Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1051772
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 14 NOVEMBER 2018 4 NEWS MASSIMO COSTA A robotic system for dispens- ing medicine to patients' wards will, in the coming years, be operating at Mater Dei Hospi- tal. The system, which will start being implemented in 2020, will serve to eliminate the risk of patients being given the wrong medicine or an incorrect dose, and will also save medical professionals time and effort. Health Ministry consultant Mike Farrugia said the system – PillPick by Swisslog – would be combining computing, ro- bots and pneumatic tubes to create a network allowing medicine to be ordered online for a patient receiving hospi- tal treatment, with it then be- ing delivered to the ward a few minutes later. The first step in the process will be the conversion by ro- bots of medicine batches, pur- chased by the government, into single doses. These will be packed and later sorted and stored by another robot. After this, a different robot will receive a doctor's pre- scription through Wi-Fi, and will prepare the medicine, in- cluding labelling it with a bar- code identifying the patient. The packaged medicine will then be placed in a pneumatic tube and propelled to the ward the patient is staying in. Once in the ward, the medi- cine's barcode will be scanned against the patient's own bar- code to ensure it has indeed arrived at the right person, and that it is the correct medicine. Farrugia said the project would take three years to im- plement, with it first being put into place in a pilot ward at Mater Dei in 2020. Doctors, nurses, dentists, midwives and pharmacists will concurrently start receiving training on the system. After this, it will be put into effect across the remain- ing hospital wards, with a view to have the whole process sta- bilised by 2021. He said that once the system is introduced to Mater Dei, other health institutions such as Mount Carmel Hospital will follow. The robotic system, which has currently only yet been adopted by a small number of hospitals globally, will increase efficiency and improve safe- ty by reducing human error, Health Minister Chris Fearne said. Fearne highlighted that the system's software will ensure that any medicine prescribed is adequate for the patient's con- dition, and will check if there are any contraindications with other medicine that the pa- tient is taking. It will also prevent the risk of medicine being wasted or ex- piring while in storage. "There will be two big robots in the stores supplying Mater Dei, two others in its pharma- cy department, and another 18 robots around the hospital," he said. He also noted that the €11 million cost of the project will be covered by the company which won the tender, and the government would only be paying if the system ends up saving it money. If the govern- ment saves no money, the ten- der winner agreed it won't be receiving any payment. mcosta@mediatoday.com.mt Mater Dei Robots will soon dispense medicine to patients A robotic system similar to this will be sorting and dispensing medicines directly to patients' wards at Mater Dei Hospital