A Follow-Up Study on D-Vend, An Automated Vending Machine for Medicines

The D-VEND is an automated vending machine for medicines. In the Philippines, the demand for OTC (Over-theCounter) medicines is high. This leads to long piles of people buying medicines from drugstores and pharmacies, which in turn brings hassle to almost everyone. This pursues with the main purpose of sending OTC medicines closer to people’s homes.[1] This study focused on how the costumers will have convenience in buying OTC medicines by implementing the use of an automated medicine vending machine. Based upon the results of the implementation, the researchers concluded that for the students, the machine is positively dispensing the right medicine requested by the user.[2] Apart from this, it is also said to be capable of storing medicines safely with correct and updateable information. It is therefore considered reliable, because it ensures the reliability of the medicines that it sells. Accuracy wise, the machine is correctly recognizing the coins inputted. [3] The warning system installed in the device gave the users the assurance that the medicines stored in the machine can be safely stored. It is therefore suggesting that this machine can be very marketable in terms of customer and medicine security. As this research have proved that there is a significant difference between the assessments of the students and the pharmacists, a proposal for implementation to the general public would be very appropriate. Since this machine is just a prototype and is subjected for small population testing only, it would be very advisable if the future researchers would implement the machine in a larger population sample.[4]