Device

Abstract

To enable medicine dispensing control based on an expiration date.SOLUTION: A medicine dispensing device (1) includes: a specification unit (211) that specifies a final date of a dosing period specified with respect to a target medicine; an acquisition part (212) that acquires an expiration date of the target medicine from a storage part (22) storing an expiration date of the medicine stored in the medicine dispensing device; and a determination part (213) that determines whether a relation between the expiration date acquired by the acquisition part and the final date specified by the specification part satisfies a predetermined condition.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a device for controlling whether or not a medicine can be dispensed or removed from a medicine storage device. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 describes an example of a medicine dispensing device that dispenses medicine sheets such as PTP (Press Through Package) sheets or blister package sheets. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 6690541 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, the medicine dispensing device of Patent Document 1 does not describe dispensing control using expiration dates.

[0005] One aspect of the present disclosure aims to realize a device that can control whether or not a medicine can be dispensed or removed based on its expiration date. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] A device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure includes a first acquisition unit that acquires the last day of the specified period for taking a target drug that is the subject of a determination as to whether it should be dispensed or made available for removal from a drug storage device, a second acquisition unit that acquires the expiration date of the target drug from a storage device that stores expiration dates of drugs stored in the drug storage device, and a determination unit that determines whether the relationship between the expiration date acquired by the second acquisition unit and the last day acquired by the first acquisition unit satisfies a predetermined condition. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, it is possible to control whether or not a medicine can be dispensed or removed based on its expiration date. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a medicine dispensing system according to one embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a front view showing an example of the appearance of the medicine dispensing device. [Figure 3] FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the appearance of a drug-removable device. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a journal dispensed by the medicine dispensing device. [Figure 5] 10 is a flowchart showing an example of processing by a control unit of the medicine dispensing device. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a medicine filling image displayed on a touch panel of the medicine dispensing device. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an example of a medicine dispensing system according to another embodiment. [Figure 8] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a cassette included in the medicine dispensing device. [Figure 9] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a filling image displayed on a touch panel of the medicine dispensing device. [Figure 10] 10 is a diagram showing an example of a filling image displayed on a touch panel of the medicine dispensing device when the barcode attached to the medicine is compared with the barcode attached to the cassette. FIG. [Figure 11] 10 is an example of a journal in which a printing unit of a medicine dispensing device prints a barcode together with information about medicines. [Figure 12] FIG. 10 is a schematic view illustrating an example of a medicine dispensing device according to another embodiment. [Figure 13] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the medicine dispensing device. [Figure 14] 10 is a plan view showing a schematic view of the position of the tablet sheet in the second illumination unit, and a plan view showing a schematic view of an example of an identified cutting position of the tablet sheet. FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] [Embodiment 1] <Medicine dispensing system> 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a medicine dispensing system 100 according to this embodiment. The medicine dispensing system 100 is a system that enables the dispensing of medicines, and includes, for example, a medicine dispensing device 1, an auxiliary device 2, and a medicine extractable device 3. The medicine dispensing system 100 may be configured to include either the auxiliary device 2 or the medicine extractable device 3.

[0010] (Medicine dispensing device) The medicine dispensing device 1 is a device that dispenses medicines stored in the medicine dispensing device 1. The medicine dispensing device 1 dispenses prescribed medicines from medicines stored in the device itself based on prescription data received from a higher-level system (not shown). The prescription data includes, for example, information indicating the type of medicine prescribed to a patient (e.g., medicine identification information) associated with patient identification information (e.g., a number assigned to the patient (patient ID) and a patient name, etc.). The prescription data also includes, for example, information indicating the number of medicines and the duration of the medicine intake (number of prescribed days) associated with the medicine identification information.

[0011] In this embodiment, the medicine dispensing device 1 stores medicines (tablets) contained in a medicine sheet. The medicine dispensing device 1 is an example of a medicine storage device that stores medicines. Therefore, the medicine dispensing device 1 dispenses a full medicine sheet of a specified shape or a fractional sheet formed by cutting out a portion of the full medicine sheet. The medicine sheet may be a press-through-pack (PTP) sheet. However, the medicine dispensing device 1 does not necessarily store medicines contained in a medicine sheet. The medicine stored in the medicine dispensing device 1 is not limited to tablets, but may be, for example, powder medicine, topical medicine such as ointment or eye drops, or an injectable medicine. Furthermore, the medicine stored in the medicine dispensing device 1 is not limited to medicine sheets, but may be contained in, for example, a bottle, a tube, a jar, a cylindrical film, a box, or the like. A packaging form in which medicines are contained in a cylindrical film is also called pillow packaging.

