InstyMeds on Steroids

Apparently, computerized prescription dispensers are all the rage. The hospital pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, has completely robotized its prescription dispensing system. According to a UCSF press release, "Once computers at the new pharmacy electronically receive medication orders from UCSF physicians and pharmacists, the robotics pick, package, and dispense individual doses of pills. Machines assemble doses onto a thin plastic ring that contains all the medications for a patient for a 12-hour period, which is bar-coded. This fall, nurses at UCSF Medical Center will begin to use barcode readers to scan the medication at patients’ bedsides, verifying it is the correct dosage for the patient." Watch the robot in action, here.