Authenticating, establishing and tracking eligibility of a patient to purchase an over-the-counter drug

A method of authenticating, and establishing and tracking eligibility of a patient to purchase an over-the-counter (OTC) drug, the method comprising at a backend platform:

• communicating with a server of a retailer of the OTC drug to authenticate, and establish and track eligibility of the patient to purchase the OTC drug, the server configured to effect an online sale of the OTC drug to the patient using a client device or terminal, the server configured to redirect the client device or terminal to the backend platform to communicate with the client device or terminal for at least:
• authenticating the patient;
• accessing a storage to search for any information that indicates the patient is ineligible to purchase the OTC drug;
• and without any information that indicates the patient is ineligible,
• administering a questionnaire to the patient, specific to the OTC drug, to assess the eligibility for the OTC drug and thereby establish eligibility of the patient to purchase the OTC drug, or determine that the patient is ineligible to purchase the OTC drug;
• and
• redirecting the client device or terminal back to the server to complete the online sale of the OTC drug to the patient when eligibility of the patient is established, or cancel the online sale of the OTC drug to the patient when the patient is ineligible to purchase the OTC drug.

A computer-readable storage medium for authenticating, and establishing and tracking eligibility of a patient to purchase an over-the-counter (OTC) drug, the computer-readable storage medium being non-transitory and having computer-readable program code stored therein that, in response to execution by a processor, causes an apparatus configured to implement a backend platform to:

• communicate with a server of a retailer of the OTC drug to authenticate, and establish and track eligibility of the patient to purchase the OTC drug, the server configured to effect an online sale of the OTC drug to the patient using a client device or terminal, the server configured to redirect the client device or terminal to the apparatus that is caused to communicate with the client device or terminal to at least:
• authenticate the patient;
• access a storage to search for any information that indicates the patient is ineligible to purchase the OTC drug;
• and without any information that indicates the patient is ineligible,
• administer a questionnaire to the patient, specific to the OTC drug, to assess the eligibility for the OTC drug and thereby establish eligibility of the patient to purchase the OTC drug, or determine that the patient is ineligible to purchase the OTC drug;
• and
• redirect the client device or terminal back to the server to complete the online sale of the OTC drug to the patient when eligibility of the patient is established, or cancel the online sale of the OTC drug to the patient when the patient is ineligible to purchase the OTC drug.