[0012] 2 is a front view showing an example of the appearance of the medicine dispensing device 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the medicine dispensing device 1 includes, for example, a cassette shelf 11, a touch panel 12, and a barcode reader 13.

[0013] The cassette shelf 11 is an example of a storage shelf for storing medicines stored in the medicine dispensing device 1, and is a cassette shelf for storing a plurality of cassettes Ca1 containing the medicines. One cassette Ca1 contains one type of medicine. As shown in FIG. 2, a tray 120 is set in the medicine dispensing device 1. In this embodiment, the medicine dispensing device 1 dispenses the medicine to be dispensed, which is contained in the cassette Ca1, from the cassette Ca1 to the tray 120.

[0014] The touch panel 12 functions as a display device that displays various information, and also functions as an input device that accepts input operations by the user.

[0015] The barcode reader 13 is a reading device that reads barcodes. The barcode reader 13 can read barcodes that indicate drug identification information attached to drugs. The barcodes are attached to packages that contain drugs, such as drug sheets or drug boxes. The barcode reader 13 can also read barcodes that indicate cassette identification information attached to cassettes.

[0016] As shown in FIG. 1, the medicine dispensing device 1 includes, for example, a printing unit 14, a communication unit 15, a control unit 21, and a storage unit 22.

[0017] The printing unit 14 is a printing device that prints information about the medicines dispensed by the medicine dispensing device 1. The information about the medicines includes, for example, patient identification information, dispensing date, medicine name, dispensed quantity, etc. The printing unit 14 dispenses a journal (dispensing record paper) on which information about the medicines dispensed by the medicine dispensing device 1 is printed. The printing unit 14 dispenses the journal to the tray 120 from which the medicines were dispensed by the medicine dispensing device 1.

[0018] The communication unit 15 is a communication device that communicates with an external device. In this embodiment, the communication unit 15 is communicably connected to the auxiliary device 2 and the drug-removable device 3. The communication unit 15 transmits, for example, information about drugs that the drug-dispensing device 1 has determined cannot be dispensed (for example, drug identification information and information indicating the number of drugs that should have been dispensed by the drug-dispensing device 1) to the auxiliary device 2 or the drug-removable device 3. The auxiliary device 2 and the drug-removable device 3 also have communication units that communicate with external devices.

[0019] The control unit 21 is a control device that comprehensively controls the medicine dispensing device 1. The storage unit 22 stores, for example, various programs used by the control unit 21 and the various pieces of information described above. The control unit 21 will be described in detail later.

[0020] Additionally, the medicine dispensing device 1 includes, for example, a dispensing mechanism (not shown) that removes medicines from the cassette Ca1 and dispenses them onto the tray 120. The dispensing mechanism may include a transport mechanism (not shown) that transports the cassette Ca1 to a dispensing position onto the tray 120. The transport mechanism may transport the medicines removed from the cassette Ca1 to the tray 120. The medicine dispensing device 1 also includes a cutting unit that cuts a full sheet to generate fractional sheets. The cutting unit may be made of any material that can cut the medicine sheet, and may be realized by, for example, scissors or an irradiation unit that irradiates a laser or ultrasonic wave.

[0021] Furthermore, the medicine dispensing device 1 may be a tablet packaging machine including a cassette shelf 11 for storing cassettes Ca1 containing tablets as medicines, and a packaging unit (not shown) for packaging medicines dispensed from at least one cassette Ca1. In this case, the medicine dispensing device 1 dispenses the tablets to be dispensed contained in the cassette Ca1 in a packaged state. When the medicine dispensing device 1 is a tablet packaging machine, the medicine dispensing device 1 may not include the dispensing mechanism, conveying mechanism, cutting unit, or tray 120 described above. Furthermore, the printing unit 14 may have a function of printing information about the medicine to be dispensed by the medicine dispensing device 1 on a medicine packet containing the medicine. Furthermore, the printing unit 14 may not dispense the journal to the tray 120, but may send at least a portion of the journal outside the housing of the medicine dispensing device 1.

[0022] (auxiliary equipment) The auxiliary device 2 is an example of a second device that assists in the removal of medicines from a place where medicines are stored. The place where medicines are stored is, for example, a medicine shelf (not shown) where medicines are stored. The place where medicines are stored is not limited to this, and may also be a device for storing medicines. The auxiliary device 2, for example, notifies the user of information about medicines transmitted from the medicine dispensing device 1 and / or the medicine-removable device 3. This allows the user to remove medicines that have not been dispensed from the medicine dispensing device 1 or removed from the medicine-removable device 3 from the medicine shelf. The auxiliary device 2 is realized, for example, by a portable terminal such as a smartphone or a tablet.

