The National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative is aimed at overcoming some of the costs and other barriers that prevent physicians from using electronic prescribing software, the coalition said. The software is designed to help eliminate medication errors caused by sloppy handwriting, adverse drug reactions and drug allergies.

These medication errors cause between 8,000 and 9,000 deaths annually, said Newt Gingrich, founder of the Washington-based Center for Health Transformation. "Paper kills," he said. "By definition, a paper prescription does not allow you to automatically check to see if it is contraindicated by other prescriptions or by other factors in an electronic health record. [The new initiative] says to the doctor [that] there is no technical or financial excuse for not being safe."

The program will use eRX Now, Web-based software from Chicago-based Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. that is used by 20,000 physicians to write electronic prescriptions. Under the new program, the software is available to any physician for free via the Web without any new hardware requirements and with minimal training, according to coalition members.

Allscripts and Dell Inc. are the lead sponsors of the project. Other technology sponsors include Cisco Systems Inc., Fujitsu Computers of America Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft, Corp., Sprint Nextel Corp., SureScripts Inc. and Wolters Kluwer Health Inc. Each will contribute to the cost of the project, which is expected to total more than $100 million over five years.

In addition, Aetna Inc., Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Wellpoint Inc. will be offering incentives to physicians to encourage their use of the prescribing software, said Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts.