NEWS: CNN.com 17 Nov 01: Docs try ATM-style prescription machines

Docs try ATM-style prescription machines
November 17, 2001 Posted: 12:22 PM EST (1722 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It looks like a giant ATM machine, but instead of cash the contraption at a Minneapolis pediatricians' office spits out prescription drugs.
No more treks to the drugstore for a 45-minute wait with a sick child: Just insert the prescription and a credit card, and out pops the medicine.
InstyMeds is the first automated prescription drug dispenser to hit a doctor's office, the latest in a trend toward computerizing prescriptions to cut not just drugstore lines but dangerous errors.
So far, InstyMeds is a pilot project. But Minnesota's pharmacy regulators just approved its use anywhere in the state, and the inventor hopes eventually to place the dispensers in doctors' offices and emergency rooms around the country...
Full article at: http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/11/17/prescriptions.automated.ap/index.html

Click to expand...

BigTrancer
------------------
Load universe into cannon. Aim at brain. Shoot.

damn! pharmacy in australia has the typical problems of small buisness. something like this could only harm the industry, and lower the quality of service provided to the public. luckily it is currently illegal to have automated dispensing machines in oz. i only hope it stays this way. pharmacy is one profession that definately should not fold to the pressure of a fast food society.
SirLSD
[This message has been edited by SirLSD (edited 20 November 2001).]

Been down to the local Pharmacy lately?
As long as they sell "cellulite blaster" and advertise the fact they stock prescription only viagra, I'm fine with replacing the smallest part of their business (prescription meds) with drug-bot.
The amount of ineffective treatments and other trinkets now sold at your local Chemist disgusts me. The fact that most pharmacists are happy to promote such crap is disturbing.
Rant, rant, rant....

Pharmacies sell a vast range of quack-type medicines, yes, because there is a huge public demand for them. It is ignorance in the community that perpetuates this, if someone wants to purchase a quack medicine then a pharmacy will get it in for them, simple as that, as long as the demand is there. Pharmacists RARELY actively recommend any medicines for which there is no therapeutic evidence, the only situation in which this will occur is in the 'supermarket' style pharmacies of the US which are about making money only, and involve virtually no genuine quality care. It could be argued that in the US, drug vending machines would be fine, because US pharmacy is one of the worst systems in the world. For example, advertising of prescription only medicines is completely illegal in most countries. The smallest part of a pharmacy's profits do not come from prescriptions, I do not know any figures of what it is in the US but it is more than 50% in Australia in almost any pharmacy.
so
-pharmacists do not promote this crap, if they do, give them a piece of your mind by all means
-prescriptions meds account for more than half a pharmacy's business
-public demand dictates what a pharmacy stocks in non-prescription items, not pharmacists' recommendations.
Finally the suggestion in the article that drug-related mortalities can be reduced by the introduction of drug vending machines is absolutely laughable and ridiculous, don't ask me to explain this one because it really should be obvious.

good post.
also its important that as long as the public decides to take products like "cellulite blaster" that it is sold in a pharmacy where a trained professional can monitor its use to provide the highest level of safety to the public.
hmm, or if conveinience is your highest priority when it comes to medication maybe we can get rid of pharmacys and let the maccas chick dispence your meds along with your meal
SirLSD

I seem to have struck a chord specimenj.
I've been speaking with a long time family friend and pharmacist about the apathy amongst his colleagues in Aust, particularly when it came to promoting new product and pushing sales.
I'd just like to point out that I have nothing against any proffession. However like any other person a Pharmacist can run on greed and put profit first.
They are just drug dealers when you get down to it, know many dealers that wont push bad product to make extra $?
Now if I can just find the ATM full of E...

how many drug dealers do u know that have a stringent code of ethics to conform to, and if they break this code, have a goverment body that cn persue the matter WITHOUT being required to conform to the australian legal system, and deregister the dealer?
[This message has been edited by SirLSD (edited 20 November 2001).]

Policemen don't abuse there position, a Doctor will all ways prescribe you appropriate medication and Pharmacists are all goody two shoes?
Wanna see supermarket drug stores that put profit first? look at your local chemist and see what company owns it.
There used to be 6 privately owned pharmacies in my home town. 10 years later the population has risen 35% and the number of pharmacies has dropped to 5, 3 of these owned by the same company.
All of these pharmacies are new style franchise like 'shops'. They come complete with smiling uniformed checkout chicks and impulse buy products all over the register.
Again I'm not saying pharmacies / pharmacists themeselves are bad, I'm friends with 2. I'm very close friends with a Doctor too but I believe there is a hell of a lot of bad medical practices in Aust.
Bottom line, if you run a nice pharmacy with good service and products you should do business drug-bot or not. How many people still pay to use bank tellers rather than ATMs?
I can see huge potential in these dispensing machines, particularly in hospitals. Lets see what the US makes of it..

im not up to date with the law nation wide but i do know that in WA it is illegal for any person other than a pharmacist to own a pharmacy, and that no pharmacist can have a interest in more than 2 pharmacies. so when i look at the pharmacies in my area i still see the small buissness man whos been kicked in the nuts by the GST.
have you asked your 2 friends who are pharmacists what they think of the idea of automated dispensers?
SirLSD