[0023] The auxiliary device 2 may function as a reading device that reads barcodes attached to cassettes containing drugs on the drug shelf. The barcodes indicate, for example, drug identification information for the drugs contained in the cassettes. Therefore, by reading the barcodes, the auxiliary device 2 can display information indicating the type of drug contained in the cassettes on its own display unit.

[0024] Furthermore, if a barcode indicating information about the medicine dispensed from medicine dispensing device 1 is printed on the journal dispensed from medicine dispensing device 1, auxiliary device 2 may read the barcode. In this case, auxiliary device 2 may compare the barcode on the cassette with the barcode on the journal and notify whether the medicine being taken out from the medicine shelf is the appropriate medicine. Auxiliary device 2 can perform the same process when a barcode indicating information about the medicine taken out from medicine takeout device 3 is printed on the journal dispensed from medicine takeout device 3.

[0025] (Medicine removal device) The drug-removable device 3 is a device that stores drugs and allows drugs to be filled and removed. The drug-removable device 3 is an example of a drug storage device that stores drugs. The drug-removable device 3 is also an example of a first device that allows drugs to be removed. Figure 3 is a perspective view showing an example of the appearance of the drug-removable device 3. Reference numeral 1001 in Figure 3 is a perspective view of the drug-removable device 3 as seen from the front, and reference numeral 1002 is a perspective view of the drug-removable device 3 as seen from the rear.

[0026] 3, the drug-removable device 3 includes, for example, a main body unit 31 and a picking unit 32. In addition, the drug-removable device 3 includes a transport mechanism that transports drugs (transports cassette Ca2 in this embodiment) inside the main body unit 31 and inside the picking unit 32.

[0027] The main unit 31 is a unit for storing medicines. The main unit 31 can store the types of medicines (e.g., approximately 1,500 to 2,000 types) expected to be used in a single facility such as a hospital or a pharmacy. The main unit 31 stores, for example, tablets, powder medicine, topical medicines such as ointments or eye drops, or injectable medicines. The medicines stored in the main unit 31 may be contained in medicine sheets such as PTP sheets, bottles, tubes, jars, cylindrical films, boxes, or the like.

[0028] In this embodiment, the main unit 31 includes a storage shelf for storing medicines. The main unit 31 includes, as an example of a storage shelf, a cassette shelf 311 for storing a plurality of cassettes Ca2. The cassette shelf 311 can store cassettes Ca2 of different sizes (types). The cassette Ca2 may be provided with a partition (not shown) to form a plurality of storage areas. The cassettes Ca1 of the medicine dispensing device 1 may also be of different sizes, or may have a plurality of storage areas, similar to the cassettes Ca2.

[0029] The picking unit 32 is, for example, a device that allows a user to handle medicines stored in the main unit 31. In this embodiment, the picking unit 32 can function as a device that allows a user to perform a picking operation to remove a predetermined number of medicines from the cassette Ca2. The picking unit 32 can also function as a device that allows a user to perform a filling operation to fill the cassette Ca2 with medicines. The picking unit 32 is provided with, for example, a medicine transfer section 321, a touch panel 322, a tray placement table 323, an output section 324, and a barcode reader 325.

[0030] The medicine delivery section 321 is a section that allows medicines stored in the main unit 31 to be taken out and allows medicines to be filled into the main unit 31. The medicine delivery section 321 is provided with a shutter.

[0031] The control unit (not shown, hereinafter referred to as the DS control unit) of the drug dispensing device 3 identifies the drugs to be dispensed from the main unit 31 based on prescription data received from the upper system or information about the drugs received from the drug dispensing device 1. Then, the DS control unit transports the cassette Ca2 containing the drugs to the drug transfer unit 321, and then opens a shutter to allow access only to the drug storage area. The DS control unit also displays the drugs to be dispensed and their quantity on the touch panel 322. This allows the user to follow the display on the touch panel 322 to dispense a predetermined number of drugs to be dispensed from the cassette Ca2 transported to the drug transfer unit 321.

[0032] The user places the medicines removed from the cassette Ca2 in a tray (not shown) placed on the tray mounting base 323. The weight of the medicines is measured on the tray mounting base 323. The DS control unit determines whether the measured weight of the medicines matches the weight calculated from the number of medicines to be removed, thereby determining whether a predetermined number of medicines have been removed.

[0033] The output unit 324 is an output device that prints information about the drugs dispensed by the drug dispensing device 3 and dispenses the printed journal (dispensing record paper). The information about the drugs includes, for example, patient identification information, dispensing date, drug name, dispensed quantity, etc. The user places the journal dispensed from the output unit 324 in the tray that contains the drugs dispensed from the cassette Ca2.

