The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) medical school has enlisted robot pharmacists. These robots have been given the task to take prescription orders, retrieve the pills, bottle them, label them, and deliver to the patient. UCSF has vast store houses of pharmaceuticals, where these bots can easily traverse much faster than their human counterparts. And after over 350,000 prescriptions filled, not a single error has occurred.
These robots are part of a larger automated system that keeps track of all medications in one refrigerated and two non-refrigerated storehouses. As the robots work tirelessly at all hours, the pharmacists are free to give each patient more care and attention. “UCSF led the way in training clinical pharmacists, who focus on the patient rather than the drug product,” said Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy. “Automated medication dispensing frees pharmacists from the mechanical aspects of the practice. This technology, with others, will allow pharmacists to use their pharmaceutical care expertise to assure that patients are treated with medicines tailored to their individual needs.”
Part of the system is the integration of bar-coding per prescription dosage. This will allow nurses to scan what the bots have dealt out to make sure it is the proper amount for the individual patient. Studies have shown that the inclusion of technology, like this bar-coding, can help reduce errors. These new bots are the latest level and have already exceeded expectations.
Of course, zero information could be found pertaining to the control systems for the robots.
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