WO2010041052A1 - System of authorization and method - Google Patents

Abstract

Pre-stored, on-line and tailored questionnaires (130) are provided in a secure fashion to an applicant (14), such as a patient, in advance of that applicant receiving advice or treatment. Based on theapplicant’s responses (138, 176, 194) and a correlation (140, 5 170) against stored data for a particular drug or form of treatment, the applicant (14) is automatically categorized into one of three groups requiring varying degrees of contact or supplemental assessment. In a first group, the applicant’s responses are deemed sufficiently robust to permit the direct approval (144, 146) of a prescription through an electronic authorization by a doctor. In a second group, a qualified approval (172) is 10 authorised(180, 182) by the doctor based on supplementary information (176) and consideration. A third group requires a doctor’s direct intervention and consideration (198). The system is arranged to identify responses from the applicant (14) that deviate from an acceptable pre-stored range of responses to a particular question or group of questions in the questionnaire, thereby allowing the different categories to be processed 15 at different rates. With the provision of electronic approvals, an affiliated pharmacist having access to the system permits the pharmacist to have confidence in the validity of the prescription and authorising doctor, such that the prescription can be dispensed directly and in a timely fashion to the applicant through courier or standard postal channels.

Description

SYSTEM OF AUTHORIZATION AND METHOD

This invention relates, in general, to a system and method that operate to authorize the regulated release of controlled substances and is particularly, but not exclusively, applicable to a method of screening potential recipients of prescription medicaments into serviceable categories.

The dispensing of controlled substances, such as pharmaceuticals, is generally legislated and under the day-to-day administrative control of national health services and general medical councils who regulate the practices of qualified doctors and consultants.

Conventional assessment and dispensing of, especially, prescription medicaments through a visit to a doctor's surgery and dispensing chemist are increasingly considered as being inconvenient, notwithstanding that the patient is sick. This inconvenience arises from the fact that many people now travel significant distances to work and their local general practitioner (with whom they are registered and with whom they must have a face-to-face meeting) is usually located close to where they live. Secondly, once the doctor has prescribed a course of treatment, the patient (or their representative) must visit a pharmacy to obtain the medicament. At the pharmacy, prior to dispensing the medicament, the pharmacist must validate both the prescribing doctor's credentials and the authenticity/validity of the prescription; this takes time.

Additionally, face-to-face meeting are generally time consuming and cover a variety of topics not necessarily directly related to the illness or complaint being suffered by the individual. Consequently, such face-to-face meetings are inefficient for the doctor both in terms of time and cost.

With the advancement of services provided on the internet, retail services allow prescription only medicines to be purchased on-line. However, this still requires that a prescription be delivered, i.e. posted, to the on-line pharmacy. For individuals who have private prescriptions (that typically can cost between -£20 and £200), these prescriptions also need to be taken to a dispensing chemist or otherwise the original must be delivered to an on-line pharmacy. In the expectation of streamlining the process, certain national health authorities (such as in the UK) have now implemented electronic sign-off procedures where a doctor can electronically validate (e.g. digitally sign to authenticate) a prescription, which electronic prescription can then be relayed directly to the pharmacy. The digital signature acts as the validation mechanism so that the pharmacist now only needs to validate the prescription contents, although this still requires time. In the UK, this is the so-called "Advanced Electronic Prescription".

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a method of screening applicants who make a request to obtain a service requiring an authorized notice of approval from a regulated professional, the method comprising: requiring the applicants to answer a plurality of predetermined questions stored on a secure database in a network, the predetermined questions having defined ranges of answers also stored on the secure database; correlating the answers provided by the applicant against the defined range of answers; in response to the correlation, categorizing the applicant into one of at least two groups, wherein a first group is defined as containing applicants who have, in response to the predetermined questions, provided answers that are sufficiently correlated to sanction communication of an authorized notice of approval and wherein a second group is defined as containing applicants who have, in response to the predetermined questions, provided answers that have insufficient correlation to justify the issuance of the authorized notice of approval; having the network automatically flag the existence of the first group to the regulated professional; and having the regulated professional electronically sanction the issuance of the authorized notice of approval by associating an electronic signature with the request by a specific applicant, wherein the electronic signature may be updated into the secure database and/or cross-referenced against the specific applicant.

