TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Böckerman, Petri
AU  - Kortelainen, Mika
AU  - Laine, Liisa
AU  - Nurminen, Mikko
AU  - Saxell, Tanja
        TI  - Digital Waste? Unintended Consequences of Health Information Technology
        PY  - 2019/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 12275
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp12275
        AB  - We exploit a large-scale natural experiment – the rollout of a nationwide electronic prescribing system in Finland – to study how digitization of prescriptions affects pharmaceutical use and health outcomes. We use comprehensive administrative data from patients treated with benzodiazepines, which are globally popular, effective but addictive psychotropic medications. We find no impact on benzodiazepine use on average, but among younger patients e-prescribing increases repeat prescription use. Younger patients' health outcomes do not improve but adverse outcomes, such as prescription drug abuse disorders and suicide attempts, increase dramatically. Improving access to medication through easier ordering may thus increase medication overuse.
        KW  - inefficiency
KW  - repeat prescriptions
KW  - electronic prescribing
KW  - health information technology
KW  - medication overuse
        ER  -