M.D., director of AAFP's Center for Health Information Technology, credited the Academy and several other organizations, including the AMA, the American College of Physicians and the Medical Group Management Association, with collaborating to create what he called "a very practical guide to help physicians."

The eHealth Initiative and The Center for Improving Medication Management, or CIMM, also played important roles in the guide's development. The Academy is a founding member of the CIMM.

"The real value of this guide is that is a well-balanced look at e-prescribing," said Waldren. The guide's opening section explains why physicians should embrace e-prescribing and ways to overcome any potential barriers. The second half details how physicians can move forward with the technology, he added.

CMS spokesman Joe Kuchler said that the 1,400 registered attendees at the Boston event represented America's physicians, health care administrators, pharmacists, representatives of health plans, and health IT professionals and advocates.

Conference materials will be made available on CMS' e-prescribing conference Web site incrementally during the next few weeks, said Kuchler.

Physicians who were unable to attend the Boston conference will have the opportunity to earn CME credit via online learning opportunities in early November, he added.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available from CMS.