DRUG VENDING
Forget stale potato chips and Orange Crush. New vending machines at clinics, hospitals, and eventually corner stores will dole out prescription drugs. One of these ATM-like dispensers, dubbed InstyMeds, has already shown up in a Minnesota hospital waiting room. Consumers enter a security code and birth date before swiping a credit card for the co-payment. "When the kids get sick, it's always an inconvenient time, and then you have to make an additional trip to a pharmacy," says parent Arlette Ploen. "This is quick, convenient, and easy."
The Minneapolis startup behind InstyMeds, Mendota Healthcare, also sells a PDA-based prescription system that calculates dosage based on a patient's given weight. Mendota founder Ken Rosenblum says the technology reduces errors caused by bad penmanship or bad math. The InstyMeds dispensers also help make up for the nation's 12,000 unfilled pharmacist positions and expanding prescription needs. The machines, each of which holds 80 kinds of drugs, will soon appear in four Minnesota ERs.
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