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It's just good medicine

April 12, 2012 by Richard Buckle — Founder and CEO, Pyalla Technologies, LLC

An annual checkup is never an event that’s eagerly anticipated. However, we are all the better off for pursuing checkups, as none of us likes being blindsided by something that makes us sick and easily could have been diagnosed and remedied if discovered earlier. Running down the list of questions my doctor, who has the responsibility of monitoring my health, asked me about my prescriptions — only a couple, mind you — reminded me of all the times I've had to stand in line at the pharmacy waiting for my prescriptions to be filled.

A few months ago I was late getting to the pharmacy and, planning to fly out of town the next morning, I was a little concerned. Sure enough, they had not received a response from my doctor, so there would be no medication for me. Fortunately, with a quick phone call they managed to reach him and my doctor helped me out, but it makes me wonder, have we missed a critical market segment? Surely, there’s a basic set of low-risk prescription drugs that could be dispensed from an ATM?

Of course, I couldn’t miss reading the recently posted promotional story “With hybrid ATM/Kiosk it’s give and take,” in which the writer quotes Sam Shahbazi, executive VP of Vancouver-based TIO Networks, as having said “ATM owner operators are looking for the next revenue-generating machine … of course, hearing their points of pain such as interchange fees and the sheer concentration of ATMs out there … they’re looking for the next machine that has multiple revenue generation.” So why not corner the market on behind-the-counter prescription pharmaceuticals. Talk about separation (of capability) from those other ATMs nearby!

What better revenue generating opportunity than placing such equipped ATM in the lobby of a popular Florida country club? Or even a chic boutique along The Avenue desChamps-Élysées? You want security, and to be sure the right patient gets the correct prescription — the infrastructure already in place has this well covered. There’s the potential to monitor via video feeds and to tie-in a call to a mobile phone to confirm — there’s probably nothing the equal of money when it comes to our communities concerns over protecting its distribution.

The range of prescriptions may be limited but perhaps the market will develop where one network of ATMs will cater to those with heart issues while a completely separate network will cater to those with more serious ailments. I am not suggesting for one moment that a complex cocktail of meds, such as that often associated with chemo treatment of cancer, would be a part of the program but so many other pharmaceuticals could be handled in this fashion. Indeed, there may be greater safety all around should select pain killers — even products like oxycodone — be distributed in the same controlled and monitored manner we now associate with cash.

Insert your pharmacy card jointly issued by your insurance company and your physician and punch the button for statins — prescription medications used to lower cholesterol. Not too different from that other stimulant-dispensing machine so popular only a decade or so ago, the cigarette machine, perhaps there’s even a way to capitalize on abandoned inventories of such machines, and perhaps we could even come up with another flavor of hybrid ATM/kiosk referenced in the interview above.

But you would want to ensure that the network was being monitored, and perhaps have it support a call-in button that would connect you to a doctor assigned to the monitoring team. Again, there is nothing too dramatic with any of this. You want monitoring and to be sure there’s no abuse or prescriptions being filled under duress — again, the infrastructure already in place has this well covered.

In my previous post, “How far can we see?” I said that in future posts I would be looking at the products and solutions designed to better monitor and manage these flourishing networks of ever-cheaper (and yet, functionally diverse) ATMs, as well as the analytics solutions now emerging that are helping to provide greater insight into the behavior of those who frequent these devices. And it just seems to me that there could be more than money involved here — after all, we are no longer excited by ATMs dispensing stamps and coupons. How about life-sustaining, very critical, prescription drugs?

OK, so I can see the uproar already. "You have to be kidding," perhaps at the top of the list — prescription drugs are among the most-abused substances running amok among our kids. However, I am not so sure — it will all come down to the monitoring of these ATM’s (yes, you will still be able to get cash, of course — these aren’t just another flavor of kiosk) and the sophistication of the software underpinning the monitoring. Anyone who regularly catches ABC’s evening news would have not missed Diane Sawyer's story about a massive spike in armed robberies at neighborhood pharmacies — an 84 percent increase over the past five years. And that the thieves are not interested in cash: They want prescription pills.

According to Sawyer, some 3,535 pharmacies have been hit within that five-year timeframe, with more than 6 million painkillers stolen and increasingly, the corner pharmacy is looking more and more like a fortress. Kind of reminds me of what banks went through a few decades ago when standing in line was the only way to access your cash. The monitoring we have in place for our ATM networks almost makes it a no-brainer to consider putting other high-risk exchanges of any kind under their ever-watchful eye.

Monitoring is indeed a crucial piece of any financial institution's plans to expand the products on offer from ATMs. Perhaps we aren’t all ready to see prescription pharmaceuticals being dispensed in this manner, just as many of us would be a little uneasy watching cigarette machines making a comeback. But as governments around the world wrestle with how best to control medical programs of all kinds, is there an opportunity to bring in financial institutions and leverage the infrastructure in place to handle that other tricky instrument — cash?

The more I talk to people in finance working with ATMs, the less I am inclined to rule out anything. And the greater the monitoring and analytics of ATM networks, the less I am inclined to think there are limitations or restrictions that cannot be addressed. When just one life is saved through the immediacy of a critical medication from a street-corner ATM dispensing pharmaceuticals, every financial institution will want to offer up a product. With that closing observation, I look forward to reading whatever comments this post may generate — and I am sure that it will!

About Richard Buckle

Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies, LLC. He has enjoyed a long association with the Information Technology (IT) industry as a user, vendor, and more recently, as an industry commentator, thought leader, columnist and blogger. Richard participates in the HPE VIP Community where he is part of their influencer team.

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