When Jiangxi province began monitoring drug prescriptions, in 2011, it was China’s first to do so and, in the intervening years, the system nicknamed “Sunshine Medicine” has in fact brought some sunshine into the lives of patients.

The purpose of the system is to put a limit on the number of prescriptions and the dosage to avoid an overdose by analyzing medical data to check on whether the prescriptions exceed the recommended amount or dosage and it has worked, for example when Dr Liu at the Yingtan People’s Hospital was warned by the system about a possible overdose of a patient of his.

There are currently 112 hospitals connected to the system and their per capita outpatient costs were down 7.9 percent in 2014 from the previous year, and per capita hospitalization costs fell 3.2 percent, while per capita hospitalization stays dropped 1.6 days.

 The head of the city of Nanchang’s Hospital No.1 comments, “The online monitoring system using information technology makes treatments, prescriptions and charges much clearer to patients.”

 Luo Lisheng, the head of the provincial Health and Family Planning Commission’s Medical Administration Bureau, says that health departments can improve their administration a lot and become more efficient through this system. The monitoring system has also helped to standardize diagnoses and treatments and control medical costs, however, it is still troubled by hospitalization costs.

In addition, Wan Lei, a deputy chief at the province’s Maternal and Child Health Hospital, notes, “I hope it will expand its data to cover, for example, single diseases, performance, and clinical pathways,” then goes on to add, “The online monitoring system has a lot that needs to be improved.”

For example, the hospital information system should be updated or redeveloped to ensure the uploading of much more data. In addition, drug procurements, distribution and usage are difficult to monitor online and the system needs further development in health care quality, safety and performance evaluations.