What even is this assignment
Interview 1
CS student
They do not believe this technology has its use in too many industries. It's far too specific on handwriting detection which is only useful for any industry that directly involves handwritten notes or overall image detection. For instance, a home system that learns your work/sleep schedule and has everything prepared for you ahead of time has no need for handwriting detection. They do not know much about pharmacies, but this technology only really benefits anyone handling the prescriptions, since most of the rest of the industry doesn't really use handwritten notes at all. They simply don't have any real use for this technology.Interview 2
Coworker
I feel like I fall outside "the boundary" you talk about. I personally don't want my job taken. I like my job. It is easy and I make money. The tiny amount of time saved in prescription handling doesn't really justify me not having my job. I don't care what goes on with robots or whatever. They can get those pictures elsewhere. I need my job!Interview 3
Pharmacist
She talked about how she is tired of getting many prescriptions that are entered in wrong or have wrong original dates. Her son likes robots and is sort of familiar with the process of image processing, but she's worried about the more messy ones. She feels like data entry jobs would still exist for the prescriptions that can't be transcribed by the robot, or to simply error check the robot's translation. But she doesn't think the technology will be useful outside of anything, because the robot would only know how to read sig code (shorthand for pharmacists and doctors) and drug names. It would drastically improve the speed of prescription processing but won't be as useful to the handwriting to digital text as I suggested.Interview 4
Friend Not In Industry
I think your idea is great. I do think the technology can be used on the consumer level though. As you said, that handwriting technology is useful, especially for students who want their notes digitized. The prescriptions are varied enough that the handwriting can be used elsewhere. Maybe it can also be used to relate handwriting to a particular doctor to prevent forgeries? IDK it's a possibility. I don't think the shipping industry will use it though. I think they already have something in place to read handwriting. Not sure though.Interview 5
Business-Related Person
This sounds less like a business thing and more a research thing. It sounds more like you'd want to reach out to research investors first, rather than business investors, but you'd still need to talk to Walgreens to get the sensitive patient data. That stuff is classified. I do think it is still a good idea though, but I'm not sure if Walgreens themselves would have enough use for it themselves, but they might still oblige the data for research purposes with sufficient reasoning. If this was a real thing you were doing, I highly doubt they'd let a student with no research or pharmaceutical background with no research team have the information, so you'd want to start building that first. But I'd be happier if my prescriptions were ready faster. Sometimes with my controlled substances I have to wait hours. I'm not sure if that's on processing or insurance, but any speed up is a good thing.
Fractal,
ReplyDeleteYou interviewed a great variety of individuals in your post to determine who fits your need. You talked to a computer science student, who said there might not be a need for this technology in the market. You also talked to a business person who said this idea leans towards investments in research rather than venture capital. With that said, I feel as though this opportunity can be fulfilled if a sufficient amount of research is able to back it up.