

Robot Pharmacists Are Picking Your Medications—Literally - kkleiner
http://singularityhub.com/2010/05/09/robot-pharmacists-are-picking-your-medications-literally/

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smokey_the_bear
I don't want to offend pharmacists, because it's possible I entirely don't
understand their job. But every time I pick up a prescription I'm stunned at
how long it takes them to count out 30 pills, even when it seems there's no
one else there. Find the big bottle on the shelf. Count out 30, put in smaller
bottle, glue on label. Time: 1 hour.

~~~
cstross
Speaking as an ex-(21 years and counting) pharmacist, the job of the
_pharmacist_ is not to count pills; it's to make sure that your doctor doesn't
poison you by accident.

The pill-counting is mostly done by dispensers. The knowledge about medication
side-effects, prescribing guidelines, drug interactions, and the messy rest of
it? Not so much.

(Note that I missed out "dealing with insurance companies" because the NHS --
I'm British -- doesn't involve that step.)

((NB: I am an ex-pharmacist because being good at that job requires a peculiar
combination of obsessive-compulsive detail work and total lack of imagination
about what happens if you get it wrong. And I lack it.))

~~~
anamax
> Speaking as an ex-(21 years and counting) pharmacist, the job of the
> pharmacist is not to count pills; it's to make sure that your doctor doesn't
> poison you by accident.

Umm, do you really check drug-interactions by hand/memory?

Even when the check includes asking the patient "are you taking {list}",
shouldn't that list be generated by machine?

~~~
cstross
I have no idea what current practice is, but back then we used reference
books. Knowing _how_ to interpret the reference books -- that's what you do
the degree and postgraduate training for. (And the commonest stuff you learned
to spot straight off the bat.)

One problem is that you need to be able to talk to/see the patient yourself.
There's stuff that won't be in their medical records -- if they eat lots of
spinach or drink grapefruit juice, for example. (Both of which have nasty
side-effects when combined with various medications.) Or ask them how/when
they take their meds. (A surprising number of patients misunderstand their
prescriptions ...)

