AI for Pharmacy 'Tasks,' People for 'Added Value.' Reducing Pharmacy Workload and Education Costs

Our company endorses April Dream, an initiative to make April 1st a day for announcing dreams. This press release represents NeoX's dream. Pharmacy sites currently face a dual burden: severe labor shortages and the pressure of potentially life-threatening errors. Amidst daily operational demands, it's difficult to allocate sufficient time for education and workflow organization. Our dream is to create an environment where AI supports "judgment and tasks," allowing people to wholeheartedly dedicate themselves to truly human work—engaging with each patient and providing thorough medication guidance. To this end, NeoX Corporation (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Shu-Ben He) is tackling on-site challenges through "Yakushimaru Kenta," an AI-OCR prescription input support system, and "Smart Pharmacy," which unifies pharmacy operations. **■ The Background to Realizing Our Dream** NeoX's business began with an encounter with a certain pharmacy. Before the commercialization of Yakushimaru Kenta, during a prescription reading test at one pharmacy's physical store, we were asked, "Please use our actual store for research and development and product commercialization." This became a significant impetus for advancing development. To date, we have read over 100 million prescriptions and continuously improved our functions based on the learning derived from them. In pharmacies, a series of tasks from reception to accounting require accuracy. We believe our mission is to provide "mechanisms" and "technology" that seamlessly connect fragmented operations, enabling anyone to use them stably and without hesitation. **■ Significantly Reducing Education Costs. Training Period Shortened from 1 Month to 3 Days** Prescriptions come in various formats and inconsistent notations, requiring experience for reading and verification. This increases education costs and makes errors more likely. This not only leads to staff exhaustion but also directly impacts management challenges such as recruitment, training, and talent retention. Therefore, we provide a system for standardizing operations by leveraging AI's strength in "accurately reading and processing information." In stores where it has been implemented, ・The training period has been shortened from 1 month to 3 days. ・Overtime hours for administrative staff have been reduced by approximately 34%. Such tangible results are emerging. By having AI process information with "consistent, correct accuracy," it reduces staff errors and anxiety, creating a "win-win-win" situation for management, on-site staff, and patients. **■ Beyond "Reading." Towards AI that Understands and "Complements" On-site Operations** Conventional AI-OCR merely digitizes characters. However, on-site, much time is consumed by adjustments after digitization, such as "potency calculations" and "converting drugs prescribed by generic name to adopted drugs." NeoX reduces these daily correction tasks with AI-powered complementary technology. For example, "Yakushimaru Kenta" automatically inputs missing information into the claims computer by cross-referencing various databases using its unique method. - Automatically complements missing information such as medical institution names. - Automatically converts drug dosages when specified in units different from the standard drug price. - Converts drug names to the correct name even if there are variations in notation. - Accurately outputs old kanji characters such as "髙橋" and "大﨑". This technology, which "understands and complements the workflow on-site," eliminates redundant efforts and creates "peace of mind" for staff to focus on patient care. **■ Introduction to NeoX's Initiatives** **<"Yakushimaru Kenta" AI-OCR Service for Prescription Input Support for Dispensing Pharmacies>** Reads prescriptions and completes missing information complementation in approximately 10 seconds. Currently implemented in over 7,000 stores, it has processed over 100 million prescriptions. It reduces the burden and anxiety of prescription input, supporting on-site efficiency, operational standardization, and rapid staff integration. ▶︎About Yakushimaru Kenta https://www.yakumaru.ai/ **<"Smart Pharmacy" Unifying Pharmacy Operations from Reception to Accounting>** This system seamlessly connects the flow from reception to accounting, streamlining operations. It offers next-generation pharmacy experiences, including multilingual self-reception and remote medication guidance. ▶︎About Smart Pharmacy https://yakumaru.ai/aipharmacy **** Counts tablets in less than 1 second by simply taking a photo with a smartphone. It helps prevent counting errors and shortens work time, available for free to anyone with just one smartphone. ◾️Download the app ▼App Store here https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/%E8%96%AC%E5%B8%AB%E4%B8%B8%E6%95%B0%E5%AD%90/id6514298505?l=en-US ▼Google Play here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neox.countpill&hl=en_US **■ Finally** NeoX's services have been nurtured by the earnest voices of pharmacists, administrative staff, and pharmacy managers on-site, who, amidst their busy daily routines, have expressed "I wish it could be like this." Recently, it has been decided that practical training using "Yakushimaru Kenta" will be implemented in a new employee training program for a major pharmacy, involving 60 participants. Initiatives aimed at significantly reducing education costs and alleviating the psychological burden on staff are also underway. What we aim for is not merely to provide convenient tools. It is to create a new form of pharmacy where AI supports "judgment," allowing people to maximize their inherent kindness and expertise. NeoX will continue its challenge to deeply align with on-site operations and deliver "peace of mind and smiles" to everyone involved in pharmacies. **** Location: Ebisu Business Tower 2F, 1-19-19 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Representative: Shu-Ben He, Representative Director Company HP: https://www.neox-inc.com/ Yakushimaru Kenta HP: https://yakumaru.ai/ Smart Pharmacy HP: https://yakumaru.ai/aipharmacy Yakushimaru Kazuko HP: https://www.yakumaru.ai/kazuko