Researchers in Scotland have developed a new system to minimize the risk of patients getting the wrong medication or the incorrect dosage due to misinterpretation of prescription by pharmacists.

The new system, known as the electronic Acute Medication Service (eAMS), allows prescriptions to be transmitted directly. The system does not require the pharmacists to decipher a doctor's handwriting.

Under the new system, patients are given a prescription containing a unique barcode, which is scanned to get the relevant information.

Nearly 90% of Scotland's GP practitioners now have electronic links to community pharmacies under the new system.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "We have a very successful prescribing system in Scotland, with around one million paper prescriptions written by GPs every week and dispensed in community pharmacies. But we can always do more and that's what eAMS will achieve."

Different hospitals use different codes for medicines. To tackle this confusion a new standard "drug dictionary" has been built, which uses new software to smooth out the differences. The new system has not only improved safety measures in distributing medicines, but has also reduced enormous paperwork.