A pharmacy filled a prescription in 30 seconds without a pharmacist. Is chemical distribution next?
A startup's automated kiosk fills prescriptions in 30 seconds with no pharmacist on site, and the rules haven't caught up to the technology yet. Chemical distribution, one of the most regulated industries around, should expect that same gap.
A kiosk sits on a retail floor. Sealed bottles of pills go in one end. Thirty seconds later a filled, verified prescription vial comes out the other, and there is no pharmacist on site.
That is a real machine. A startup called Queue came out of stealth last week with a working system that fills a 60 pill vial in about 30 seconds using computer vision, backed by $18.6 million in funding. They have already signed a national pharmacy chain, and the kiosk handles 250 of the most prescribed drugs in the country.
Here is the catch, and it is the part I care about. Most states still require a licensed pharmacist to sign off on the final dispense. The technology is ready before the rules are, and that gap is where other regulated industries are living right now.
Chemicals are one of the most regulated industries in the US. Safety is the first word out of everyone’s mouth, and it should be. So when I see a machine like this, I wonder “who is still accountable when the robot does the work?”
That question does not go away because the machine is good. It gets more critical.
What is the one task you would not hand to an autonomous system yet, no matter how well it performed?