The method may further comprise automatically sending a copy of the authorized notice of approval and associated electronic signature to a dispatcher, whereby the dispatcher verifies the electronic signature from the regulated professional in order to validate the regulated professional to the dispatcher.

In a further embodiment, the method preferably comprises, e.g. further comprises: automatically notifying the existence of the authorized notice of approval to a dispatcher, the dispatcher having access to the secure database, whereby the electronic signature from the regulated professional validates the regulated professional to the dispatcher by virtue of the existence of the regulated professional on the secure database.

Another preferred embodiment effects the dispatch of a medicament to the applicant upon receipt of the authorized notice of approval by the dispatcher.

In a particular embodiment, the method of screening applicants may include: refining the second group into a second category of applicants and a third category of applicants, the second category of applicants having provided answers to the predetermined questions that are sufficiently correlated to justify the issuance of the authorized notice of approval in a qualified fashion; having the network automatically flag the existence of the second category to the regulated professional; and having the regulated professional electronically sanction the issuance of the authorized notice of approval but accompanied by a qualifying notification, the electronic sanction arising from associating an electronic signature with the request by a specific applicant in the second category, wherein the electronic signature may be updated into the secure database and/or cross-referenced against the specific applicant.

The system and methodology of the present invention therefore supports, amongst other business applications, an on-line medical assessment process. The process operates to assess applicants for prescription only and non-prescription medication by way of a pre- stored, tailored questionnaire. Secondary screening pages that give and collect further medical information may be used to prompt a nurse to contact the applicant for clarification. Questionnaire responses, stored in a secure database, lend themselves to an automated categorization of the patient for a particular treatment or prescription as one of: accepted, accepted with conditions or referred. Based on the categorizations, applicants are then processed with varying degrees of contact to a registered doctor, with electronic prescriptions securely transmitted to issuing pharmacist in the event that screening (either the initial electronic screening or with one arising following the gathering of supplementary information) identified as acceptable applicant. Upon receipt of electronic notification of the prescription, an affiliated pharmacist having access to the network issues the medication in accordance with the prescriptions. Medication is then dispatched to the applicant/recipient or stored for later collection and use, as appropriate.

Advantageously, the present invention provides a system that can be conveniently accessed via the internet to provide a streamlined, cost-effective approach to acquiring medical information required by a structured medical questionnaire. Particularly, the preferred embodiment is highly cost effective in terms of a professional's or nurse's time to the extent that these individuals can both handle a large volume of assessments per hour and can issue a large volume of appropriate prescriptions each hour. The preferred embodiment further provides for a streamlined dispensing regime, since the prescription is already validated by the secure nature of the system and dispensing can take place in the comfort that receipt of an electronically approved prescription must have been sanctioned by an approved user of the system. It is therefore possible to dispense high volumes of a potentially limited number of medicines in an efficient manner. With medicines being posted directly to the individual/applicant, this avoids the necessity of the applicant having to take a physical prescription to a pharmacist.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is shows a typical system architecture that may implement, according to a preferred process of FIG. 2, a subscriber screening and qualified authorization process; and

FIG. 2 a flow diagram of a preferred operating method of the present invention,

FIG. 2 comprised from an overall process defined within FIGs. 2a to 2c.

Briefly referring to FIG. 1 , a typical system architecture 10 is shown. In the preferred embodiment, a wide area network 12 (such as the internet) provides a backbone for secure communication between a subscriber 14 (through a computer terminal 16) and a service provider 18, e.g. an on-line doctor providing prescription medicaments 20 such as anti-viral inoculation doses. The service provider may implement a local area network comprising a centralised server 22 that has related databases 24 of secure product and subscriber information. One or more computer terminals 26, 28 have access to the server, that typically supports some form of secure e-mail system. The terminals 26, 28 furthermore have access to the secure information stored on the database 24 and, generally, have access privileges allowing the secure data to be modified, deleted or updated. A first terminal 26 might be allocated to the exclusive or shared use of an administrator and/or office manager, whereas a second (potentially) remote terminal 28 might be allocated for the exclusive or shared use of a doctor or consultant.

