Robot Pharmacist On Duty
By George Anderson
Rice’s Pharmacy in Nashua, New Hampshire has a new pharmacist on staff. He never makes mistakes, takes vacations or sick days and he fills prescriptions five times faster than the average pharmacist. You might think that he would be called Superpharmacist but to fellow employees, he’s know simply as Herb, says The Nashua Telegraph.
Herb is a pharmacy-dispensing robot (the second in New Hampshire) and he is worth every penny of the $100,000+ that the owner of Rice Pharmacy, Roger Hebert, paid for him. (ScriptPro, Mission, Kansas is the manufacturer. Check the company out at http://www.scriptpro.com/ie-splash.shtml)
Moderator’s Comment: How will robotics impact pharmacy
and other retail operations in the future? What will this mean for the human
component of the business?
Some predict that robotic pharmacists will be in widespread
use within the next ten years if not sooner.
[George
Anderson – Moderator]