Health

The workload of pharmacists are growing rapidly, expanding from dispensing to counseling on medications, in response to the development of disease prevention, self-medication*1 and home medical care for the community and the elderly.

In April 2016, Fujifilm introduced a new medication verification system named PROOFIT. It helps pharmacists to check if types and quantities of medications for patients match the prescription data. In Japan, it is compulsory for a pharmacist to conduct a verification to confirm both types and quantities of medications prepared for patients are correct. At present, pharmacists usually conduct it through a visual inspection. PROOFIT takes photo pictures of medications and make analysis to verify instantaneously and accurately whether the picked medications were identical to the prescription. The system reads not only barcodes but also characters printed on PTP*2 sheet employing character recognition technology developed by Fuji Xerox, which accommodates to a wide range of font types. Also, the system analyzes edges of PTP sheets, shadows in the photo images with our high-precision optical engineering and image processing technology. The system reduces human error as it accurately measures numbers of PTP sheets in a bundle, quantities of tablets and capsules. Furthermore, the system contributes immensely to reduce pharmacists’ workload by its automatic update function to acquire latest medications data to the system automatically.

*1 Self-medication; Treatment of minor physical ailments by the individual themselves, taking responsibility for their own health

*2 PTP: Abbreviation for “press through package”, a type of medication package from which tablets and capsules are removed by pressing through