A dispatcher 30, such as a pharmacy, is also connected into the database 24 through the network 12. Since the database contains secure and potentially confidential information, a connection 32 from the dispatcher 30 to the database may be a dedicated link or otherwise could take the form of a private-public keyed encrypted link, as will be understood by the skilled addressee. The dispatcher 30 has access to a warehouse 34 and stock control data (typically stored locally within their own computer system 36), such that an order can be placed from the dispatcher 30 to the warehouse to effect location and delivery of prescription medicaments 20 or the like. Delivery 38 may be affected in any conventional fashion, including bespoke courier service, registered delivery or general parcel post. Having regard to FIG. 2 and particularly FIGs. 2a to 2c, an operating method 100 of a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. Specifically, FIGs. 2a to 2c show an overall screening methodology that supports the categorization of potential subscribers/treatment recipients and the dispatch of advice and/or medicaments to these subscribers/recipients.

The process begins 100 through a subscriber log-in procedure 102; such procedures are readily known and require the entering of confidential personal data in the secure database 24 of FIG. 1. In view of the secure nature of the information, log-in is subject to a subscriber authentication process 104 (such as an agreed, secure password and access code), which authentication process 104 is itself subjected to a time-out procedure 106 that either terminates the process 108 or permits a limited amount of time 1 10 to complete any current data entry step. Time-out procedures are generally applied to each step in the process, although they are optional and thus shown only in relation to the initial log-in. In the event that a new subscriber wishes to be registered with the service, the authentication step may be preceded by an automated initial account set-up procedure 1 12 where personal data such as contact details, date of birth and, if appropriate, a medical history (including past and current ailments or treatments) is acquired 1 14 by the server 22 of the service provider 18 for storage in their secure database 24. As will be understood, the process 100 is generally affected through remote computer input at the subscriber's computer, e.g. first computer terminal 16.

In the following exemplary description, the service provider 18 will be considered to be a healthcare provider whose employees include administrators, nurses and doctors and whose business is to provide prescription medicaments following appropriate consultation. Consequently, the subscriber 14 is a potential patient who wishes to obtain some form of medicament or controlled prescription from a qualified doctor/consultant at the healthcare provider. Of course, other relationships and business models may make use of the principles of the present invention, as will become apparent.

Assuming that authentication of the subscriber 14 is confirmed 116, the server 22 operates to provide 118 the subscriber 14 with a list of service options or service alternatives. The service options, for example, include the ability to receive an anti-viral inoculation (e.g. against a particular strain of 'flu) or a specific repeat medicament for the treatment of an existing or recurrent ailment, such as eczema. The server waits 120, 122 for selection of a service type by the subscriber. When the subscriber 14 selects 124 a particular service, the system optionally determines whether the service is available 126 immediately or subject to some additional payment or referral procedure; this is optional.

Assuming that the subscriber can immediately receive the selected service 128, the server automatically interrogates 130 the subscriber 14 with a predetermined set of questions pertinent to the administration of a drug or the receipt of a particular form of treatment. The questions are developed and stored in advance by the service provider

(and particularly the doctor) and are made available from the database in response to the selection of the service (in step 120). The question set includes, for example, questions about current health (e.g. are you pregnant or are you taking any drugs and, if so, what?).

The questions are framed to determine the suitability of the subscriber to receive a particular prescription medicament or form of prescription treatment. More particularly, the predetermined questions categorize the subscriber as fitting into one of a plurality of predetermined groups of individuals requiring varying degrees of consultation in advance of receiving a prescription medicine.

