Hospital deploys robot to dispense medicine
An Rs 1.5 cr-robot in Kochi, India, has been deployed to a city hospital to cut queues. The robot, known as the Rowa Smart System, programmed in Germany, arranges medicines, checks dispensary dates and handles up to 3,000 prescriptions a day and 35,000 packs of medicine. Doctors hope the robot will help to save time and errors for patients.

Kochi: Taking medicine distribution to the next level, an Rs 1.5 cr-robot is helping to curb queues at the pharmacy counter of a city hospital - the first-of-its-kind in the region. Stored in a mini glass warehouse, the Rowa Smart System, developed in Germany, arranges medicines, checks the date and dispenses them at Aster Medcity.Pharmacists scan and store medicines into the robot's vault. The system can handle 35,000 packs of medicines and over 3,000 prescriptions a day. "The machine dispenses medicines to the pharmacist's terminal within seconds of billing and customers receive medicines in five minutes. This has reduced the waiting time at the pharmacy from 25 minutes to 10 ," said Dr Abel George, assistant manager, outpatient pharmacy, Aster Medcity."It takes almost half-a-day to see a doctor as a walk-in patient at a hospital. After waiting for hours and consultation, we spend time in a queue for medicines. With this system there is not much rush," said a patient's relative Satish Pillai.After a doctor writes a prescription, it is saved into a patient's electronic medical record and then transferred into the pharmacy's system. By the time the patient reaches the pharmacy, the prescription is verified, medicine dispensed.Dr George claims that this has helped save time and reduced errors. "From the details entered at the terminals, the robot identifies the requested product by the barcode on its pack. One of the robotic arms then selects the pack from the shelf and sends it via a conveyer belt to the appropriate chute (there are five such dispensers) from which the pharmacy staff collects medicines to give to patients," he said.Pharmacists welcomed the system and said that it is possible to have such system in hi-tech hospitals. "Even at small hospitals and pharmacies can't possibly have such a system because 90% of the prescription we get are illegible scribbles by doctors," said All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association Ernakulam district president PV Tomy.