Siriraj Hospital to use robots for dispensing medicine
By Puangchompoo Prasert
The Nation

 

 

BANGKOK: -- ONE OF THE country’s biggest hospitals, the Bangkok-based Siriraj, will start using robots to dispense medicine this year.

 

“We believe they will help us improve patients’ safety even further,” Dr Prof Prasit Watanapa, dean of Mahidol University’s Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, said yesterday. The hopital now serves between 8,000 and 10,000 outpatients daily. Each patient is prescribed more than one medicine on average. 

 

The hospital’s director, Asst Prof Dr Visit Vamvanij, believed the huge number of patients and the many complicated cases the hospital handles were factors behind some inaccuracies in the medicine-dispensing process. 

 

During a press conference where the robots were unveiled, Visit said the preparation of three in 1,000 prescriptions have had some errors. 

 

“These inaccuracies have not affected patients because they are detected by our pharmacists prior to dispensing,” he said. “But we aim to achieve zero inaccuracy even during the preparation process. We believe robots are our answer.” 

 

The automatic medicine-dispensing system was developed through a collaboration of the Thailand Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences, the Institute of FIeld RoBOtics (FIBO), and Supreme Hitera. “It’s an invention by Thais,” Prasit said. 

 

Siriraj Hospital will be the first hospital to install the system. 

 

“If the systems work fine at our facility, they should work fine elsewhere too,” Prasit added. 

 

Visit said the systems might increase the expenses of the hospital, but they were worth implementing, as they promised to reduce accuracy and better protect patients. 

 

Assoc Prof Dr Cherdchai Nopmaneejumruslers said the robots would be able to dispense 85 per cent of medicines and the remainder would be handled by staff. 

 

“With the help of robots, we expect to complete each prescription within 15 minutes,” Cherdchai said. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30309208

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-03-16

Been dealing with zombies all these years. Nothing new here.

4 minutes ago, webfact said:

“It’s an invention by Thais,”

I think I would stick with the current method.

 

I just hope that those robots are NOT programed by Thai techys...

otherwise it will be a sheer waste of money to have robots emulating

the locals, and I wouldn't to hear a robot saying Mi Mee?.....

Oh Brother!

Invented by Thais, programmed by Thais, quality control by Thais maintained by Thais. Running on Widows XP.

 

What could possibly go wrong!

Have they been programmed to dispense 8 different drugs to cure a headache?

Let's focus on the big picture folks - as long as the Thai worker is not losing their job to a farang, mai pen rai. True story too - I went to the pharmacy of my local (provincial) hospital trying to resupply my eye drops for glaucoma. I explained and showed the nearly empty dispenser. she tried to supply me with nose drops.

Most of the medicine I've ever had dispensed (luckily a minute amount) was dispensed in a robot manner anyway- so nothing new here. 

3 minutes ago, captnhoy said:

Let's focus on the big picture folks - as long as the Thai worker is not losing their job to a farang, mai pen rai. True story too - I went to the pharmacy of my local (provincial) hospital trying to resupply my eye drops for glaucoma. I explained and showed the nearly empty dispenser. she tried to supply me with nose drops.

Closer to the mark than suppositives. 

56 minutes ago, mikebell said:

Have they been programmed to dispense 8 different drugs to cure a headache?

and all different outrageous  colours 

It would be interesting to see if the robot's programming can be hacked, especially if they operate through an internet connection, ie., hospital server. Might be a day when all prescriptions contain morphine, making the hospital a Happy Zone.

I hope those robots can also speak good english so they can run the pharmacy shops in the BKK-malls.

 

Those pharmacists can't speak english at all so i wonder how they can read the descriptions from imported medicines.

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Each patient is prescribed more than one medicine on average. 

Hmm must reread that kidney disease article again. 

Patient to Robbie the robot. Robbie all these pills are any dangerous to my health and my kidneys? Robbie Bleep let me get back to you on that one my program does not compute bleep. 

Hospitals are boring places can you program the robot to play gin???

Most of the old foreigners I know go to the hospital to have the pretty nurses there wait on them hand and foot and shower. I guess in the future Robbie will learn this to. Geeze Robbie don't pull so hard its the only one life allows me. 

Edited March 16, 20179 yr by elgordo38

6 hours ago, BigBadGeordie said:

Invented by Thais, programmed by Thais, quality control by Thais maintained by Thais. Running on Widows XP.

 

What could possibly go wrong!

 

Ya think? Perhaps Windows 3.1. They say it's more stable than XP... LOL

It's not a buffet 

Very amusing that it's ABB they're using to get the robots. ABB is a company long mired in fraud, corruption, graft, kickbacks, all around the world.

 

I'm sure they got the contract here in Thailand in a completely transparent and correct manner though :)

 

 

12 hours ago, captnhoy said:

Let's focus on the big picture folks - as long as the Thai worker is not losing their job to a farang, mai pen rai. True story too - I went to the pharmacy of my local (provincial) hospital trying to resupply my eye drops for glaucoma. I explained and showed the nearly empty dispenser. she tried to supply me with nose drops.

I went to an optometrist & told her I'd like to buy some PLUS 5.25 contacts (far sighted)

 

She sold me MINUS 5.25 contacts (for near sighted people).

 

Being half blind I couldn't read the box, so I got the wrong thing

Edited March 16, 20179 yr by jaywalker

I needed a cyst removed from my testicles once upon a time years ago.

 

Embarrassing as it gets, from the female receptionist on.

 

At BKK-Pattaya hospital.

 

Had a male doctor & he said he could laser scalpel it off there.

 

Pregnant, female nurse had me drop my drawers & applied a local anesthetic (some kind of numbing cream & a band-aid) on my ball-sac & told me to go wait outside for an hour.

 

Back then I hardly spoke any Thai, but I gathered it must've been some field trip day for some med students, as the doctor invited half a dozen young 20-ish kids in there to watch him do the procedure.

 

Not sure if a robot could have done better, but it would have certainly been less humiliating!

8 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

Patient to Robbie the robot. Robbie all these pills are any dangerous to my health and my kidneys? Robbie Bleep let me get back to you on that one my program does not compute bleep. 

Kinda sounds like the Pattaya crosswalk traffic lights.

 

Of yeah, I LOVED Robbie the Robot when I was a kid.

 

Hadn't thought of him in decades. Thanks!

 

35 minutes ago, jaywalker said:

Kinda sounds like the Pattaya crosswalk traffic lights.

 

Of yeah, I LOVED Robbie the Robot when I was a kid.

 

Hadn't thought of him in decades. Thanks!

 

Me tooooo