ISO 17523:2016规定了适用于电子处方的要求。它描述了被认为对所有电子处方都很重要的通用原则。 ISO 17523:2016仅限于电子处方本身的内容，即由处方医疗专业人员发布并由配药医疗专业人员接收的数字文档。处方药物应通过授权医疗专业人员配药，目的是给人类患者服用。其他信息、角色和场景（例如，处方验证、给药、药物图表、患者EHR、护理和配药产品报销）不在本国际标准的范围内，因为由于文化和医疗立法的差异，这些信息、角色和场景或多或少具有国家或地区特定性。 然而，管辖范围内的电子处方的要求和内容与这些场景有关。提供或交换电子处方的方式也不属于本国际标准的范围。 ISO 17523:2016适用于医药产品的电子处方。尽管可以通过电子处方订购其他种类的产品（如医疗器械、伤口护理产品），但本国际标准中的要求针对的是具有市场授权的医药产品和在药房中配制的药物制剂。电子处方是一种信息对象，它授权医疗保健专业人员合法分配药物。 ISO 17523:2016规定了电子处方所需的数据元素列表，具体取决于辖区或临床环境（初级医疗保健、医院等）。

ISO 17523:2016 specifies the requirements that apply to electronic prescriptions. It describes generic principles that are considered important for all electronic prescriptions. ISO 17523:2016 is constrained to the content of the electronic prescription itself, the digital document which is issued by a prescribing healthcare professional and received by a dispensing healthcare professional. The prescribed medicinal product is to be dispensed through an authorized healthcare professional with the aim of being administered to a human patient. Other messages, roles and scenarios (e.g. validation of a prescription, administration, medication charts, EHR of the patient, reimbursement of care and dispensed products) are out of scope of this International Standard, because they are more or less country or region specific, due to differences in culture and in legislation of healthcare. However, requirements and content of electronic prescriptions within the context of jurisdictions have a relationship with these scenarios. The way in which electronic prescriptions are made available or exchanged also fall outside the scope of this International Standard. ISO 17523:2016 is applicable to electronic prescriptions of medicinal products. Although other kinds of products (e.g. medical devices, wound care products) can be ordered by means of an electronic prescription, the requirements in this International Standard are aimed at medicinal products that have a market authorization and at pharmaceutical preparations which are compounded in a pharmacy. An electronic prescription is an information object that authorizes a healthcare professional to legally dispense a medicinal product. ISO 17523:2016 specifies a list of data elements that can be considered as essential for electronic prescriptions, depending on jurisdiction or clinical setting (primary healthcare, hospital, etc.).