Microchips and Genechips affecting pharmacists

[elv1990]

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how are devices such as microchips and genechips going to affect a pharmacy business?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...archive/2000/12/18/BU151487.DTL&type=business is for info on microchips
thanks

 

[shikamaru]

Wow, that is some interesting stuff in that article...

I'm not sure what this means for pharmacists, but if this guy's idea does spread like wildfire later on then pharmacy schools might consider upgrading their curriculum O_O (unless technology like this is covered already of course);; It'll be interesting to hear more about this later, although the thought of implanting machine-operated chips into the human body makes me cringe lol. I found myself constantly thinking while reading, "But what if there's a malfunction and all the drugs are just leaking out like crazy???" Yikes! Well I'm sure this guy will figure out all the in's and out's hehe.

Edit: It just occurred to me that the article is over 7 years old. 7 years ago I was still in middle school/beginning of high school. Things change so I guess I'll just go dig up more info on this later. Still an interesting read though 🙂.

 

[PharmDstudent]

High doses of painkillers or antibiotics? No way. Painkillers are dangerous to begin with, so a high dose lodged in the body won't fly. So many of the antibiotics are resistant, especially the ones with low toxicity, so there isn't a need for a microchiped dose of amoxicillin just for a week when you get a cold. Antibiotics like Vancomycin and Linezolid are effective against certain resistant strains, but they can be toxic. Therefore, the patient has to be monitored closely, and high doses of those antibiotics lodged into the body wouldn't be a good thing due to their potential for toxicity.

I could just see people walking around with microchips and then dropping dead. Drug errors are bad enough right now, but a high dose error would be really bad!

 

[Shprot]

Although this tech is far far away from being reality, in any case it would only positively impact pharmacy field. Although dispensing antibiotics and narcotics in early stages wouldn't be such a great idea though.. but good idea to see someday. Imagine instead of dispencing oxy's or roxi's, you just give a chip with a 30 day supply - they cann't loose it or flush it down the toilet as a lot of them claim!
Think of it this way... the more complexity you introduce, the more issue you going to encounter, therefore more regulation and support will be needed. It would be definately interesting to see such technology implementing in supplement world, example would be monitoring essential nutrients in your body real time.