You’ve got to imagine the Japanese are envious straight away, 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 novel number, demand PIN verification too, and then finally accept your prescription. Then — and it is the really silly part — a pharmacist comes along, picks up your prescription, fills it out, and deposits it within the machine as a way to pick up. So it’s impersonal and unnecessarily convoluted, great. PharmaTrust seems to have a touch 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 permitting them to speak to you via videophone. It can definitely be a large benefit in more remote areas, counting on how patients take to it — we’ll know more when the trial starts up in participating hospitals this winter.
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