Customer Experience

Research spotlight: Self-service technology moves deeper into health care

Two recent research papers illustrate how kiosks and automated dispensing systems could play broader roles in detecting disease, improving access to medication and giving public health officials better information about where intervention is needed.

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August 14, 2026 by Richard Slawsky — Editor, Connect Media

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Self-service technology is increasingly doing more in health care than simply helping patients check in for appointments. Two recent research papers illustrate how kiosks and automated dispensing systems could play broader roles in detecting disease, improving access to medication and giving public health officials better information about where intervention is needed.

One study uses data collected from more than 1.2 million health kiosk users to map high blood pressure across the United States. A second examines pharmacy vending machines and prescription collection lockers through the lens of health care quality, finding considerable potential to improve access and efficiency but warning that automation should complement rather than replace health care professionals.

Together, the papers illustrate an important evolution in health care self-service: Machines increasingly can become both a point of care and a source of information for improving care.

Health kiosks provide a new window into hypertension

The paper "County Prevalence, Awareness, and Control of High Blood Pressure From Health Kiosks in the United States, 2017-2024," published in Hypertension, examines whether data generated by self-service health kiosks could complement traditional public health surveillance.

Researchers Thomas W. Hsiao, Lauren Fede, Cameron Gocke, Lance A. Waller, Mohammed K. Ali and Jithin Sam Varghese analyzed data from 1,270,485 adult kiosk users in 1,892 counties across 49 states and Washington, D.C. The kiosks provided free health screenings in Walmart and selected CVS Pharmacy stores.

The scale is noteworthy. From November 2017 through September 2024, the kiosks recorded 91.9 million blood pressure sessions in retail locations. The equipment provided standardized on-screen instructions showing users how to position themselves for a reading, while the kiosks were remotely monitored and periodically calibrated.

Researchers weren't simply interested in whether kiosks could measure blood pressure. They wanted to determine whether the data generated through those interactions could help solve a much larger public health problem.

Traditional national health surveys can take years to produce localized information. The researchers noted that existing estimates can lag three to four years and often lack enough statistical power to identify meaningful differences at the county level. Electronic health records and insurance claims offer another potential source, but those data can miss people who have undiagnosed hypertension or don't regularly interact with the health care system.

Kiosks potentially fill part of that gap.

The study found that kiosk users included greater representation of younger people, racial and ethnic minorities, and rural residents — populations that have historically been underrepresented in national surveys. The authors argue that combining direct blood pressure measurements with self-reported information could provide another way to identify high-risk populations.

More than half had high blood pressure

The findings also demonstrate the magnitude of the hypertension problem among kiosk users.

Model-based estimates put high blood pressure prevalence at 51.9% in 2017-18 and 50.4% in 2023-24. During the latter period, researchers estimated awareness at 73.7% and control among those aware at 61.8%. County-level prevalence varied dramatically, from 39.5% to 63.1%.

Geography mattered. High-prevalence areas were concentrated primarily in the South and Midwest, with a large cluster encompassing Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri. At the county level, researchers found the highest prevalence in the Southeast but also identified localized high-blood-pressure clusters in Idaho, Oregon and Washington despite generally lower rates in Western states.

The results also exposed demographic disparities. African-American kiosk users had the highest estimated prevalence of high blood pressure and relatively high awareness but the lowest levels of blood pressure control among the racial and ethnic groups studied.

The researchers compared their results with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's PLACES data, which incorporate Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System information. The two sources identified similar hypertension hotspots in the Southeast, although kiosk estimates of diagnosed hypertension were consistently higher.

That doesn't mean kiosk users constitute a representative sample of the U.S. population. People voluntarily using a blood pressure kiosk are self-selected, and the researchers acknowledge differences between kiosk measurements and other blood pressure measurement methods. But that limitation may not eliminate the value of the data.

The researchers argue that kiosks have three particular advantages: They reach some populations poorly represented in conventional surveys, automatically collect information that can be analyzed relatively quickly, and combine direct blood pressure measurements with self-reported health information.

That creates an intriguing secondary role for health kiosks. A machine installed primarily to give an individual a blood pressure reading can simultaneously generate anonymized population-level insights that could help health departments identify communities where hypertension screening, education and treatment resources are most needed.

The researchers conclude that near-real-time kiosk surveillance could complement, rather than replace, conventional health surveys and help officials identify high-risk populations and target cardiovascular interventions more quickly.

