Overcoming Barriers to Full e-Prescribing Adoption

The Prescription Information Modernization Act of 2025 (PIMA) is being hailed as a significant development for the pharmaceutical industry because it represents rare bipartisan agreement on an issue that directly impacts both healthcare providers and patients. In a video interview with Pharma Commerce, Diogo Rau, executive vice president and chief information and digital officer for Eli Lilly and Company, emphasizes that when legislation garners cross-party support, it often signals a transformative change.

One of the core issues PIMA addresses is the outdated, cumbersome nature of prescription information. Unlike other consumer products that spark excitement and social sharing, medicines are often accompanied by an overwhelming amount of paper-based documentation, which dampens the patient experience. Physicians and patients alike must navigate lengthy, jargon-heavy inserts that are difficult to read and understand.

Currently, a typical prescription package insert equates to roughly 45 pages if formatted as a standard book. These inserts are printed in extremely small font sizes and filled with technical language, making them inaccessible to many, especially patients with limited English proficiency. This creates barriers to understanding medication instructions, side effects, and other critical information, undermining both safety and adherence.

PIMA aims to modernize this system by initially focusing on the documentation that healthcare providers receive. While it doesn’t yet solve all issues tied to patient-facing labeling, it represents the first step toward broader improvements. By digitizing and simplifying prescription information, the Act seeks to reduce inefficiencies, enhance accessibility, and ultimately create a better healthcare experience.

For manufacturers, this modernization could mean streamlined compliance and reduced printing costs, while providers benefit from clearer, more usable data that aids in decision-making. Patients stand to gain the most through improved comprehension of their medications, which may lead to greater confidence, adherence, and outcomes. Rau underscores that while PIMA is only a starting point, it lays the groundwork for transforming how prescription information is communicated in the future.

He also comments on the impact reducing paper inserts will have on pharma operations and environmental goals; the challenges that remain for full-scale adoption of electronic prescribing information; and much more.

A transcript of his conversation with PC can be found below.

PC: With 92% of prescriptions already e-prescribed, what challenges remain for full-scale adoption of electronic prescribing information, and how can pharma companies help overcome them?

Rau: It's great that 92% of prescriptions are already e-prescribed. I do remember what it was like getting paper prescriptions and you'd read the chicken scratch that's on the documents; it would be very easy for somebody to fake. I don't think anybody wants to go back to a world where we do more paper prescriptions, and I think as we move into electronic labeling, nobody's going to want to go back to the kinds of paper that comes with medicines today.

I saw another survey of physicians that 96% prefer to have digital prescribing information over paper. And in fact, I kind of wonder about the other 4%--if they maybe misread the question, and maybe, just like a package insert, they had a hard time following that question, because I think just about 100% of people really will benefit from some form of digital prescribing information.

We just need to get started somewhere. The good news is other countries have already started doing this. The European Medicines Agency is already down this path towards electronic labeling. Japan passed legislation in 2019 that would require manufacturers—starting in 2021—that they have to provide QR codes and other sorts of digital labeling. We're seeing similar initiatives in Brazil and other places, so this is not a US thing. This is a worldwide thing, and all we really have to do is just get started and get out of our own way, which is exactly what's happening with this Act.