This “dematerialization” of notices is part of a broader strategy of “ecological planning” of the health system, explains the government.
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Towards the end of paper leaflets for medicines? An experiment will be launched at “first quarter 2024”to test “adding a QR code” on certain boxes sold in pharmacies, with a view to a possible elimination of paper in the future, announced Friday December 15 the ministers Agnès Firmin Le Bodo (Territorial organization and health professions), Roland Lescure (Industry) and Stanislas Guérini ( Public function).
This “dematerialization” notices is part of a broader strategy of “ecological planning” of the health system. The experiment will be led by the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) and the Directorate General of Health. It will concern “a panel” of selected medications and will be carried out simultaneously, but in a differentiated manner, in hospitals and in town pharmacies, the ministries concerned told AFP.
Concerned “general public” molecules
At the hospital, the test will consist of removing paper notices “immediately”, “since they are not used at all in pharmacies for indoor use”, they detailed. In town pharmacies, on the other hand, the paper instructions will be kept at this stage, but a QR code will be added to the box. It will refer to a “reinforced information” online with “different media, which could be videos, more readable, interactive sheets”.
Among the drugs concerned are molecules “general public like paracetamol or ibuprofen”of the “prescription medications” quite widespread such as antibiotics, but also drugs against chronic diseases, notably cancer. The government’s objective is “to evaluate the appropriation of the QR code by patients” and, depending on the results, this “may evolve towards the elimination of the paper notice”. For the future, various “solutions” are on the table, including a possible “provision of paper instructions for pharmacists” for people “in difficulty accessing digital information”.