Electronic prescriptions a much-needed push toward digital modernisation

The challenge of digital modernisation in Greece

As Ta Nea has reported, insured individuals will no longer be given written prescriptions and will soon be receiving them through a paperless system including their cell phones.

The system is expected to be operative within six months.

It will be one of the first steps on the path of a broader digitalisation and modernisation of the country to meet the demands of our era.

We are in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution which offers an opportunity for Greece to find its place on the international map, but that cannot come about with the tools, practices, and thinking of the previous century.

The world is changing at an incredibly rapid pace and technology is becoming a basic necessity in daily life rather than a luxury as it once was.

If the long-term target is catching the train of the new revolution, the aim in the short term is to secure a better and easier daily life without unnecessary inconveniences for citizens, with less bureaucratic red tape, and with fewer long queues which often are insult to the dignity of citizens.

What is needed is a comprehensive plan and not piecemeal moves.

The success of the plan is linked to cognisance of the fact that digital modernisation cannot exist without digital literacy. The former presupposes the latter.