Why do we as a society view a move from human contact to self-serve machines as progress? When did human interaction in the course of our day become a waste of time? Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre has been testing new technology that allows people to pick up their prescription drugs from a special vending machine. By all accounts the feedback has been positive. It’s very easy to use. All that you do is insert your prescription into a slot in the machine and presto, your medication magically appears.

Between June and September 1,200 prescriptions have been dispensed to over 800 patients. All of the prescriptions were correctly filled and 95% of the 108 people surveyed said that they would use the machine again. However, approximately 1/3 of the patients found that their medication was not available in the machine that stores only 340 different drugs.

I am one of the skeptics who cannot accept that the convenience outweighs the benefits of a personal relationship with your pharmacist. My parents are seniors and they both have a personal relationship with their local pharmacist. If their pharmacist doesn’t see them in a few weeks she calls the house to see how they are doing. Somehow I don’t think that the vending machine would provide the same level of care and concern. The one advantage to the drug dispensing machine is that it allows users to communicate with a real pharmacist by video link which can be very helpful in an after hours situation or in remote areas.