It will be appreciated that the system 10 is configured such that any aspect of the service options and/or questions which are stored may be modified by the service provider 18, for example to reflect advances in the medical profession and/or changes in legislation.

To ensure the integrity of data entry by the subscriber, the entered responses to the questions may be subject to a confirmatory action by the subscriber 14. In other words, the process 100 provides for data correction at least the initial interrogation stage; this is represented by query 132 and correction event 134.

Once the responses to the questions are confirmed 136, the secure database 24 is updated 138 by the server, whereafter the subscriber 14 is automatically categorized (by control logic/software algorithms in the server) into in class based on the predetermined rules relating to the selected service. Applicability of the rules to each specific subscriber is based on the subscriber data/responses 130-134.

In a first assessment of "fit" 140, the responses from the subscriber as assessed as to whether they yield a perfect or near perfect candidate for a particular prescription drug. In the affirmative 142, the medical responses supplied by the subscriber place the subscriber in a low risk ("nil consultation") group whose responses meet the target population for the prescription drug. "Nil Consultation" can include those subscriber's who are fully aware of the properties of the service or medicament that they are about to receive or are repeat users. In the negative 143, a secondary assessment (to be described later) occurs.

At step 144 (following from an affirmative 142 to a near perfect or exact subscriber fit, a prescription request (i.e. the subscriber service request) is communicated to the doctor or consultant with no additional explanation or paperwork. In the comfort of knowing that the subscriber satisfies the "near perfect/exact" fit requirements, the doctor or consultant of the service provider 18 uses his computer to approve 146 the prescription through the application of an electronic signature.

In this embodiment, the computer 26 is provided with secure access to a dedicated sign off area where all pending prescriptions are stored. The doctor or consultant is able to access each individual applicant's clinical details if required as well as the prescription details including drug dosage strength & quantity. Once the doctor or consultant is satisfied with all the prescriptions he/she is able to approve, these prescriptions are approved in batches using an electronic tablet pen device 26a to sign all the prescriptions using his/her normal signature, General Medical Council registration number and date of signing.

Of course, it is also envisaged that approval could be effected additionally and/or alternatively by a registered electronic signature which is previously stored in the database and supplied uniquely to the doctor or consultant by a regulating authority (i.e. without the need for a signature made using the electronic tablet pen device 26a).

The database is updated 148 by recording an approval against the subscriber request. Entry of information may be subject to confidential restrictions, depending upon the exact nature of the entry/update.

The server 22 causes an electronic notification 150 to be dispatched to the dispatcher (i.e. the on-line pharmacy in the present exemplary embodiment). In this embodiment, the dispatcher holds a list of approved Doctors and their relevant details (including their registration number with the General Medical Council) to enable their dispensing pharmacists to check that prescriptions are signed by an approved Doctor.

Of course it is also envisaged that the system may additionally and/or alternatively be configured such that the pharmacist is also privileged in having secure access to the database 24, in which case the pharmacist would know that the generation of the electronic notification 150 is from a trusted (i.e. regulated) source, namely an approved doctor in the present embodiment, since that source is already accredited and known to the dispatcher. This would preclude the need for additional checking at the dispatcher 30 (other than for potential drug substitution for a generic form, if this is permitted under national regulations).

The warehouse/stock control is then immediately instructed to locate, dispatch and then re-order 152 the prescribed medicament. The actions of the dispatcher 40 permit the database 24 to be updated 154 by the dispatcher 40 to reflect that an instruction/prescription has been received and that the instructed action has taken place. In the event that the service provider 18 does not receive confirmation about the dispatch of the prescribed medicament by the dispatcher (e.g. the pharmacist), the server 22 is arranged to generate a chase or reminder 156, e.g. by sending another e-mail instruction until such time as the database is updated 158.

To finalise delivery tracking, the server may optionally seek confirmation 160 from the subscriber/recipient that they have received the drug; this may be achieved by electronically signing for receipt of the medicament at its delivery by the courier or postal service. To sign-off the process/order for the particular subscriber 14, the database is again updated 162, whereafter the process ends 164.

