Health

The chaos of online instant prescription drugs urgently needs to be addressed

2025-08-12   

With the vigorous development of Internet medicine, online drug purchase has become a new choice for many patients because of its convenience and efficiency. However, the frequent irregularities in prescription drug sales on some e-commerce platforms pose a serious threat to consumer medication safety. In the process of selling prescription drugs online on multiple e-commerce platforms, patients do not need to upload medical records, prescriptions, and other information. Doctors "prescribe" in seconds without substantive medical evaluation, and there is even a phenomenon of "medication first, then". Online "instant prescription" may seem to improve the efficiency of drug purchase, but in reality, it transfers the huge risks of medication to patients. In the formal diagnosis and treatment process, doctors need to integrate various information such as medical history, physical signs, and examination data in order to develop personalized medication plans. However, doctors on certain platforms currently prescribe based solely on patients' self-reported information, which makes it difficult to verify the authenticity of the condition and assess the risk of drug interactions. What is even more worrying is that some high warning drugs such as hypoglycemic drugs and anesthetics have become "instant drugs". Once patients accidentally or excessively take them, they may cause serious consequences such as hypoglycemia and respiratory depression. To control this chaos, supervision and crackdown must be ruthless. The current Drug Administration Law clearly stipulates that prescription drugs must be sold according to the prescriptions of licensed doctors, and Internet hospitals need to comply with the rigid requirements of the Internet Diagnosis and Treatment Supervision Rules, such as "doctors need to check in person, and artificial intelligence is not allowed to automatically generate prescriptions". Regulatory authorities should establish a cross platform prescription data comparison mechanism and impose circuit breaker penalties on physicians and accounts that frequently issue abnormal prescriptions. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the "execution linkage" mechanism, and to hold medical institutions, platforms, and physicians jointly liable for any illegal prescription behavior that causes harm to patients in accordance with the law, so that the cost of illegal activities far exceeds the illegal gains. Building a strong technological defense line is a key lever for addressing the chaos of online prescription drugs. A biometric system can be established to enforce facial detection during the consultation process, ensuring the authenticity of the identities of physicians and patients. In addition, it is necessary to establish and improve a prescription certification platform, upload diagnostic records, medication plans, patient feedback and other data for future reference, and achieve full process traceability. For high-risk drugs, an AI secondary review system should be set up to automatically compare patients' historical medication records with new prescriptions, triggering a manual review mechanism. The technology in this area has matured, and the key lies in whether the platform is willing to invest costs in public safety. The fundamental solution lies in correcting misconceptions and reshaping the industry ecosystem. The medical regulatory authorities need to establish a certification system for physicians' online diagnosis and treatment capabilities, incorporating indicators such as response time and completeness of medical records into assessment and supervision, and implementing a system of elimination for online doctors and their platforms who have been perfunctory for a long time. In addition, it is advisable to incorporate drug safety and the characteristics of Internet diagnosis and treatment into the citizens' health literacy education system, so as to enhance the public's awareness of the particularity of prescription drugs and online diagnosis and treatment. Only when online doctors generally value their professional reputation more, platforms pay more attention to their own responsibilities and strengthen internal supervision, and patients consciously resist the chaos of "prescribing drugs indiscriminately", can a situation of joint prevention and treatment by the whole society be formed, and the root cause of this chaos be taken. Internet medicine is still in its early stage of development, and online "second to second" prescription disorder is also in its initial stage of illness. If you have a disease, treat it early. If you wait until it becomes a stubborn illness before treating it, the difficulty will be even greater. It is also the only way to further protect the lives and health of the people and promote the sustainable and healthy development of Internet medicine. (New Society)

Edit:XINGYU Responsible editor:LIUYANG

Source:epaper.ynet.com

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