Canada could look south of the border, for instance, to the veterans administration in the United States. The VA runs an electronic system for tracking and monitoring prescription use and for helping physicians make prescribing choices. So do many of the major managed health organizations in the United States. Group Health Cooperative in Seattle has a very well-developed system that is available both to prescribers and to patients, interestingly, so they can see more of their own prescription records.
In the United Kingdom they've invested considerably in electronic health records and electronic prescribing as well, and it is a system to look at. They, like other jurisdictions, have run into some challenges, because it's not inexpensive, and it's a process in which you have to build the trust of the professionals so that they understand that there is, if you will, something in it for them when they engage in electronic prescribing.
As these things roll out.... Group Health Cooperative in Seattle has done a study of this, and they've found that the practitioners don't want to go without it. Take the device away from them and they begin to complain.