You’re sick and in your doctor’s office. Why not pick up your prescription while you’re there? Convenient, safe and hassle-free. Avoid the extra trip to the pharmacy. Start your treatment immediately; you can begin taking your medication while in the doctor’s office. Ask your questions of the pharmacist, physician and nurse all at the same time.

MedBox listed on IdeaBounce at the Washington University in St. Louis Entrepreneurial Progam Web site

The current physician-pharmacist-patient triad is a highly inefficient and expensive healthcare operation. An often-sick patient must drive to an often-distant pharmacy to have it filled. Each step underutilizes expensive professionals due to inefficient operations and administration. Pharmacies must be conveniently located and must stock extra inventory to be prepared for any prescription from any physician, adding to the cost of medication.

MedBox provides a Web-based, fully automated, video-conferenced, robotic prescription dispenser for an individual physician’s office. Patients can have prescriptions filled by their pharmacist while at the doctor, plus obtain refills at any participating MedBox Automated Dispensing Robot (ADR). The ADR accepts prescriptions in any media format: electronically, on paper, by phone or fax. MedBox ADR counts, pours and dispenses exactly the quantity the physician prescribes, giving a physician full control over therapy. ADRs are modular, sized to fit in a doctor’s office and manage inventory for one physician; group practices can be served by several ADRs.Inventory is customized to the physician’s practice, minimizing surplus stock.

The current prescription market generates over $200 billion in sales, with 60,000 pharmacies (and the largest chain having 10% market share) reporting average revenues of over $3 million per pharmacy. The current physician market has 200,000 general practice, physician-owned offices with average revenues of $1 million/office. MedBox will strive to acquire a 10% share of this community pharmacy-physician-prescription market through the use of a technologically advanced paradigm that puts the pharmacist and medications in a doctor’s office using robotics and Web technology.