Australia's two leading general practice clinical software vendors are reporting teething problems with the introduction of active ingredient prescribing (AIP), with confusion over the lists of medicines that are excluded from the new rules and those where using both active ingredient and brand name is still recommended.
Pharmacy groups are also reporting problems with prescriptions, including complaints that the intention of the prescriber is sometimes unclear and that listing ingredients alphabetically is leading to confusion about dosage.
New rules requiring that doctors prescribe by active ingredient rather than brand became mandatory on February 1 but Pulse+IT sources say some prescribers were unaware of the changes.