Can pharmacy vending machines deliver quality care?

A second paper examines a different question: What happens when self-service technology moves from measuring health to dispensing products directly involved in patient care?

"Dispensing quality? Can pharmacy vending machines and collection lockers deliver high quality care?" was published in the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice in May. Authors Elinor Thomas, Aleksandra Tanaka, Adam Mackridge and Rebecca Payne examine medication vending and collection technologies against six health care quality measures: safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency and equity.

The distinction between the technologies is important. Some machines sell over-the-counter or pharmacist-only medicines, while prescription lockers allow pharmacy staff to dispense and label medications before placing them in a secure unit for later patient collection. Other systems combine automation with telepharmacy, allowing a patient to consult remotely with a pharmacist before a machine dispenses medication.

That hybrid model could prove particularly significant.

The authors point to Singapore, where smart vending machines can provide medication following a teleconsultation. A pharmacist can provide counseling and check the appropriateness of the medication, potential interactions and contraindications while the automated system handles physical access to the product.

The model demonstrates that automation and human expertise don't necessarily have to be competing approaches.

Convenience versus human interaction

Timeliness and efficiency appear to be among automation's strongest advantages.

Prescription collection machines can reduce time spent waiting at pharmacy counters and allow patients to retrieve repeat prescriptions at more convenient times. The paper cites the Royal Sunderland Hospital in England, where a 24/7 prescription locker used by rheumatology patients produced efficiency gains and freed pharmacy employees for other duties.

There could be substantial workflow implications as well. The authors cite reports suggesting a single community pharmacy machine could free as many as 200 staff hours per month, potentially allowing pharmacy employees to devote more time to clinical work. However, they caution that such efficiency claims need to account for training, restocking, connectivity, cybersecurity, maintenance and changes to existing workflows.

Automation also introduces a fundamental health care trade-off: Removing a person from a transaction may increase convenience while simultaneously eliminating opportunities for clinical intervention.

When medications are dispensed without interaction with a pharmacist or trained pharmacy employee, patients may lose opportunities for counseling, medication reconciliation, detection of drug interactions and discussion of side effects. The authors suggest technology could mitigate some of those concerns by incorporating access to remote pharmacist consultations.

Equity presents another paradox.

Medication kiosks and lockers could bring pharmacy services closer to communities with limited access to traditional pharmacies. That could be particularly valuable in rural or underserved areas. At the same time, people with limited digital literacy, poor internet access, disabilities or other barriers could find automated systems harder to use. Some machines also cannot accommodate refrigerated medications such as insulin.

The authors consequently call for inclusive design, including multilingual interfaces, plain-language instructions, audiovisual guidance and physical accessibility. Their conclusion isn't that pharmacy automation should replace the pharmacy. Instead, they argue that its greatest value may come from combining the strengths of both.

Automated dispensing and collection can improve access, reduce waiting and free pharmacy employees for other clinical responsibilities. But deployment should include appropriate regulation, evaluation and safeguards that preserve professional oversight. Ultimately, the researchers argue, the technology should complement conventional pharmacy services rather than replace them.

Self-service a key part of the care infrastructure

Viewed together, the two papers point toward a broader role for self-service technology in health care.

The hypertension research shows that a kiosk doesn't have to benefit only the person standing in front of it. Aggregated data from thousands or millions of interactions can potentially reveal disease patterns at a level of geographic detail that traditional surveillance struggles to provide. The pharmacy research, meanwhile, demonstrates how self-service can extend access to treatment and medication beyond conventional locations and operating hours — provided automation doesn't eliminate critical safeguards.

Both also reinforce a lesson that applies well beyond health care: The success of self-service shouldn't be judged solely by whether a machine can complete a transaction.

In health care, the more meaningful questions are whether the technology makes care safer, faster and more accessible; whether it reaches people who might otherwise go without services; whether it gives health professionals better information; and whether it frees clinicians from routine tasks so they can spend more time on work requiring human expertise.

These studies suggest self-service technology can accomplish some of those goals. But they also make clear that the strongest health care applications may not be those that remove humans from the process entirely. Instead, the future may lie in using automation to extend the reach of health professionals, putting screening, medication access and health information closer to patients while keeping clinical expertise available when it matters most.

About Richard Slawsky

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