Digital transformation and automation are redefining healthcare management globally. At the center of this evolution is unit dose management, a fundamental technology for ensuring that every single medication is tracked, secure, and dispensed with maximum precision.
In the video interview below, Sinteco's Sales Director delves into the company's journey, the creation of the Athena ecosystem, and the concrete impact of robotics in hospital wards and pharmacies worldwide.
From industrial robotics to automated hospital pharmacy systems
Originally established to produce prototype machines for industrial automation, Sinteco entered the healthcare sector in response to a specific request from a French hospital. From that initial pilot project, the automation of pharmaceutical therapy quickly became a widespread global necessity.
Continuous investment in research and development has led to the creation of standardized solutions exported worldwide. At the core of this technology is Athena, the software and hardware ecosystem that manages the entire installed technological base, ensuring unit dose medication packaging, storage, therapy production, and seamless communication with hospital information systems.
Patient safety and waste reduction: the results
The introduction of automated unit dose management addresses three major priorities of modern healthcare:
- Clinical safety: near-total elimination of human error in administration. Literature data indicate that up to 7% of deaths in hospital settings are attributable to human error; automation allows this percentage to be brought close to zero.
- Economic efficiency and sustainability: approximately 30% of medications in hospitals are typically wasted. The automated system allows near-expiry medications to be used first and unused doses to be reintroduced into circulation, drastically reducing costs and environmental impact.
- Total traceability: from the moment the medication enters the hospital until it is administered at the patient's bedside, every step is monitored.
Robotics in healthcare: empowering hospital pharmacists and nurses
A central aspect addressed in the interview concerns the impact of automation on the daily work of healthcare staff. Sinteco's technology was not created to replace people, but to free pharmacists and nurses from low-value, repetitive manual tasks, such as manually cutting blister packs.
Thanks to robotics, pharmacists can focus on clinical aspects and drug interactions, while nurses can dedicate more time and energy to direct contact and patient care.
Global healthcare projects: automated pharmacy hubs in France, Croatia & Beyond
The validity of the model is demonstrated by the numerous international projects completed by Sinteco:
- France: Europe's largest university hospital center, located in Paris (AP-HP), is structured as a logistics hub where a single center produces and stores unit doses for 10 surrounding hospitals, serving over 3,000 beds.
- Croatia: a project involving the production and installation of over 100 machines across 41 hospitals in under a year.
- Germany and Norway: key installations in logistics hubs and highly innovative hospital centers.
The vision: the interconnected hospital
The hospital of the future envisioned by Sinteco is a fully interconnected facility where the pharmacy constantly communicates with hospital wards, transport carts, elevators, and bedside devices to ensure an integrated, traceable medication management process from preparation to administration, closing the loop on drug therapy.
In the era of Artificial Intelligence and advanced automation, technology remains a tool serving humanity, with the primary goal of improving working life quality in hospitals and safeguarding patient health.
To implement an automated pharmacy in your facility:
