Robots, Pills And Conflicts Of Interest

from the what-happened-to-the-human-touch dept

More and more, it seems, robots are filling the prescriptions you get through your mail-order pharmacy. And, as insurance firms encourage their customers to order from their mail order firms, the likelihood that your prescription is filled by a machine, rather than a person, is high. This raises several questions: do we really trust robots to get every single pill in the bottle? And the right pill, for that matter? Is there a conflict-of-interest in that large pharmaceutical companies often own a stake in the mail-order firms? Personally, I’ll take the friendly neighborhood pharmacist over a robot for this particular job.


Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “Robots, Pills And Conflicts Of Interest”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
2 Comments
dorpus says:

Why not?

Modern drugs have so many similar spellings, and every pharmacy I go to has so many foreign (or American) workers that are not literate in English. I would be very scared of life-depending prescriptions from such places.

This is a straightforward case of cutting out the middleman.

This is also a case where health insurers are the good guys, because they put pressure on pharmas to lower their prices.

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...