<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Consult a pharmacist via webcam
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Huang Huifen
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Sniffle, you're on a pharmacist's web camera.
The next time you drop by a Guardian Health and Beauty store to get medicine for a cold and the pharmacist is not there, you may be asked to face a webcam.
That is because the pharmacist on duty at another store will give you advice over its intranet, and even get you the pills your doctor prescribed.
Guardian's version of this 'telepharmacy' service is called Webcam Pharmacy. Customers need to be present at a store, and they have to be 18 years old and above.
The chain had tried out its Webcam Pharmacy service in 2004, but discontinued it in 2006 as it did not quite catch on.
It resumed the service in October last year, with its web-based pharmacists giving advice on common ailments, and dispensing prescription drugs at selected outlets.
Prescription drugs can be sold only with a doctor's prescription.
NTUC Healthcare - through its Unity stores - introduced telepharmacy in 1997. Watsons Personal Care Stores did so in 2006.
Unity suspended its telepharmacy service about two months ago to update its equipment and will resume it in about three months' time.
But Unity and Watsons telepharmacies do not dispense prescription drugs. A pharmacist has to be present in-store to do so.
Guardian, a member of the Dairy Farm group, has 121 stores.
Of the 55 which have pharmacists on-site, 30 now have its webcam service. Five of these 30 stores can dispense prescription drugs via this service.
With this webcam service, should the resident pharmacist be off duty, a customer can be linked to another pharmacist at another store.
Staff on hand will take care of any non-prescription medicine, as advised.
As for prescription drugs, the doctor's prescription is scanned and sent to the offsite pharmacist, who then advises the patient on their appropriate dosage and use.
The staff will then pack the medication under the pharmacist's supervision.
The entire process together with the patients' records are recorded.
While dispensing error is always a possibility, Mrs Choo Wai Lin, Guardian's director of pharmacy practice, said the process of dispensing via webcam is secure.
'There are two people - the pharmacist and the on-site staff - involved. The dispensing process is recorded by the webcam, which increases the accountability of our pharmacists and supporting staff,' she said.
Since Guardian resumed its webcam service, more than 1,000 customers have used it every week. National serviceman Silas Hoon, 22, welcomed the webcam service. 'It is very convenient. If a pharmacist is not around, I can still get my medicine without having to wait,' said Mr Hoon, who usually buys flu and cough medicine from the pharmacy.
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Huang Huifen
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Sniffle, you're on a pharmacist's web camera.
The next time you drop by a Guardian Health and Beauty store to get medicine for a cold and the pharmacist is not there, you may be asked to face a webcam.
That is because the pharmacist on duty at another store will give you advice over its intranet, and even get you the pills your doctor prescribed.
Guardian's version of this 'telepharmacy' service is called Webcam Pharmacy. Customers need to be present at a store, and they have to be 18 years old and above.
The chain had tried out its Webcam Pharmacy service in 2004, but discontinued it in 2006 as it did not quite catch on.
It resumed the service in October last year, with its web-based pharmacists giving advice on common ailments, and dispensing prescription drugs at selected outlets.
Prescription drugs can be sold only with a doctor's prescription.
NTUC Healthcare - through its Unity stores - introduced telepharmacy in 1997. Watsons Personal Care Stores did so in 2006.
Unity suspended its telepharmacy service about two months ago to update its equipment and will resume it in about three months' time.
But Unity and Watsons telepharmacies do not dispense prescription drugs. A pharmacist has to be present in-store to do so.
Guardian, a member of the Dairy Farm group, has 121 stores.
Of the 55 which have pharmacists on-site, 30 now have its webcam service. Five of these 30 stores can dispense prescription drugs via this service.
With this webcam service, should the resident pharmacist be off duty, a customer can be linked to another pharmacist at another store.
Staff on hand will take care of any non-prescription medicine, as advised.
As for prescription drugs, the doctor's prescription is scanned and sent to the offsite pharmacist, who then advises the patient on their appropriate dosage and use.
The staff will then pack the medication under the pharmacist's supervision.
The entire process together with the patients' records are recorded.
While dispensing error is always a possibility, Mrs Choo Wai Lin, Guardian's director of pharmacy practice, said the process of dispensing via webcam is secure.
'There are two people - the pharmacist and the on-site staff - involved. The dispensing process is recorded by the webcam, which increases the accountability of our pharmacists and supporting staff,' she said.
Since Guardian resumed its webcam service, more than 1,000 customers have used it every week. National serviceman Silas Hoon, 22, welcomed the webcam service. 'It is very convenient. If a pharmacist is not around, I can still get my medicine without having to wait,' said Mr Hoon, who usually buys flu and cough medicine from the pharmacy.
