Robot Pharmacists

Makarand writes "The next time you visit a pharmacy your prescription may be filled by a robot according to a TechTV article. Hospitals and drugstores are now increasingly relying on automated technology to count, bottle, and label prescription drugs in a faster and more accurate way. The technology uses a bar-code system similar to those used to read prices in grocery stores. Doctors enter prescription details directly into the pharmacy computer. The robot springs into action when an order is recieved. Riding on a conveyor belt, the robot picks up an empty vial, identifies the bar code of the chosen drug, and automatically fills the drug bottle."

Comments

Re:This is bad

[CrystalFalcon]

The point of pharmacists should be obvious. You NEED to study for four years to understand the kind of handwriting they have to read to get you the right bottle.

Handwriting?

[nautical9]

Does this mean hand-writing-recognition has reached a huge milestone to actually understand what the doctor writes?