Etteplan is designing an new medical automation system for Newico for tracking a pharmaceutical product all the way from the factory to the patient. The first part of the system will be introduced at Kuopio University Hospital in Finland in 2015.

Kuopio University Hospital has placed an order with Newico for an automation solution for the storage and dispensing of medicine to patients. According to Etteplan, the system will be the first in the world capable of tracking medicine and its dispensation from factory to patient. The hospital pharmacy’s storage robot will receive the medicines from the wholesaler and put them on the shelves. The storage robot will also collect and pack the medicine destined for the hospital wards. In the wards, medicines will be managed, dosed and dispensed using an automated system that is integrated with patient data systems. The automated system will also provide guidance to nursing staff and record the procedures carried out by the nurses.

“Automated medicine dispensation will be the biggest change seen in hospitals in decades and, in our view, it will be a key tool for hospitals as the population ages and they are forced to tighten their purse strings. But an even more important benefit of the system will be improved patient safety,” says Toivo Naaranlahti, hospital pharmacist and head of the pharmacy department at Kuopio University Hospital, in a press release.

Source: Etteplan