Influence of Applying the Smart Card on Drug Consumption Management of Special Patients in Tehran's MSIO

Iran’s national health system annually spends great amounts of money on drug supplies. The general objective of the present research was to study the application of the smart card in the management of hemophilic patients’ drug consumption in Tehran’s Medical Services Insurance Organization (MSIO).

This research is a correlation study that was conducted in the year 2010 in Tehran. The populations under study were the hemophilic patients insured by Tehran’s MSIO. Data were collected by census through the field method; the researcher directly accessed the documents and data transfer forms. The following data were analyzed before and after application of the smart card using T-Test and F-Test: the average per capita of drug consumption، drug validity and drug prescriptions. SPSS 16 Software was used for data analysis.

There were significant associations between ‘application of the smart card during the years 2007 and 2008 (before & after application) ’ and ‘the dose of drug consumption (p<0. 005) ’، ‘drug validity (p<0. 005) ’، and ‘drug prescriptions (p<0. 001) ’.

Although a long time has not passed since the application of the smart card in Iran’s health system particularly the MSIO as a custodian organization، it has resulted in improvement of drug consumption management for special patients.