In the event that the subscriber does not fall into an exact or near perfect fit (in step 140), the server now determines whether the subscriber's responses (from step 130) justify categorization of the subscriber as a "qualified fit" (step 170), wherein some of the responses from the subscriber require additional consideration or otherwise raise minor concerns. In the affirmative 172, the database is updated 174 to reflect the "qualified fit" status and a message is preferably communicated 174 to, typically, an administrator (e.g. a nurse) within the organization of the service provider 18. In response to the message, the nurse is prompted to undertake a follow up to obtain 176 supplementary subscriber/patient data. The follow-up information is based on questions pre-stored in the database 24 and pertaining to the selected service (steps 122, 124). Once the supplementary information is gathered, the database 24 is updated 178, whereafter the server automatically generates 180 and sends a consultant notification message that is tagged as requiring consideration based on a "qualified fit" into the requested service. The consultant is therefore able to exercise control by considering the subscriber's response, whereafter the consultant can approve the prescription by applying an approved electronic signature 182. Contemporaneously, a notice of qualification (that explains potential issues to the subscriber in relation to the prescription to be received) is generated and communicated onwards by the control logic within the system. The contents of the notice of qualification may be produced on a bespoke nature by the consultant, or otherwise generated from a standard set of data pre-stored on the database and pulled together in response to the subscriber's responses (in steps 130 and 176). Following qualified authorization, the process returns to step 148 to update the database and effect dispatch of the order/prescription (steps 150 to 164).

In one particular embodiment, each of the plurality of questions stored in the database for a particular service or treatment are weighted in that certain questions have a higher importance. In this instance, while correlation of the applicant's answers may not yield an exact match or correlation to the pre-defined answers (or range of answers) and may not justify issuance of approval "without qualification", the correlation against the questions of higher importance (and thus higher weighting) may be acceptable. In such an instance, the applicant may immediately be identified as falling into the second category, whereby the requirement for follow-up may be omitted and the subscriber's records immediately tagged with a "qualified acceptance" rating. The database is updated and the subscriber's request is forwarded into a secondary folder for the consultant's approval, e.g. a secondary electronic folder on terminal 26. Based on the subscriber's weight-correlated responses to each of the predetermined questions, the control logic in the server 22 is preferably designed to associate an appropriate, pre-written "qualified approval" letter and attach, i.e. associate, this letter with the subscriber/applicant's file. Depending upon the weighted-responses, a variety of alternative "qualified approval" letters may be pre-stored on the secure database. Consequently, once again, the doctor or consultant of the service provider 18 uses their computer to approve 146 the prescription through the application of an electronic signature (which may be a registered electronic signature previously stored in the database and supplied uniquely to the doctor or consultant by a regulating authority), but the doctor or consultant does not need to review the specific responses provided by the subscriber. The database is again updated 148 by recording an approval against the subscriber request and by attaching the "with qualification" form letter. Of course, the doctor or consultant may modify the "with qualification" letter, but this is optional, although it may be preferred at times when secondary data is acquired by another member of staff through personal contact with/questioning of the applicant/subscriber.

Should a "qualified fit" not be approved 190, the server updates the database 192 to reflect the deemed unsatisfactory condition of the subscriber to receive the selected service/prescription. Again, there server generates a notice that prompts a follow-up, the notice being automatically sent to a designated terminal, e.g. terminal 28 assigned to a nurse or administrator. The notice prompts the nurse to obtain 194 supplementary subscriber data that is then input into the database 24 (against the subscriber's name) to update 196 the database. At the time when the database is updated, an automatic "referral" message is generated and sent 198 to a consultant (e.g. in the form of an e-mail to a specific folder on secure computer terminal 26).

Upon receipt of the "referral" message, the consultant is able to make an assessment of the service request based on the initial and supplementary data. Optionally, the consultant may make further enquiries with the subscriber. A considered decision 200 can then be made by the consultant. In the event that the risk is considered to be acceptable

202, the consultant can apply their authorization 182, whereafter the process returns to step 148 to update the database 24 and effect dispatch of the order/prescription (steps 150 to 164).

