You've got to imagine
the Japanese are green with envy right now, as the
BBC report not one, but
two different drug vending machines are being tested out under
Her Majesty's watchful eye. The first of these experiments is run by supermarket chain Sainsbury's, which has installed a pair of drug dispenser machines in its stores. They identify users by their fingerprint or a unique number, demand PIN verification too, and then finally accept your prescription. Then -- and this is the really silly part -- a pharmacist comes along, picks up your prescription, fills it out, and deposits it in the machine for you to pick up. So it's impersonal and unnecessarily convoluted,
great. PharmaTrust seems to have a slightly better idea with its videophone-equipped, ATM-style robo-vendor: it's intended to allow pharmacists to approve prescriptions off-site and out of usual working hours by letting them speak to you via videophone. It could in fact be a big benefit in more remote areas, depending on how patients take to it -- we'll know more when the trial starts up in participating hospitals this winter.
posted August 16th 2010 7:36AM 
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ReplyDeleteIt's sad to say, but I do see this as the future. I don't think it will completely take over the market, but it will be at least 40% of retail, unless we show our value to the patient. I know change scares most of us, but this may have a value to us pharmacists. This will provide us with more time to help patients with real questions/concerns and let the "ATM" do the mundane birth control refills, especially considering the technician down sizing. To make sure this stays in the minority of the market place we need to show the patient our value. Too many of us are relying on looking at the computer to relay information to the patient, if we keep doing this , the patient will see that the pharmacist should be replaced by the entity giving the pharmacist the information, the computer!
ReplyDeleteAnother perspective on these dispensing machines is that maybe pharmacists can begin working out of their homes. If these machines are provided in private booths the patient could choose an 'ask the pharmacist' option and it would immediately send a notification to our computer screen to video counsel the patient. Also if the machine contains the patient's medication history it should be able to detect adverse reactions between drugs which would give another opportunity for us as pharmacists to video counsel. I think this machine could be a good thing if they utilize pharmacists in the process.
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