HIE Meeting place Innovators

DocCheck

Pharmaceutical companies and medical institutions who want to inform about drugs or treatment methods on the Internet have to recognise legal restrictions. In some countries, it is forbidden by law to advertise drugs directly to non-professionals.

This often requires the site to have password protection. Indeed, many pharmaceutical companies control access to their websites with passwords, which are only provided to registered medical professionals.  Many practitioners find this restriction irritating and time consuming.  Added to the irritation is that every site uses a unique password.  In no time at all, the poor practitioner would amass a large collection of passwords that are difficult to remember.

Clearly, a website's job is to make access to information easy and not to erect barriers for its users.

One solution to this problem is DocCheck from Germany.   DocCheck works by granting practitioners one password that enables them to view the content of all websites registered with DocCheck.  The system validates the eligibility of the practitioner by receiving a validation request on a headed notepaper or blank prescription form.   Not perfect, but should be adequate.

The service is free to users and websites alike.