The Pharmaceutical Record (DP)
The Pharmaceutical Record is a digital tool supporting public health (Law n°2007-127 of 30 January 2007). It contains various features designed to prevent iatrogenesis, to facilitate continuity between community and hospital care, to improve public health monitoring, and to better secure and streamline the pharmaceutical supply chain, particularly in the event of shortages.
The Pharmaceutical Record at a glance
A key tool for public health
The Pharmaceutical Record (or DP, short for Dossier Pharmaceutique) was created "to promote coordination, quality and continuity of care, and to secure medication dispensing (...)" (art. L.1111-23 of the Public Health Code).
It is implemented by the National Council of the French Chamber of Pharmacists, which oversees the development of DP services and ensures both its safe use and data protection.
Created in 2007, the DP has become an information hub between stakeholders in the pharmaceutical supply chain. It is accessible to:
- pharmacists in each practice setting,
- as well as hospital physicians.
What the DP does: Ensuring safe dispensing, promote coordination and continuity of care and securing the pharmaceutical supply chain by facilitating the flow of information between stakeholders :
- DP - Monitoring of health indicators: Strengthening health monitoring.
- DP - Alerts: Disseminating health alerts to community and hospital pharmacists.
- DP - Patient and DP - Vaccines: Patient’s medication history (4 months), biological medication history (3 years) and vaccination history (21 years).
- DP - Shortages: Reporting pharmacy supply shortages to laboratories. Responding to pharmacists with practical information.
- DP - Recalls: Informing community and hospital pharmacists about batch recalls and withdrawals.
Key figures
- 99.9% of community pharmacies connected
- Over 500 subscribing hospital pharmacies by the end of 2021
- 430 million data points shared between pharmacists every year
Pharmaceutical Record services
The Pharmaceutical Record (DP) features
- The DP-Patient service, a digital record that displays all prescription and OTC medicines delivered to a given patient over the last 4 months (3 years for biological medicines, 21 years for vaccines).
Accessible to community and hospital pharmacists, as well as clinical biologists and hospital physicians, it provides better therapeutic monitoring and minimizes the risk of medicine interactions.
- Services to secure the pharmaceutical supply chain: DP-Recalls, DP-Alerts, DP-Shortages
The DP-Recalls service sends real-time notifications to pharmacies on batch recalls and withdrawals. The dispensing of such products is suspended, and pharmacies immediately remove them from sale. This feature has been set up in conjunction with the National Agency for Medicines Safety (ANSM) and pharmaceutical companies accountable for the safety and quality of health products placed on the market. The DP-Recalls service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
With the DP-Alerts service, the French Chamber of Pharmacists can disseminate safety alerts to all community and hospital pharmacies connected to the DP in just a few minutes. The system operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The alerts are displayed on all pharmacy IT devices.
Thanks to the DP-Shortages service, pharmacists can report medicine shortages to health authorities and pharmaceutical companies. In return, they have access to all available information: cause of the shortage, estimated return date, alternative medicines, etc.
For medicines of major therapeutic interest (MMTIs), pharmacists may use the emergency order feature and directly contact the pharmaceutical company accountable for the quality and safety of the unavailable medicine to ensure continuity of treatment for a given patient.
- The DP-Health Monitoring service, a tool that gives access to pseudonymised data on medicines recorded in the DP to the French Ministry of Health, the ANSM and the National Public Health Agency (Santé publique France). The aim is to allow health authorities to carry out targeted studies on specific health products or on epidemiological issues.