[0034] When filling medicines, the user causes the barcode reader 325 to read the barcode indicating the medicine identification information attached to the medicine. The DS control unit then transports the cassette Ca2 containing the same type of medicine as the medicine with the read barcode attached to the medicine transfer unit 321, and then opens the shutter to allow access only to the storage area of ​​the medicine. This allows the user to store medicines of the same type in the same area of ​​the cassette Ca2.

[0035] Therefore, the user does not need to strictly check the type of medicine when taking out or filling the medicine. Therefore, the user of the medicine-dispensing device 3 is not limited to a person with a license such as a pharmacist, but may be a person without such license.

[0036] The medicine dispensing system 100 may include a medicine dispensing device (an example of a first device) that is capable of dispensing medicine and different from the medicine dispensing device 1, instead of the medicine dispensing device 3 that is capable of dispensing medicine.

[0037] <Control unit of medicine dispensing device> As shown in FIG. 1, the control unit 21 includes, for example, an identifying unit 211, an acquiring unit 212, a determining unit 213, a deciding unit 214, a print control unit 215, a touch panel control unit 216, and a transmitting unit 217.

[0038] The identification unit 211 identifies the last day of the administration period designated for the target drug that is the subject of the determination as to whether to dispense it from the drug dispensing device 1. In this embodiment, the description will be given assuming that the target drug is a drug (prescribed drug) indicated in the prescription data. The identification unit 211 calculates the last day of the administration period from the administration start date and administration period of the target drug.

[0039] The identification unit 211, for example, identifies the date of receipt of prescription data for the target drug as the intake start date of the target drug. Alternatively, the identification unit 211 may acquire the intake start date of the target drug, for example, through an input operation by the user. The identification unit 211 calculates the last day of the intake period from the intake start date thus identified or acquired and the intake period of the target drug included in the prescription data.

[0040] The target drug does not have to be a drug indicated in the prescription data, but may be, for example, a drug for which a dispensing instruction has been received as a subject of a determination as to whether to dispense the drug from the drug dispensing device 1. This dispensing instruction may be made by a user's input operation, or may be received from a device communicably connected to the drug dispensing device 1. The initiation date of the drug may be included in the prescription data. If the drug duration is not included in the prescription data, the identifying unit 211 may acquire the drug duration, for example, by a user's input operation. The identifying unit 211 may acquire the last day of the drug duration, for example, by a user's input operation.

[0041] The acquisition unit 212 acquires the expiration date of the target drug from the storage unit 22. The storage unit 22 stores, for example, information indicating the type of drug contained in the cassette Ca1, the number of drugs contained, the expiration date of the drug, the drug lot number, the drug storage position (the storage position of the cassette Ca1 in this embodiment), the drug filling date, etc., associated with the cassette identification information. The storage unit 22 also stores, for example, information indicating the maximum number of drugs that can be stored in the cassette Ca1, etc., associated with the cassette identification information.

[0042] The determination unit 213 determines whether the expiration date of the medicine stored in the medicine dispensing device 1 has passed on the dispensing date of the medicine, and whether the expiration date of the medicine will pass within a first predetermined period from the dispensing date.

[0043] The dispensing date may be, for example, the latest of the date on which the control unit 21 receives prescription data from the host system, the date on which an input operation to dispense a drug is accepted via the touch panel 12, or the date on which an input operation to power on the drug dispensing device 1 is accepted. The first predetermined period is a period that is set in advance, for example, a period that can be set by the user via the touch panel 12. The first predetermined period may be set, for example, to 90 days. The first predetermined period may be set, for example, based on the drug dispensing history at the medical institution where the drug dispensing device 1 operates, so that dispensing of drugs that have passed their expiration date is avoided as much as possible. The first predetermined period may be set uniformly regardless of the type of drug, or may be set for each type of drug.

[0044] Consider a case where the determination unit 213 determines that there is a drug that has expired on the dispensing date or will expire within a first predetermined period among the drugs stored in the drug dispensing device 1. In this case, the touch panel control unit 216 displays, for example, the type of the drug and the number assigned to the cassette Ca1 that contains the drug on the touch panel 12.

[0045] This allows the user to recognize that medicines that have already expired or will expire within the first predetermined period are stored in the medicine dispensing device 1. Therefore, the user can remove such medicines from the cassette Ca1 and refill the cassette Ca1 with medicines that have some time left until their expiration date.

[0046] Therefore, after the medicine dispensing device 1 dispenses the medicine, the user does not have to go through the trouble of checking whether the expiration date has passed. This can improve the user's work efficiency. It can also reduce the risk that expired medicines or medicines that may expire during the administration period are given to the patient. Furthermore, if the determination unit 213 makes the above determination when the medicine dispensing device 1 is started, the user can perform the above-mentioned medicine replacement work before starting dispensing work.

