Saturday, December 30, 2006

Drug Delivering Robots

I have to say one of the coolest experiences in Clinical Interlude was going down to the pharmacy in the basement. We got a tour by one of the managers who described the process of filling a prescription. In Moffitt, drugs are delivered by these cool air tubes. But in Long, drugs are delivered by R2D2-like robots. These robots are fairly big, with speakers, a monitor, and motion sensors. They can even sense when you are nearby, and they will talk to you. In the basement, pharmacists will load up the robots with drugs and give them instructions. Then the robots move about the hospital completely autonomously. They will locate the elevators and command down an elevator. (Since I have been asked this by multiple people, they control the elevators through some sort of electromagnetic frequency, not by actually pushing the buttons). Then they will navigate into the elevator and tell all humans to exit. They go to the correct floor and dispense the drugs for that floor at the nurse's station. It's really nifty.

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