In the event that the consultant deems the service request to be unacceptable 204, the subscriber's record in the database 24 is updated 206 and the subscriber notified 208 either automatically (by the underlying control logic) or otherwise in a bespoke fashion. Optional follow-up can then be arranged, whereby the subscriber is given the option of a personal appointment. The process then ends 210.

At the consultant's computer terminal (e.g. terminal 26), the consultant is able to quickly deal with service requests (and the issuance of prescriptions) because of the partitioning of these requests into categories requiring little to greater degrees of time and consideration. With near perfect or exact fit cases, potentially only a cursory review needs to be undertaken prior to the application of an electronic approval because accumulated medical data (obtained during an on-line interrogation process) has already provided the consultant/doctor with an understanding of the prevailing and relevant medical circumstances. Filtering of the information into categories, achieved by the server applying established pre-stored rules, therefore circumvents the requirement for inefficient face-to-face meetings. The "trusted source" nature of any stored approval in the secure database in the aforementioned embodiment means that the dispatcher (in the exemplary case a pharmacist) is able to immediately dispatch the prescription without secondary research as to its authenticity and without having to wait to receive an original paper prescription. The server 22, in accessing the database 24, is able to correlate individual circumstances to medical conditions, forms of treatment or conditions under which medicaments must be taken or ceased. The server 22 is therefore arranged to communicate or otherwise generate (through download or printing) appropriate and related medical advice for a subscriber/applicant (and their general practitioner) based on the cross-referencing of individual secure responses entered into the database by the subscriber/applicant against pre-stored medical models. The control logic in the system is arranged to identify responses from the applicant that deviate from an acceptable pre-stored range of responses to a particular question or group of questions in a pre-stored questionnaire, thereby allowing the different categories of individuals to be processed at different rates or with different priorities. In some embodiments, where the electronic approvals are stored in a secure system, access to any approved prescription by an affiliated pharmacist having restricted access to the secure database and system permits the pharmacist to have confidence in the validity of the prescription and authorising doctor, such that the prescription can be dispensed directly and in a timely fashion to the applicant through courier or standard postal channels.

The responses provided by the subscriber are preferably formulated to be simply "yes" or "no" responses, although the server may look to identify catch words to determine the answer to a given question.

It will, of course, be appreciated that the above description has been given by way of example only and that modifications in detail may be made within the scope of the present invention. For example, while the preferred embodiment makes use of an internet-based system for entering information into the secure database from a remote computer, the system can be configured to permit entry via audible telephone or touch-tone responses. Furthermore, while the preferred embodiment refers to the screening and approval of pharmaceuticals, it will be appreciated that the invention can find more general applicability where consultation is initially required in advance of authenticated and regulated release of equipment (such as commercially regulated components containing proprietary know-how) or confidential advice. Consequently, the terms "doctor", "nurse", "patient" or "pharmacist" (and their equivalent) are exemplary of personnel who may make use of the system and method of the invention, so these terms should not be construed as limiting in relation to potential applications. Additionally, while the preferred embodiment describes a site-based system where a local network of computing resources have access to the secure database and a general server, it will be understood that the computing resources may be distributed, wherein access to the server/database is through a secure virtual private network (VPN) or the like. The specific interconnection of computers is therefore arbitrary, since the functional aspects of the system provide the ability to save time by improving efficiency of handling public enquiries.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any number of combinations of the aforementioned features and/or those shown in the appended drawings provide clear advantages over the prior art and are therefore within the scope of the invention described herein.