[0047] Furthermore, the determination unit 213 determines whether the expiration date of the target drug acquired by the acquisition unit 212 and the last day of the dosing period identified by the identification unit 211 satisfy a predetermined condition. In this embodiment, the determination unit 213 determines, as the predetermined condition, whether the expiration date of the target drug acquired by the acquisition unit 212 is before the last day of the dosing period identified by the identification unit 211. Furthermore, the determination unit 213 determines whether the expiration date of the target drug acquired by the acquisition unit 212 will expire within a second predetermined period from the last day of the dosing period identified by the identification unit 211. The determination unit 213 performs these determination processes before dispensing the target drug from the cassette Ca1.

[0048] The second predetermined period is a period that is set in advance, and can be set by the user via the touch panel 12, for example. The second predetermined period is set to, for example, 90 days. The second predetermined period may be set, for example, based on the drug dispensing record at the medical institution where the drug dispensing device 1 operates, so that drugs that have passed their expiration dates are not dispensed as much as possible. The second predetermined period may be set uniformly regardless of the type of drug, or may be set for each type of drug.

[0049] When the determination unit 213 determines that the expiration date of the target drug acquired by the acquisition unit 212 is before the last day of the dosage period identified by the identification unit 211, the determination unit 214 determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied and determines the target drug as a drug that will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1. On the other hand, when the determination unit 213 determines that the expiration date of the target drug acquired by the acquisition unit 212 is after the last day of the dosage period identified by the identification unit 211, the determination unit 214 determines the target drug as a drug to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1.

[0050] In this way, the control unit 21 can control the dispensing of the target drug based on the expiration date, based on the determination result of the determination unit 213. In this embodiment, the control unit 21 can control the dispensing of the target drug based on the expiration date, based on whether the expiration date of the target drug is before the last day of the dosing period specified for the target drug.

[0051] Specifically, the control unit 21 does not dispense the target drug if the expiration date of the target drug is before the last day of the administration period designated for the target drug. Therefore, the user does not have to go through the trouble of checking whether the target drug will expire within the administration period. This improves the user's work efficiency. It also reduces the risk that a patient will be given a drug that will expire within the administration period. It also reduces the possibility of expired drugs being scattered on a desk.

[0052] The print control unit 215 controls the operation of the print unit 14. For example, the print control unit 215 functions as a notification unit that notifies that a target drug determined by the determination unit 214 as a drug not to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1. In this case, the print control unit 215 causes the print unit 14 to output a journal that prints that the target drug will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1.

[0053] The print control unit 215 may print in the journal that the target drug has expired, thereby notifying the user that the drug will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1. For example, the print control unit 215 may print in the journal information urging the user to manually pay off the target drug because it has expired. Manual payment means that the user uses the auxiliary device 2 to remove the target drug from the drug shelf. Also, for example, the print control unit 215 may print in the journal that the target drug is to be removed from the drug dispensing device 3 because it has expired.

[0054] The touch panel control unit 216 displays various information on the touch panel 12 and acquires input operations received by the touch panel 12. For example, the touch panel control unit 216 functions as a notification unit that notifies, via the touch panel 12, that a target drug determined by the determination unit 214 as a drug not to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1.

[0055] The touch panel control unit 216 may notify that the target drug has expired, thereby notifying that it will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1. For example, the touch panel control unit 216 may display information on the touch panel 12 urging the user to manually pay off the target drug because it has expired. Furthermore, for example, the touch panel control unit 216 may display on the touch panel 12 that the target drug is to be taken out from the drug takeout device 3 because it has expired, or may display the expiration date of the target drug in addition to the information.

[0056] By the print control unit 215 and the touch panel control unit 216 making such a notification, the user can recognize that the target drugs that were not dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 need to be replenished from a device or location other than the drug dispensing device 1. As soon as the user recognizes the need for replenishment, the user can go to pick up the target drugs that were not dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 from a device or location other than the drug dispensing device 1. In this embodiment, the user can go to pick up the drugs from the drug takeout device 3 or the drug shelf. Therefore, the time required for dispensing work can be shortened compared to checking the expiration date after the drugs are dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 and going to pick up the expired drugs from a device or location other than the drug dispensing device 1.

[0057] Consider a case where the determination unit 213 determines that the expiration date of the target drug acquired by the acquisition unit 212 will expire within a second predetermined period from the last day of the dosing period identified by the identification unit 211. In this case, the print control unit 215 may print in the journal that the expiration date of the target drug is approaching. As shown in FIG. 4, the print control unit 215 may print the expiration date of the target drug in addition to the fact that the expiration date of the target drug is approaching in the journal. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a journal output by the printing unit 14. In this case, the touch panel control unit 216 may display on the touch panel 12 that the expiration date of the target drug is approaching, or the expiration date of the target drug in addition to the information. This allows the user to recognize drugs stored in the drug dispensing device 1 that are approaching their expiration date.

