New National Legislation on Electronic Prescription in Iran: A Severe Breach of Medical Confidentiality

Introduction Following two decades of efforts by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) to develop a nationwide electronic health record system, Iran has made e-prescribing mandatory as of December 22, 2021. However, these regulations have sparked significant concerns among both health care providers and authorities of professional bodies, such as the Iranian council of medicine, concerning patient privacy and confidentiality, which we shall analyze from an ethico-legal perspective in this paper.  An Electronic Health Record (EHR) is “an electronic record of health-related information of an individual that conforms to nationally recognized interoperability standards and can be created, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff across more than one health care organization” (1). E-health has drawn the attention of policymakers in Iran since 2000. In 2001, the MOHME approved the TAKFAB project in Iran as the first pilot project for creating an e-health system. SEPAS project was another e-health project supported by the MOHME that was run in Iran from 2007 to 2018 (2).  By allowing access to patients’ medical records, increasing the accuracy of medical decision-making, saving costs, reducing medical errors, promoting clinical research and education, and providing effective communication between health care providers, EHR improves the quality of care (1,2). It can also play a crucial role in the sustainability of health systems, as it facilitates structural reforms and policy-making processes (2).