Claims

1. A method of screening applicants who make a request to obtain a service requiring an authorized notice of approval from a regulated professional, the method comprising: requiring the applicants to answer a plurality of predetermined questions stored on a secure database in a network, the predetermined questions having defined ranges of answers also stored on the secure database; correlating the answers provided by the applicant against the defined range of answers; in response to the correlation, categorizing the applicant into one of at least two groups, wherein a first group is defined as containing applicants who have, in response to the predetermined questions, provided answers that are sufficiently correlated to sanction communication of an authorized notice of approval and wherein a second group is defined as containing applicants who have, in response to the predetermined questions, provided answers that have insufficient correlation to justify the issuance of the authorized notice of approval; having the network automatically flag the existence of the first group to the regulated professional; and having the regulated professional electronically sanction the issuance of the authorized notice of approval by associating an electronic signature with the request by a specific applicant.

2. The method of screening applicants according to claim 1 , wherein the electronic signature is updated into the secure database and cross-referenced against the specific applicant.

3. The method of screening applicants according to claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising: automatically sending a copy of the authorized notice of approval and associated electronic signature to a dispatcher, whereby the dispatcher verifies the electronic signature from the regulated professional in order to validate the regulated professional to the dispatcher.

4. The method of screening applicants according to any preceding claim, further comprising: automatically notifying the existence of the authorized notice of approval to a dispatcher, the dispatcher having access to the secure database, whereby the electronic signature from the regulated professional validates the regulated professional to the dispatcher by virtue of the existence of the regulated professional on the secure database.

5. The method of screening applicants according to claim 3 or claim 4, further comprising: effecting the dispatch of a medicament to the applicant upon receipt of the authorized notice of approval by the dispatcher.

6. The method of screening applicants according to any preceding claim, further comprising: refining the second group into a second category of applicants and a third category of applicants, the second category of applicants having provided answers to the predetermined questions that are sufficiently correlated to justify the issuance of the authorized notice of approval in a qualified fashion; having the network automatically flag the existence of the second category to the regulated professional; and having the regulated professional electronically sanction the issuance of the authorized notice of approval but accompanied by a qualifying notification, the electronic sanction arising from associating an electronic signature with the request by a specific applicant in the second category.

7. The method of screening applicants according to claim 6, wherein the electronic signature associated with the request by a specific applicant in the second category is updated into the secure database and cross-referenced against the specific applicant.

8. The method of screening applicants according to claim 6 or claim 7, further comprising: contacting applicants in the second group to obtain supplementary data relevant to their request to obtain a service; and updating the secure database with the supplementary data prior to a first review by the regulated professional.

9. The method of screening applicants according to claim 8, further comprising: rejecting the request to obtain the service in instances where the supplementary data effectively decreases a level of correlation between responses provided by the applicant and answers to predetermined questions stored in the secure database.

10. The method of screening applicants according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein answers provided to the predetermined questions by the third category of applicants are sufficiently uncorrelated so as to prevent the issuance of the authorized notice of approval on a qualified fashion.

1 1. The method of screening applicants according to claim 10, further comprising: contacting applicants in the third group to obtain supplementary data relevant to their request to obtain the service; and updating the secure database with the supplementary data prior to a first review by the regulated professional.

12. The method of screening applicants according to claim 1 1 , further comprising: having the network automatically flag the existence of the third category to the regulated professional; and having the regulated professional consider electronically sanctioning the issuance of the authorized notice only after consideration of the supplementary data, otherwise notifying the applicant in the third category that their request to obtain the service has been rejected.

13. The method of screening applicants according to claim 5, further comprising: tracking dispatch of the medicament to the applicant.

14. The method of screening applicants according to claim 5 or 13, further comprising: tracking delivery of the medicament to the applicant.

15. The method of screening applicants according to any preceding claim, wherein: the applicant is a patient; the request to obtain a service relates to the provision of a medicament over the internet; and the authorized notice of approval is a prescription issued by a doctor.

16. The method of screening applicants according to any preceding claim, wherein the network is a secure network.

17. An system containing a plurality of interconnected modules, the modules arranged and configured to execute program code to implement the method of any preceding claim.

18. A computer program element, comprising computer readable program code means for causing a processor to execute a procedure to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 16.

19. A computer program element according to claim 18, embodied on a computer readable medium.