It was recently reported in Wired magazine that clinics, hospitals, and eventually corner stores will offer vending machines for prescription drugs. One is already being used in a Minnesota hospital waiting room. The ATM-like dispenser has been dubbed InstyMeds. Consumers enter a security code and birth date before swiping a credit card for their co-payment.

Mendota Healthcare is the startup behind InstyMeds. They also sell a PDA-based prescription system that calculates dosage based on a patient’s given weight. The company believes the technology reduces errors caused by bad penmanship or bad math and will make up for the nation’s 12,000 unfilled pharmacist positions and expanding prescription needs.

Each InstyMeds dispenser holds 80 kinds of drugs. They will soon be available in four Minnesota ERs. Source: Instant Refills. (2002, June). Wired, 036.

Talk

"Learning Appreciation" from How We Choose to be Happy by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks.

"Choosing appreciation can become as fundamental to your life as eating and sleeping. It is simple in practice but requires heightened personal awareness. The three steps of this exercise suggest a way to find what you truly appreciate and how to act on your feelings.

1. With a timer set on five minutes, speed write a list of everything you appreciate. Dig down and empty your brain onto the paper. Avoid self-censoring. Don’t worry about being silly. Your list will probably include simple items as well as bigger ones--relationships, life experiences, and physical pleasures. When the timer sounds, stop and allow yourself to feel whatever emotions you may be having. Pay attention to those feelings. What do they tell you?

2. Review your list and make a note next to each item. Decide whom you need to appreciate. You may want to thank a higher source for the kind of life you lead or the people who have most influenced your life. And don’t forget to appreciate yourself for being who you are.

3. Right now, what is there to appreciate in the moment? Try to deepen your awareness of the present. Each part of this exercise should provide you with a deeper consciousness-- meta--awareness--of what you appreciate and how you need to express that appreciation. Try doing this exercise every couple of weeks. See what happens.

Source: Foster, Rick & Hicks, Greg. (1999). How We Choose To Be Happy. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group.