Blog/ Healthcare technology
Digital prescriptions: what they are and how to validate them
Understand the rules of the CFM (Federal Council of Medicine) for digital prescriptions, when a qualified electronic signature is required and how to validate prescriptions.
- By
- Rivio, Editorial team
- Published
- Reading time
- 3 minutes
With the consolidation of telemedicine and the need for greater legal certainty in healthcare, the digital prescription has gained relevance in Brazil this decade. Regulated by professional councils and federal rules, it is valid throughout the country, provided it meets technical and legal criteria that ensure the document’s authenticity, integrity and authorship.
This article brings together the main guidelines of the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) on digital prescriptions, explains how to validate an electronic prescription and clarifies the differences between natively digital documents and prescriptions that are merely scanned.
What is a digital prescription?
A digital prescription is a medical or dental prescription issued electronically and signed with a qualified electronic signature, based on a digital certificate under the ICP-Brasil standard (Brazil’s public key infrastructure).
Unlike a prescription sent as a photo or a plain PDF, a digital prescription is born in an electronic environment and includes cryptographic metadata that make it possible to verify its integrity, authenticity and authorship throughout its entire life cycle.
What does the CFM establish about digital prescriptions?
The CFM regulates digital prescriptions through resolutions and rules that address digital medical practice, notably:
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CFM Resolution No. 2,299/2021, which governs the digitization and retention of medical documents;
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CFM Resolution No. 2,314/2022, which regulates telemedicine in Brazil.
Under these rules and current federal law, for a digital prescription to be legally valid, it must contain:
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A qualified electronic signature, with an ICP-Brasil digital certificate;
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Full identification of the professional, including name, CRM (Regional Medical Council) number and state;
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Identification of the patient, with full name and the necessary data;
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Document integrity, with no possibility of alteration after signing.
What is the difference between a digital prescription and a scanned prescription?
Comparison table
| Feature | Digital prescription | Scanned prescription (photo or plain PDF) |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | Created digitally on a dedicated platform | Created on paper and later digitized |
| Signature | Qualified electronic (ICP‑Brasil) | Handwritten (only an image of the signature) |
| Legal validity | Full, under Law No. 14,063/2020 | Weak and subject to local acceptance |
| Verification | QR code or official validator | Visual only, with risk of fraud |
| Use for controlled drugs | Allowed, under the rules of Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) | Restricted or prohibited |
Does a digital prescription require a digital certificate?
Yes. The legal validity of a digital medical prescriptiondepends on the use of a qualified electronic signature, as defined by Law No. 14,063/2020.
In practice, this means the professional must use an ICP‑Brasil digital certificate, usually of type A1 or A3. This standard ensures three essential principles:
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Authenticity, by unequivocally identifying the author of the prescription;
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Integrity, by ensuring the content has not been altered;
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Non-repudiation, by preventing denial of the document’s authorship.
How do you validate a digital prescription?
Validation is the process carried out by pharmacies, health plans or institutions to confirm the document’s legitimacy.
The most common methods are:
Validation by QR code
Present on most digital prescriptions, the QR code leads to the official validation environment, displaying the original document and the status of the signature.
Validation through the ITI infrastructure
The federal government, through the National Institute of Information Technology (ITI), maintains the Digital Document Validator, integrated with ICP-Brasil and the professional councils. It allows the qualified electronic signature to be verified by uploading the PDF file.
Are digital prescriptions valid for controlled drugs?
Yes, with important caveats. SVS/MS Ordinance No. 344/1998 and its updates allow the use of digital prescriptions for controlled drugs, provided they are signed with an ICP-Brasil digital certificate.
However, some types of prescription notification, such as A (yellow) and B1/B2 (blue), may still require specific or additional procedures, depending on the jurisdiction and local health regulations, although digital use is being expanded.
Digital prescriptions at the CFO and in other areas of healthcare
The Federal Council of Dentistry (CFO) takes the same legal position, requiring a qualified electronic signature for digital prescriptions.
Other healthcare professionals, such as nurses and pharmacists, when authorized to prescribe within their legal scope, must also follow the ICP-Brasil standard to ensure legal validity and traceability in medical records and prescriptions.
Benefits of digital prescriptions for the healthcare system
Beyond the regulatory gains, digital prescriptions bring practical benefits to the entire healthcare system, especially when integrated into care and administrative workflows:
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Patient safety, by eliminating errors in reading handwriting;
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Operational efficiency, with integration into electronic medical records (EHRs);
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Fraud reduction, by making it harder to forge stamps and signatures;
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Traceability, making audits and dispensing control easier.
