Pharmacy Technology

While physicians and pharmacists alike generally view electronic prescribing with favor, several barriers stand in the way of their realizing its full benefit, according to a November government study.


Rather than take off for Christmas, the editors of Drug Store News took a look at the year ahead and the stories, issues and trends that will make headlines in retail pharmacy in 2012.

For those of us in the healthcare and wellness business, we realize our industry is changing and evolving quickly, mostly out of pure necessity.  The healthcare industry is overburdened, over budget and in need of an overhaul.  But the potential for our healthcare and wellness system is incredible for all audiences it touches — from consumers to medical professions to healthcare and wellness marketers. Throughout this past year familiar themes rang clear across our industry, giving us insights into what will play vital roles for healthcare in our future.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Medbox has acquired Prescription Vending Machines and will operate it as a wholly owned subsidiary, Medbox said.

Founded in 2008, Prescription Vending Machines makes a biometric medicine dispensing system that can dispense drugs available form pharmacies, doctors' offices, hospitals, urgent care centers and alternative medicine clinics. The company has installed more than 100 machines and point of sale systems worldwide.

JACKSON, Miss. — Pharmacy retail technology services company QS/1 is working with American HealthTech, a technology provider for long-term care facilities, to provide interoperability between the two.

The companies said Monday that interoperability between QS/1 pharmacies and American HealthTech would help to eliminate waste, reduce labor for handling orders, reduce the potential for errors and automate medication refills.

SAN FRANCISCO — Pharmacy technology provider PDX is partnering with Mscripts to allow existing PDX Classic and Enterprise Pharmacy System customers to add mobile to their customer-facing offerings, the companies said.

When someone says “pharmacy automation and technology,” the image that most likely springs to mind is a pharmacy robot dispensing pills in a bottle or pharmacists managing operations or looking at patients’ medical records and electronic prescriptions with the latest pharmacy software.


But technology increasingly is migrating out from behind the counter as pharmacy retailers wield it not just to make the jobs of pharmacists and pharmacy techs easier, but to enhance the experience of the customer as well.


Upon entering eRxCity on the second floor of a medical building at the corner of Mott and Canal streets in Chinatown in New York City, the store’s whole concept becomes clear from a slogan printed on the wall across from a flat-screen TV showing Hong Kong soap operas: “The next generation pharmacy.”