With the advancement with pharmaceutical drugs such as painkillers, antibiotics and psychotherapy drugs, both prescription and over the counter drugs are becoming more and more commonplace among people not just in developed countries, but in developing countries as well. With the increasing demand of physicians and nurses also comes an increasing demand for pharmaceutical technicians, which often need to be versed in chemistry in order to synthesize drugs prescribed by doctors to their patients. Pharmacists are employed by pharmacies, hospitals and walk in clinics alike, and are often on average paid better than nurses but less than doctors. It often takes a team of 3-4 pharmacists to operate a larger pharmacy in a large city on a single shift, and pharmacies themselves are not bogged down with constant demand the way grocery store clerks might face a barrage of customers.
Pharmacists are the less renowned and often overlooked fighters in the war against disease, not getting the recognition they deserve, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when emergency workers in particular emergency medical services, together with doctors and nurses, were often hailed for their efforts and loyalty to their profession despite increasing pressure mounting for which they did no drill, but knew the day would come anyways.
As many other professions in the 21st century are bound to fall to automation and artificial intelligence, so is the pharmaceutical profession. Drug synthesis is a form of manufacturing process often looked over by human beings working as pharmacists, but the process of drug synthesis itself that is used to manufacture prescription drugs on the spot, which contain chemicals that are often heavily controlled or regulated by the government and it’s associating medical bodies due to the potent and potentially harmful and addictive nature of them in large quantities.
Right now as it stands, pharmaceutical vending machines are not geared to synthesize drugs the way a pharmacist would do in the lab behind the desk. They usually dispense drugs which are already made, and are among the most common prescription drugs together with the most common amounts. While most are stored inside the machine, a pneumatic tube system could get drugs into the machine and restock them from a stock room in which they are located, in order to be able to provide a greater variety of prescription medications. The problem with this idea is that all organic substances, including medication, have an expiration date. Prescription medication in particular tends to have a shorter expiration date than over the counter medications.
So, a better solution would require the vending machines to be able to synthesize and press the pills from a variety of ingredients. Right now machines can only dispense prescription medication and are intended to work side by side by a human operated traditional pharmacy. Some machines are designed to dispense only 300 of the most common prescription medications, which include antibiotics, painkillers, cough syrups and inhalers, and repeat prescription medications are said to account for 80 percent of prescription medication orders, cutting down the time allotted for queues to only those patients who are only receiving a certain prescription medication for the first time. The problem often mentioned with this machine is it’s impersonal nature, some have video call links to actual pharmacists who can answer any questions a person might have in regards to their prescription, like side effects or potential harmful combinations and food intake. Overall many of the questions that can be answered by the pharmacist could be found by an artificial intelligence like Amazon’s Alexa that is designed with search algorithms and internet connection capabilities that can scour medical databases. A question here arises in terms of privacy, the company operating the machine might need to have access to the medical records of a patient in order to give them accurate and pertinent information.
Studies have also shown an improvement in working conditions for pharmacists based on the Likert scale, and an up to 50 percent decrease in time wasting procedures even during peak hours, as well as a reduction of 35 percent in dispensing errors. One other downside noted in regards to this technology is it’s inability to carry out vaccinations, something pharmacists commonly do.