[0058] The above-mentioned notification process does not have to be performed by both the print control unit 215 and the touch panel control unit 216, but may be performed by only one of the print control unit 215 and the touch panel control unit 216. Furthermore, for example, the touch panel control unit 216 may notify that, among the medicines stored in the medicine dispensing device 1, medicines that have expired on the dispensing date or medicines that will expire within a first predetermined period from the dispensing date will not be dispensed from the medicine dispensing device 1.

[0059] The transmitting unit 217 controls communication with an external device by controlling the communication unit 15. For example, the transmitting unit 217 controls the communication unit 15 to transmit information on the target drug that the determining unit 214 has determined not to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 to at least either the auxiliary device 2 or the drug extractable device 3.

[0060] When the information on the target drugs is transmitted to the auxiliary device 2, the auxiliary device 2 notifies the user of the information on the target drugs. This allows the user to take out the number of target drugs that should have been dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 from the drug shelf. Furthermore, when the information on the target drugs is transmitted to the drug-dispensing device 3, the DS control unit transports the cassette Ca2 containing the target drugs to the drug transfer unit 321. Furthermore, the DS control unit displays the number of drugs that should have been dispensed from the cassette Ca2 (the number that should have been dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1) on the touch panel 322. This allows the number of target drugs that should have been dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 to be taken out from the drug-dispensing device 3.

[0061] The transmitting unit 217 transmits information on the target drug that the determining unit 214 has determined not to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 to both the auxiliary device 2 and the drug extractable device 3. Without being limited to this, the transmitting unit 217 may transmit information on the target drug only to either the auxiliary device 2 or the drug extractable device 3. Furthermore, for example, the transmitting unit 217 may transmit information on drugs stored in the drug dispensing device 1 that have expired on the dispensing date or that will expire within a first predetermined period from the dispensing date to the auxiliary device 2 and / or the drug extractable device 3.

[0062] <Processing by the control unit> Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of processing by the control unit 21. As shown in Fig. 5, the identification unit 211 identifies the last day of the dosing period specified for the target drug (S1). In this embodiment, the identification unit 211 calculates the last day of the dosing period from the dosing start date and dosing period specified in the prescription data (S1). In addition, the acquisition unit 212 acquires the expiration date of the target drug from the storage unit 22 (S2). The control unit 21 may execute the processes of S1 and S2 in reverse order or in parallel.

[0063] The determination unit 213 determines whether the expiration date acquired in S2 is before the last day of the medication period identified in S1 (S3). If the determination unit 213 determines that the expiration date is before the last day of the medication period (YES in S3), the decision unit 214 decides that the target drug is not to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 (S4).

[0064] Based on the determination in S4, the transmission unit 217 transmits information regarding the target drug to the auxiliary device 2 (S5). The transmission unit 217 may transmit information regarding the target drug to the drug dispensing device 3 instead of or in addition to transmitting information to the auxiliary device 2. The print control unit 215 also controls the print unit 14 to print information indicating that the target drug will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1, for example, information urging the user to manually pay off the target drug because it has expired, in the journal (S6). Instead of or in addition to controlling the print control unit 215, the touch panel control unit 216 may display information indicating that the target drug will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 on the touch panel 12. The control unit 21 may execute the processes of S5 and S6 in reverse order or in parallel.

[0065] Furthermore, if the determination unit 213 determines that the expiration date is after the last day of the dosing period (NO in S3), it determines the target drug as a drug to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 (S11). As a result, the drug dispensing device 1 dispenses the target drug stored therein.

[0066] The determination unit 213 determines whether the expiration date acquired in S2 for the target drug determined as the drug to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 is within a second predetermined period from the last day of the administration period identified in S1 (S12). If the determination unit 213 determines that the expiration date of the target drug is within the second predetermined period (YES in S12), the print control unit 215 controls the print unit 14 to print information indicating that the expiration date of the target drug is approaching in the journal (S13). Instead of or in addition to this control of the print control unit 215, the touch panel control unit 216 may display information indicating that the expiration date of the target drug is approaching on the touch panel 12. On the other hand, if the determination unit 213 determines that the expiration date of the target drug is not within the second predetermined period from the last day of the administration period (NO in S12), the notification process as described above is not performed because there is still some time until the expiration date of the target drug.

[0067] <Modification: Example of processing when expiration dates differ for medicines of the same type> Even if the drugs are the same type, if they are filled into the drug dispensing device 1 at different times, the expiration dates of the filled drugs may differ for each filling time. In other words, the drug dispensing device 1 may store multiple drugs of the same type but with different expiration dates. In this case, the memory unit 22 stores the expiration dates for each of the multiple drugs.

