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Last year, the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) collected information on the use of electronic product information (ePI) in European hospitals. The results of this survey activity have now been released and show that in the majority of cases an electronic/digital version of the leaflet is already used by the healthcare professionals in the hospital setting.

The survey activity was inspired by a project carried out in Belgium and Luxembourg evaluating the effectiveness of the electronic patient information leaflet and the key principles created by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA). EAHP’s survey targeted hospital pharmacists who were asked to share their views and impressions about the behaviour of other healthcare professionals and patients, in particular on how frequently and in which format both of these groups are using product information. The final sections of the survey analysed the benefits and potential challenges in providing ePI in the hospital setting for both patients and healthcare professionals. The survey was carried out in cooperation with the Inter-Association Task Force for electronic product information composed out of Medicines for Europe, EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations) and AESGP (Association of the European Self-Care Industry) from March to April 2021. It received 534 answers from hospital pharmacists in 36 European countries.

Almost 60% of respondents reported that healthcare professionals use the digital version when they wish to obtain information on a medicine. Hospital pharmacists …