eRx transmits more than 2.1 million prescriptions in first half of year

BOSTON Between January and June of this year, more than 2.1 million electronic prescriptions were transmitted through the eRx Collaborative, bringing the total over the last four-and-a-half years to 15.6 million, eRx announced Monday.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Tufts Health Plan and Neighborhood Health Plan founded the eRx Collaborative in 2003 to encourage the adoption of electronic prescribing, also known as e-prescribing, in Massachusetts. It uses Zix Corp.’s PocketScript and DrFirst’s Rcopia software packages and has helped more than 5,600 prescribers adopt e-prescribing since its founding.

E-prescribing allows doctors, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals to access patients’ drug histories, create and renew prescriptions electronically, check for interactions between drugs and allergies and send prescriptions to pharmacies by fax or electronic data interchange.