The paper-less prescription with a qualified electronic signature

From paper-based to digital prescriptions

Since 2000, Medgate is operating the Medgate Tele Clinic, which is the largest telemedicine center in Europe run by doctors. Being an international company with operations in Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, the Philippines and India, Medgate aspires to further expand. The upcoming next step is to launch operations in Germany.

A typical process that is part of a medical consultation is the prescription of medications. The workflow consists of two main steps: generation of the prescription document containing information on the drugs and the concerned patient, and the signature of the doctor.  For the German market, we developed a workflow that integrates both steps directly in the Medgate's patient management system (PMS).

In detail, the prescription process in the PMS is as follows:

1. The doctor selects the drug he would like to prescribe from the official German drug compendium.

2. The patient management system generates a PDF prescription.

3. The doctor reviews the prescription and can edit it before signing.

4. The doctor signs the prescription with a Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) using Swisscom's All-in-signing service.

5. When the prescription is signed, it is ready to be transferred to one of 7'000 pharmacies for pick-up.

6. Once the patient has picked his pharmacy of choice in the Medgate patient app, he gets notified on the status of the prescription to make sure his medication is ready for pickup.

In summary, the prescription functionality within Medgate's PMS enables an end-to-end paper-less prescription process.

Iterative journey

• Collaboration with Medgate's top management to establish drivers, technological choices and functional priorities.
• Implementation and delivery within 4 weeks in an iterative manner, following the Scrum Agile framework.
• Frequent gathering of feedback from all key stakeholders including the users and adjustment of the scope when new requirements arise or when the request of existing functionalities changes.
• Development of PMS software for Medgate doctors and the Mobile App for patients.