2023-12-15 12:26:00
After receipts printed by default, another small piece of paper in our daily lives could well be dematerialized: medication instructions. This will be replaced by QR codes, to be scanned with a smartphone to access product information. An experiment will be launched in 2024, first on certain boxes sold in pharmacies, with a view to possibly eliminating paper in the future, the ministries concerned announced this Friday, December 15.
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This “dematerialization” of notices is part of a broader strategy of “ecological planning” of the health system, led in particular by ministers Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo (Territorial organization and health professions), Roland Lescure (Industry) and Stanislas Guerini (Public service).
How will this work?
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 “reinforced information” online, with “different media, which could be videos, more readable, interactive sheets”.
The experiment will be led by the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) and the Directorate General of Health. Among the medicines concerned are “general public” molecules such as paracetamol or ibuprofen, “prescription medicines”, quite widespread such as antibiotics, but also medicines against chronic diseases, notably cancer.
Emergency notices for people who are not connected
The government’s objective is “to evaluate the appropriation of the QR code by patients” and, depending on the results, this “could evolve towards the elimination of the paper leaflet”. For the future, various “solutions” are on the table, including a possible “provision of paper instructions for pharmacists” for people “having difficulty accessing digital information”.
The ministers also announce “current work in 2024” on a new “methodology for calculating the carbon footprint of health products, in particular medicines”. This methodology should make it possible to “strengthen the consideration of the environmental footprint in public procurement” and “potentially ultimately in the economic regulation mechanisms” of health products.
Health products represent 54% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the health sector, which itself emits 8% of national GHGs.
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