[0068] The same type of medicine may be contained in one cassette Ca1 or in multiple cassettes Ca1. Therefore, at least two of the multiple medicines contained in one cassette Ca1 may have different expiration dates. For example, if cassette Ca1 contains medicine sheets, at least two of the medicine sheets may have different expiration dates. In this case, memory unit 22 stores multiple expiration dates in association with one cassette identification information.

[0069] Furthermore, when the same type of medicine is contained in multiple cassettes Ca1, the expiration dates of the medicines contained in at least two cassettes Ca1 may differ from each other. In this case, the expiration date is stored in the memory unit 22 in association with the cassette identification information of each cassette Ca1. That is, even if the memory unit 22 stores only one expiration date for the same type of medicine in association with each cassette identification information, multiple expiration dates are stored overall.

[0070] When multiple expiration dates for the same type of drug are stored in the memory unit 22, the acquisition unit 212 can acquire multiple expiration dates corresponding to the target drug. Then, the determination unit 213 determines whether at least any of the multiple expiration dates acquired by the acquisition unit 212 is earlier than the final day of the expiration date identified by the identification unit 211. When the determination unit 213 determines that at least any of the multiple expiration dates is earlier than the final day of the expiration date, the decision unit 214 decides that the target drug is not to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1.

[0071] That is, when at least two target drugs with different expiration dates are stored in one cassette Ca1, even if a target drug with an expiration date after the final date is stored, the determination unit 214 determines the target drug as a drug that will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1. Furthermore, when the expiration dates of drugs stored in at least two cassettes Ca1 are different from each other, even if there is a cassette Ca1 that stores a target drug with an expiration date after the final date, the determination unit 214 determines the target drug as a drug that will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1.

[0072] Therefore, even if the specified number of target drugs to be dispensed is 2 or more and the expiration dates of some of the drugs are after the final date, the control unit 21 will not dispense any of the target drugs. Therefore, the user can pick up the specified number of drugs all at once from a device or location other than the drug dispensing device 1.

[0073] However, when there is a cassette Ca1 among the multiple cassettes Ca1 that contains a target drug whose expiration date is after the final date, the determination unit 214 may determine that the target drug in that cassette Ca1 is the drug to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1. Furthermore, when one cassette Ca1 contains both a target drug whose expiration date is before the final date and a target drug whose expiration date is after the final date, the determination unit 214 may determine the latter target drug as the drug to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1. In these cases, it becomes possible for some of the specified number of target drugs to be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1.

[0074] (How to store expiration date) In relation to the storage of the expiration date described above, an example of a medicine filling image (filling screen) shown in Fig. 6 will be described below. Fig. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a filling image displayed on the touch panel 12. The filling image in Fig. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a filling image for one cassette Ca1.

[0075] When filling medicines into the medicine dispensing device 1, the user removes the cassette Ca1 to be filled with medicines from the medicine dispensing device 1 and causes the barcode reader 13 to read the barcode attached to the cassette Ca1.

[0076] This allows the control unit 21 to obtain, from the memory unit 22, information indicating the type of drug, the number of drugs contained, the storage position of the cassette Ca1, and the maximum storage capacity of the cassette Ca1, which is stored in association with the cassette identification information of the cassette Ca1 whose barcode has been read.The control unit 21 can then display the drug name, the storage capacity ("Stock Amount" in the figure), the storage position ("Shelf No." in the figure), and the maximum storage capacity ("Maximum Amount" in the figure), as shown in Fig. 6.The control unit 21 also obtains, from the memory unit 22, information indicating the expiration date and lot number of the drug, which is stored in association with the cassette identification information of the cassette Ca1 whose barcode has been read, and can display the expiration date and lot number of the drug, as shown in Fig. 6.

[0077] Furthermore, when filling medicine into medicine dispensing device 1, the user causes barcode reader 13 to read the barcode attached to the medicine (specifically, the barcode attached to the packaging (container) such as a medicine box). This allows control unit 21 to compare the medicine identification information of the medicine to be filled read by barcode reader 13 with the medicine identification information acquired from memory unit 22. Furthermore, control unit 21 can acquire information indicating the expiration date and lot number of the medicine to be filled read by barcode reader 13.

[0078] 6, the control unit 21 can display multiple pieces of information indicating expiration dates and lot numbers for one cassette Ca1. That is, the control unit 21 can store multiple pieces of information indicating expiration dates and lot numbers in association with one piece of cassette identification information in the storage unit 22. Therefore, when a new drug is stored in the cassette Ca1 while the cassette Ca1 already contains drugs, the control unit 21 can manage the expiration dates of both the drugs already stored in the cassette Ca1 and the drugs to be newly stored in the cassette Ca1.

