Prescription drug kiosks get OK in Ontario

From CBC News:
People in Ontario will soon be able to buy prescription drugs through an ATM-like self-serve machine now that Bill 179 has been passed in the Ontario legislature.

PCA Services Inc. of Oakville, Ont., plans to roll out hundreds of kiosks across the province in places like malls and grocery stores once regulations are in place, which the company hopes will be within three months.

The kiosks, which have been in use in a handful of Ontario hospitals for two years, will likely become as indispensable as bank machines and cellphones, particularly as governments look for ways to cut health-care costs, said Peter Suma, president of PCA Services, which developed the machine.

"It will be like a cellphone. It will free you from locational dependence," Suma said in an interview with CBC News.

He used an example of going to a grocery store late at night, only to find the pharmacy section is closed. In the future, a customer will just head over to a PharmaTrust machine, as they're called, feed the doctor's prescription through a slot and pick up the phone for a video conference with a pharmacist. ...more