Switzerland’s first Medicomat: the future of healthcare or a technical gimmick?

Andreas Baumann is convinced that the Medicomat will prevail in the future. SRF / Alex Moser

Switzerland’s first automated medication dispenser is located in canton Solothurn – but it is used less than its creators expected.

Imagine being struck by a sudden, severe headache. A painkiller would help quickly, but your medicine cabinet is empty and the nearest pharmacy closes in five minutes.

Marion Tschan, a medical practice assistant at the Vitasphère Health Centre in Oensingen, canton Solothurn, is familiar with such situations.

“If someone calls and orders a painkiller, I can place it in the Medicomat so the medicine can be collected outside our opening hours.” The order is then transmitted to the centre’s basement.

Three years in operation

In the basement, a fully automated robot prepares the medication and sends it back upstairs. Tschan then checks the robot’s work manually to ensure the correct product, quantity and dosage.

A robot prepares the medication in the basement of the health centre. SRF / Alex Moser

If everything is correct, the robot forwards the medication to the Medicomat. The machine, which has been in the health centre’s entrance area for three years, resembles an ATM. Patients receive a QR code allowing them to retrieve their medication at any time, even when the practice is closed.

Prescription or QR code are required

Prescription medicines can also be collected from the machine but only once staff have verified the prescription. The Medicomat therefore functions very differently from a soft-drink vending machine – customers cannot simply get what they want.

All medicines that are prepared for the Medicomat are checked by the staff – here by Marion Tschan. SRF / Alex Moser

The Medicomat is the first and only model of its kind in Switzerland. Andreas Baumann, Chair of the Board of the Vitasphère Health Centre, developed the pioneering project. “I thought it must be possible to build a Medicomat the same way you build an ATM,” he says.

The idea emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic, when reducing person-to-person contact was crucial. At the time, the Medicomat was particularly useful. But things have changed. “If people see a friendly face behind the counter, they prefer that to the Medicomat. Today, the machine is used less than we expected back then,” says Baumann.

Only 10% of customers use the Medicomat

Just 10% of customers collect their medication via the machine. This must be weighed against the cost of the system: according to Baumann, the Medicomat and the connected robot together represent a mid six-figure investment.

The Medicomat in Oensingen is a pioneering project. But its creators had hoped for more. SRF / Alex Moser

So, was it a bad investment? Baumann says no. He is convinced that automated medication dispensing will become standard. “The question is whether we can take digitalisation or artificial intelligence a step further and make the comparison between order and prescription automatic.”

For now, staff will continue checking prescriptions and loading the Medicomat manually. But the system already proves that automated dispensing can work reliably –even if it is not yet the preferred choice for most patients.

Translated from German using DeepL/amva