Automated pill counting and e-prescriptions are both relatively new technological advancements, but they've already proven their worth. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association has shown that automated systems helped prevent more than 17 million medication errors in 2008. That’s the number of errors prevented in a single year! For some perspective, 17 million is close to half the number of people living in California. That's a lot of errors that didn't happen.