How to choose prescription software for a clinic The print, the generic-name rule, templates, offline use and export, tested before you sign.

Choose prescription software by printing a real prescription on your letterhead and checking it against the rules, then timing a repeat visit, then pulling the internet cable, then exporting the data. If the software fails any of those four tests in the trial, it will fail them in the OPD. Everything else on a feature list is secondary for a 1 to 3 doctor clinic.

The legal content of a prescription is covered in what a prescription must contain in India. This post is about using those rules to pick software, and it stays off clinical questions: which drug to write is between the doctor, the rule book and the council.

What must the printed prescription carry?

The Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, which the NMC continues to apply, set two requirements that the software must meet on paper. Clause 1.4.1: "Every physician shall display the registration number accorded to him by the State Medical Council / Medical Council of India in his clinic and in all his prescriptions, certificates, money receipts given to his patients." Clause 1.5, as substituted by a Gazette notification of 8 October 2016: "Every physician should prescribe drugs with generic names legibly and preferably in capital letters and he/she shall ensure that there is a rational prescription and use of drugs".

So the print check is short. Print one prescription per doctor from the trial account and look for these on the sheet, not on the screen.

• The doctor's name, qualification and State Medical Council or NMC registration number, printed on every page, including a second page if the list runs long.
• The clinic name, address and phone number, on your own letterhead, with no vendor logo, advert or pharmacy name anywhere on the sheet.
• Drug names in the generic form, in a font and size a chemist can read, with the option of capitals. If the software only offers a brand-name picker with no generic field, stop here.
• Patient name, age, sex, date, the doctor's signature line, and space for a follow-up date.
• The paper size your clinic uses. A5 is common at small OPDs; A4 at others. The layout should not break on either.

Clause 6.3 of the same regulations says that drugs prescribed or bought from the market for a patient "should explicitly state the proprietary formulae as well as generic name of the drug". How a doctor records a brand alongside the generic is a clinical and council question; the software question is only whether the drug field lets the doctor do what the rule asks. Our post on the generic name prescription rule covers the clause and its history.

Is it faster than the pad on a repeat visit?

At most OPD desks, software is abandoned not because it is wrong but because it is slow at 11 AM with twelve people waiting. The test is a follow-up visit for a patient the doctor has seen before, with the doctor typing, not the salesperson.

1. Open the patient from the queue. Count the clicks from the token to the prescription screen.
2. Pull up the last prescription and repeat it with one change. The software should copy the previous medicines, not make the doctor re-type them.
3. Add a medicine from a favourites list the doctor built in setup. Dose, frequency and duration should fill from the favourite, with the doctor editing only what differs.
4. Apply a template for a common complaint and edit one line. A template that cannot be edited on the day is a form, not a template.
5. Add advice, a test to be done and a follow-up date, then print. Time the whole thing against the same visit on paper.

Ask who builds the templates and favourites. If the vendor enters them for you, ask what happens when the doctor wants to change one at 9 PM. If the doctor builds them, ask how long the first evening of setup takes. In a multi-doctor clinic each doctor needs their own favourites; a shared list fills up with the other doctor's drugs.

What happens when the internet drops?

Pull the cable during the trial. The useful outcome is that the doctor can finish and print the prescription in front of the patient and the record syncs when the line returns. The common outcome is a spinning screen and a hand-written parchi, after which the record for that visit never gets typed in. Ask the vendor in writing which actions work offline and which do not, and test the ones that matter: open a patient, write, print. Our page on offline clinic management software explains how offline-first software handles this.

How are prescriptions stored and corrected?

A prescription is a medical record once it is saved. Three questions decide whether the software's records would stand up if a patient or a court asked for them: can a saved prescription be edited silently, is there a visible history of who changed what and when, and can the clinic print the version that was handed to the patient on that date. Ask to see an edited prescription in the demo. The EMR software checklist goes deeper on edit history and record keeping.

The prescription is also personal data. Under section 8(2) of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, a Data Fiduciary (the clinic) may use a Data Processor (the software company) to process personal data on its behalf "only under a valid contract", and section 8(1) keeps the clinic responsible for the processing a processor does for it. Ask for that contract before the trial ends; the main obligations of the Act take effect on the dates set by the DPDP Rules, 2025.

How do you get your prescriptions out?

Run an export during the trial, open the file, and find a real prescription in it with its medicines, dose and date. The useful format is one you can open in a spreadsheet and hand to the next vendor; a PDF per visit is a print, not an export. Ask whether the clinic admin can export without calling support, whether export is in every plan, and what happens to the records if you stop paying. Our page on clinic data ownership sets out what to insist on.

The checklist to take to the demo