Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- As part of a campaign to realize a paperless society through the active use of electronic documents in public, financial, distribution and medical services, South Korea's science ministry has selected two companies to introduce an electronic prescription system in the medical sector which has issued more than 500 million paper prescriptions annually.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday that its has selected UBcare, a healthcare company, and Carelabs, a healthcare platform provider, to establishing the infrastructure for electronic prescriptions at hospitals, clinics and pharmacies and implement a pilot service within this year.

UBcare will establish a QR (Quick Response) code-based system. QR codes printed in prescriptions can be recognized at pharmacies for the electronic management of prescription storage and disposal. QR codes are a type of matrix barcode or two-dimensional barcode and often contain data for a locator, identifier, or tracker that points to a website or application.

Once the system is established, pharmacies will not have to store paper prescriptions and patients will be able to keep and check their own prescriptions. Carelabs will set up a mobile app-based system. If a patient applies for e-prescription through an app, hospitals will deliver electronic prescription data to pharmacies as requested.

A paperless window service based on tablet PCs has spread rapidly among South Korean commercial banks to make transactions easier and reduce cost. Customers are happier because there are fewer forms to fill and services are delivered much faster.