ALEXANDRIA, VA – The number of physicians using electronic prescribing will have more than doubled in 2009, according to execu- tives of the e-prescribing network Surescripts.

More than 140,000 – 23 percent of all office-based physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the United States – are e-prescribing today, officials said. And at the current pace, Surescripts projects that its active e-prescribers in 2009 will more than double the 74,000 that were e-prescribing at the end of 2008. Surescripts also announced that physicians can choose from more than 200 types of e-prescribing and electronic medical record systems that have been certified and are connected to the Surescripts network – a 38 percent increase over the number available at the start of the 2009.

Physicians and other prescribers use Surescripts-certified software to establish a secure, electronic link to pharmacy benefit managers and thousands of health plans nationwide. The connection makes it possible for them to confirm coverage and look up information such as prescription co-pays and the availability of generic alternatives for two-thirds of all Americans.

The network “benefits patients in every state in the nation,” said Harry Totonis, president and ceO of Surescripts. “Whether it is the convenience of making one trip to the pharmacy or receiving your prescription by mail, or the improved safety of legible prescriptions and providing doctors a more complete prescription history, or the savings that come from a patient and their doctor knowing about and selecting lower cost prescription alternatives, the Surescripts network makes these benefits available to millions of patients cared for by more than 140,000 physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants nationwide.”

A new study will examine how e-prescribing might affect compliance. cVS caremark and researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital will investigate patient adherence to prescription drug therapies. One of the four key components of the study will look at the impact of e-prescribing.

“This research will help us understand the reasons why patients do not take their medications as prescribed. We will use this information to develop effective, evidence-based approaches to improve prescription adherence,” said William Shrank, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and principal investigator of the program.

“As the nation looks for ways to reduce healthcare spending, we need to improve patient compliance with prescribed drug therapies,” said Troyen A. Brennan, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer, cVS caremark.

Rhode Island showed last month how linking pharmacies could also make it possible to track outbreaks of H1n1 virus.

In what Rhode Island Gov. Donald L. carcieri called a healthcare first for Rhode Island and the nation, Surescripts and the state’s pharmacies are now providing epidemiologists at the Rhode Island Department of Health with weekly updates of prescription data.

“This provides another important tool for the state’s public health offi- cials to look at trends related to the course, severity and treatment of the H1n1 pandemic," said David R. Gifford, MD, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health.