Can pharmacists be replaced by technology?

Can pharmacists be replaced by technology?

• There's no money in replacing pharmacists with machines, so I doubt it'll happen. But do you think it's possible? What do pharmacists do that machines can't do?

• Answer:

  I can see several things. There could be pervasive use of pharmacy technicians, in the same way that paralegals take a lot of the load of lawyers, but get paid far less, or dental hygienists do most of the normal work of dentists now, or nurses and paramedics do most normal doctor work, but are paid less. I can see use of remote pharmacists too, to cut down on costs. The local drugstore would have just a low-paid technician, who would prepare the prescription, and the pharmacist would be over video from some low-cost place like Vietnam or the Philipines. I could eventually see a robot pharmacist, starting with large drugs-by-mail operations, and migrating down to local drugstores. The doctor would send the prescription by secure internet, and the machine would prepare it. There would still be a human there for special cases, but routine drugs would come from the same picking machines that mail-order houses use.