Abstract
While the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted medication adherence and consultation patterns, its effects on the medical practice and dispensary separation system of Japan remain unclear. Thus, the utilization of the medication record handbook (MRH) in both medical and dental areas remains uncertain. This study uses the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan (NDB); we analyzed the separation of medication prescription and dispensing in both medicine and dentistry, as well as estimated how much drug information is shared by utilizing a patient-carried MRH. The external prescription (EP) rate was used as the main indicator. We then analyzed the MRH utilization rate during outpatient medication guidance. During the pandemic, there was no distinctive change in the rate of EPs in both medicine and dentistry. Furthermore, an analysis between EPs, medical internal prescriptions (IPs), and dental IPs relative to the MRH utilization rate revealed significant correlations between EPs and medical IPs as well as medical and dental IPs. Conversely, no significant correlation was found between EPs and dental IPs. Therefore, our results suggest that active MRH implementation within healthcare facilities may lead to an increase in its utilization in dentistry.