Majority of Germans Accept e-Prescription
According to the Eco survey, a good half of the population is prepared to use the new service. Only one in five rejects it.
Since the beginning of the year, doctors have been obliged to issue e-prescriptions that can be redeemed in pharmacies using an app or the electronic health card (eGK). The majority of Germans (53.7%) welcome this and say they would like to use e-prescriptions digitally in future. 36.4 percent would like to redeem e-prescriptions using an electronic health card (eGK), while a further 17.3 percent say they want to use the smartphone app for e-prescriptions.
These are the results of a representative survey of 2,500 Germans conducted by the opinion research institute Civey on behalf of the internet association Eco at the beginning of January 2024.
Plus for sustainability and security
A total of 68.8% of respondents said they wanted to use the e-prescription, with 15.1% wanting to continue to have their e-prescription printed out. At 19.4%, around a fifth stated that they would not use e-prescriptions in the future.
“The high level of acceptance for the e-prescription means a tailwind for more digitalization in the healthcare sector. People are open to digital innovations and want to benefit from them,” says Eco Managing Director Alexander Rabe. The e-prescription is a successful example of how digitalization can simplify and accelerate procedures and processes. It also promotes sustainability aspects by saving paper and increases the general level of security when handling personal data.
The end-to-end encrypted data transmission ensures that no unauthorized persons or server operators can access personal data. “The electronic prescription cannot be forgotten or lost anywhere, so it is fundamentally more secure than the paper version,” continues Rabe.
