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OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, October 16, 2009 · 12 Government invests in science and technology Continued from page 10 technologies that will help the company meet market demand in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. "These two projects will put Canada at the forefront of pharmacy technology and benefit people around the world," said Goodyear. "Investing in science and technology is critical for developing highlyskilled people and improving the longterm competitiveness of Canadian firms. That's why NRC-IRAP is helping innovative Canadian businesses like PharmaTrust grow stronger, faster and bigger," said NRC President Dr. Pierre Coulombe. To use the system, customers insert a prescription or pick up a phone, and via a video conferencing system, speak to a pharmacist or physician. To dispense a medication, pending the pharmacist's authorization, the machine verifies a medication's barcode label, an RFID (radio-frequency identification) tag, the medication's DIN (drug identification number), lot number, expiry date, storage profile, photographs, video and weight. The MedCentre then presents the results of all tests to the pharmacist who reviews them and finishes by consulting with the patient before deciding whether or not to dispense the medication. Patients can pay with their drug plan card, cash, credit or debit. Patients benefit from the convenience and enhanced safety of PharmaTrust, while it translates into cost savings for the health care system. Currently, trials are taking place at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, under the supervision of the hospital's pharmacy; there are production sites at the Albany Clinic and Cambridge Hospital. The system is under evaluation as a pandemic response platform by researchers at the University Health Network and the company has also just recently received approval to deploy its system in select locations in the UK. "We think that our dispensing system is the way of the future. It's going to take some time to get there, but with the help of NRC-IRAP, we hope to revolutionize the dispensing and management of prescription drugs in Canada and around the world," said Peter Suma, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of PharmaTrust.