Self-help medicine dispensaries a mirror of a smart city
A local resident uses a self-help machine to pick up medicine.
An intelligent approach has been taken in Shanghai to make medicine dispensing smoother, and prevent contamination during dispensary.
On Wednesday, the Xuhui District Administration for Market Regulation released two guidelines on the management of intelligent medicine dispensing machines and cabinets at retail pharmacies, the first of the kind, to upgrade supervision and management of pharmacies.
At several pharmacies in the district, traditional shelves filled with medicine have been replaced by smart medicine vending machines which merge self-help drug dispensing, packaging and distribution.
There are also 24-hour non-contact drug dispensing cabinets.
A self-help medicine cabinet in Xuhui District
The cabinets can identify real-time medicine purchase information via a "drug receiving code" to ensure the accuracy of medicine dispensing.
They can also monitor the temperature and humidity of the environment and medicine inventory, and automatically send alarms in case of abnormal situations.
The intelligent approach prevents direct contact during COVID-19 prevention and control, and improves efficiency and accuracy as error is inevitable when manually dispensing drugs, officials said.
"We aim to make drug dispensing convenient for the public, and safeguard the bottom line for pharmacies at the same time by releasing the guidelines," said Wang Fangru, an official with the administration.
A self-help medicine machine in Xuhui
Staff at a pharmacy checks the operation of self-help machines.
