Certain pharmacies in New England are now using robots to fill prescriptions!

The Boston Globe reports that 1.5 million people are harmed every year by getting the wrong prescription. Think about it: Handwritten scripts can easily be misread by the pharmacist, and pharmacists themselves are overworked and may inadvertently make an error when filling a script.

Automated machines, however, eliminate the chance of human error. They can be programmed to dispense up to 200 of the most commonly filled scripts, according to the article, at a rate of 134 scripts/hour. That's more than 2 scripts a minute, and it frees up pharmacists to do more face-to-face consultations with their customers.