Pilot project: Biometrics to curb prescription drug abuse

Project to prevent prescription drug abuse launches (Huntington, WV Herald-Dispatch)

GALLIPOLIS, Ohio -- The Governor's Office of Health Transformation and the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services will discuss a new pilot program designed to reduce the diversion and misuse of prescription medications at 10 a.m. Thursday at Holzer Health Systems.

Colorado to Discuss Biometrics Requirement for Prescription Drugs

HB12-1242 is under consideration by the Colorado General Assembly (Security Management)

Before prescribing or dispensing medication, medical providers would be required gather to information including the prescribing doctor’s name, office address, medication instructions, and the name and address of the patient, in addition to their biometric identifier -- a fingerprint or retinal scan. In other industries, facial and vein recognition [5] have also been used for verification.

The patient’s data would be converted into a unique identifier and sent (encrypted) to the pharmacy. Only the receiving pharmacy could decrypt the information. That’s how it should work. But privacy advocates say gathering so much data would provide dangerously detailed information about patients if hackers decided to target the database.

I sincerely doubt retina scans will be involved. If the eye is deemed necessary, iris would seem to make more sense.

What will they think of next?

First Candy & Soda, Now There's Pot Vending Machines (KION - Santa Cruz, CA)

"This is just part of the plan of where we want to be a year from now," said Scott McPhail.

By 2013, McPhail hopes you can get your medical marijuana the same way you buy a soda, right out of a machine.

Medbox, Inc. Has Acquired Prescription Vending Machines, Inc

Press Release

Prescription Vending Machines, Inc. was founded in 2008 and has generated revenues of over $6 million since 2010. The company sells and services a patented biometric medicine dispensing system that can dispense a wide variety of medicine and is sold to traditional pharmacies, doctors' offices, hospitals, urgent care centers, and alternative medicine clinics.

Earlier post on MedBox

MedBox Biometric Pharmacy

MedBox Develops Patent-Pending System for Storage and Retrieval of Prescription Drugs (PharmaLive)

The process is as simple as it is ingenious: When a customer drops off a prescription at their favorite pharmacy, the pharmacist will ask if they want to pick it up at the counter (which means possibly waiting in line and being subject to the pharmacy hours), or pick it up at the self-serve storage system – usually located immediately next to the pharmacy counter. If the customer opts to pick up their medicine from the convenient self-serve system, the pharmacist will register the patient, which is a one-time process that takes about 2-minutes. When the order is completed the pharmacist will place the medicine in a pre-determined slot in the self-service storage system. The customer can return to the store at their convenience, swipe their ID Card, place a finger in the biometric fingerprint verification system, and the appropriate slot will be able to be accessed by the customer.

This makes a lot more sense than the wine vending machine.