Offering More Security for the Healthcare Industry and E-Prescriptions!
DENSO WAVE is the inventor of the QR Code, a versatile 2D code that offers numerous advantages. Among others, the healthcare industry benefits from using the QR Code.
Since the beginning of the Corona pandemic, QR Codes have been used more and more frequently. The latest results of a study carried out by the security specialist Ivanti show that QR Codes have become more popular: 80 percent of the respondents had scanned a QR Code at least once, another 17 percent had used a QR Code on the day of the survey. In contrast: In 2020, only six percent of the respondents said they had scanned a QR Code on the day of the survey.
19 Mar 2024 - DENSO Presents Cutting-Edge Technologies
Digitalisation is advancing in many areas. In Germany, medical prescriptions will soon be made entirely paperless. In July 2021, the digital prescription will start with a test phase in Berlin and Brandenburg. It will be introduced nationwide starting in October. From 2022, the so-called e-prescription for pharmacies and prescription drugs will be the new standard. And these e-prescriptions will work with QR Codes originally developed by Masahiro Hara for DENSO WAVE.
From Medical Practice to Pharmacy: QR Codes Will Replace Paper Prescriptions
The initial process for patients in Germany is not going to change. They see a doctor when they have symptoms so that the needed medication can be prescribed. The difference, however, lies in the issuing of the corresponding prescription: What is new is that the typical pink-coloured paper that is used in Germany is no longer printed out and issued with the doctor's signature. In the future, the prescription will be digitally signed, and its data will then be stored on a central server.
Patients receive a QR Code on their smartphone or printed on a piece of paper, which they can then show to their pharmacy of choice. The QR Code is scanned and the pharmacist has access to the e-prescription. The German Pharmacists’ Association assures that all pharmacies in Germany will be able to process e-prescriptions, meaning the corresponding QR Codes.
If patients want to check the prescription using the QR Code, they need a special app that is provided free of charge. A smartphone and the individual electronic health card as well as a PIN from the respective health insurance company are required for identification.
08 Nov 2023 - Update to Tiramisu: Android 13 for DENSO Handhelds
Patients see the introduction of the e-prescription as a contribution to environmental protection, because fewer prescriptions are printed on paper with the QR Code. This is one of the results of a representative survey by the Federal Association of German Pharmacists’ Associations (ABDA). The e-prescription also saves patients unnecessary trips – and valuable time: The e-prescriptions can be used to check in advance whether the required medication is in stock at the selected pharmacy or not.
DENSO has developed other models and QR Code solutions in addition to the classic QR Code. For example, the Secure QR Code (SQRC®). The SQRC is an in-house developed variant of the classic QR Code from DENSO, but it is much more secure. This particular code looks like the standard QR Code, but it can store two types of data: public data that can be read by conventional data collection devices and non-public data that can only be read using mobile devices that are equipped with the correct encryption key. This security feature is particularly interesting for the health sector, as patient data can be securely encrypted with the Secure QR Code.
All in all, QR Codes can be used in a variety of ways. The pandemic has shown that the demand is increasing. And the versatile 2D code is becoming more and more popular, especially in the healthcare sector. DENSO’s QR Code supports the digitalisation in the health sector, especially in medical practices, pharmacies, and clinics.
