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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."
the robot accidently refills grandpa's heart medication with viagra?
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
...by one full day: http://www.linuxmednews.com/linuxmednews/104136357 3/index_html
-- Ignacio Valdes, MD, MS
http://www.LinuxMedNews.com Revolutionizing Medical Education and Practice.
I think a necessary addition to this robotic scheme would be a small camera that could verify that the pills are indeed the correct pills.
Facial recognition systems do exist - it shouldn't be terrible difficult to have a small camera and computer that can make sure that the pills being dispensed look like the correct pills. This idea would of course just be another failsafe in the system - it wouldn't make the system infallible.
If your drug is supposed to be a little green square pill, the camera could just verify that the pills being dispensed match this description so that your fate doesnt rest in a bar code and a college-intern assistant.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Then of course there still the possibility of error introduced by the pharmacist entering the prescription into the computer.
Wouldn't it be great if the prescription itself can contain a barcode describing the drugs used, which could be scanned into the computer?