Panasonic Corp. has manufactured a robot that dispenses drugs to patients, the Japanese electronic company’s first step into robotics.
The Tokyo, Japan-headquartered firm will sell the robot to Japanese hospitals next March and will market it in the United States and Europe later. Panasonic spokesman Akira Kadota said the robot will cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“This robot is the first in our robotics project. It sorts out injection drugs to patients, saving time for pharmacists,” said Kadota. “It looks like a cabinet with lots of small drawers.”
Pharmacists put drugs into the robot, which stores medical data for patients. The robot will then sort out drugs for each patient and place them into respective drawers bearing the names of patients, according to the company.