In today's health matters, a new study says doctors' offices linked to pharmacies electronically improves the number of patients who follow doctor's orders on medications for chronic illnesses.

The research included more than 12,00 men and women who were given new prescriptions for diabetes, blood pressure or cholesterol medications over a period of 18 months.

All of the patients were clients at the same place, where the pharmacy and doctor's offices are all part of the same system and are linked using electronic medical records.

Medication orders are sent electronically, rather than using traditional paper scripts.

Previous research has found that up to 22 percent of patients in healthcare systems not integrated with pharmacies fail to fill new prescriptions.