Melbourne-based pharmacy software specialist Fred IT was won a contract with the federal Department of Health to design, build and implement a national data exchange (NDE) service to underpin the eventual roll-out of a federated system of real-time monitoring of prescription drugs.

Fred, which is half-owned by the Pharmacy Guild and half by Telstra Health, is also behind the design and build of the SafeScript real-time prescription monitoring system currently being piloted in western Victoria. It markets the eRx prescription exchange service and the Fred Dispense and Fred NXT suites of pharmacy dispensing software.