[0079] The expiration date does not have to be acquired by reading the barcode reader 13. For example, the control unit 21 may acquire a date arbitrarily determined by the user as the expiration date. That is, the expiration date may be a date arbitrarily determined by the user and may be referred to as a use-by date or the like. In this case, the expiration date may be, for example, the date on which the user removes the drug from a medicine box or the like, or the date obtained by adding a predetermined number of days to the refill date. The predetermined number of days may be set to, for example, 90 days, 180 days, or 1 to 5 years. The predetermined number of days may be set to a number of days that ensures the safety of patients who take the drug. The predetermined number of days may be set uniformly regardless of the type of drug, or may be set for each type of drug. The refill date may also be, for example, the date on which the control unit 21 receives an input operation (input operation on the refill button) indicating that refilling of the drug has been completed.

[0080] The control unit 21 may, for example, calculate the date by adding a predetermined number of days to the date of drug filling into the cassette Ca1 to be filled with the drug, and store (register) the calculated date in the storage unit 22 as the expiration date of the drug. The control unit 21 may, for example, store the calculated date as the expiration date of the drug, in association with the cassette identification information of the cassette Ca1 whose barcode was read by the barcode reader 13. For example, when an input operation is received using the fill button shown in FIG. 6, the control unit 21 may store the calculated date as the expiration date of the drug. This eliminates the need for the user to perform the calculation of adding a predetermined number of days to the drug filling date, or to input the added date, thereby reducing the user's effort. Furthermore, this reduces the possibility of an expiration date different from the user's expectation being stored due to a calculation error.

[0081] The number of medicines to be filled is input by the user. As shown in Fig. 6, the control unit 21 can display the input number of medicines to be filled ("filled amount" in the figure). When the control unit 21 receives an input operation on the fill button, it confirms the number of medicines to be filled and updates the number of medicines contained.

[0082] Furthermore, the cassette identification information does not have to be attached to the cassette Ca1 as a barcode. The cassette identification information may be attached to the cassette Ca1 as, for example, a two-dimensional code. The cassette identification information may be read from the cassette Ca1 using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). That is, the cassette identification information may be attached to the cassette Ca1 in various forms, and the medicine dispensing device 1 may be provided with an information reading device capable of reading the cassette identification information. The cassette identification information may also be input via an input device such as the touch panel 12. This allows the control unit 21 to obtain the cassette identification information of the cassette Ca1 to be filled with medicines by a method other than reading a barcode. The medicine identification information does not have to be realized as a barcode either. The medicine identification information may be read by an information reading device other than the barcode reader 13, or may be input via an input device.

[0083] Furthermore, the image displaying the number of filled medicines and the expiration date is not limited to the image shown in FIG. 6. Such an image may not only display information about one cassette Ca1, but may also display information about multiple cassettes Ca1 collectively. In this case, information about all cassettes Ca1 stored in the medicine dispensing device 1 may be displayed, or information about some of the cassettes Ca1 may be displayed. The some cassettes Ca1 may be, for example, cassettes Ca1 in use (cassettes Ca1 indicated by cassette identification information associated with information about medicines) or cassettes Ca1 specified by the user. Even when displaying information about multiple cassettes Ca1 collectively, the control unit 21 may store the calculated date as the expiration date of the medicines filled in each cassette Ca1 when an input operation is received on the fill button. Furthermore, the control unit 21 may confirm the number of filled medicines input for each cassette Ca1 and update the number of medicines stored in each cassette Ca1 when an input operation is received on the fill button.

[0084] <Modification: Judgment Criteria of the Judgment Unit (Part 1)> The determination unit 213 may determine, as a predetermined condition, whether the expiration date of the target drug acquired by the acquisition unit 212 is before the last day of the expiration date identified by the identification unit 211. That is, the determination unit 213 may determine whether the expiration date of the target drug is the same as the last day of the expiration date, in addition to whether it is before the last day. In this case, the determination unit 214 determines the target drug as a drug that will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 even when the expiration date of the target drug is the same as the last day of the expiration date.

[0085] Therefore, the medicine dispensing device 1 can avoid dispensing medicines that are likely to expire within the administration period, thereby reducing the risk that medicines that are likely to expire within the administration period will be given to the patient.

[0086] <Modification: Judgment Criteria of the Judgment Unit (Part 2)> The determination unit 213 may determine, as a predetermined condition, whether the expiration date of the target drug acquired by the acquisition unit 212 is before a designated date that is later than the last date identified by the identification unit 211. That is, the determination unit 213 may determine whether the expiration date of the target drug is within a designated period set based on the last date, in addition to whether the expiration date is before the last day of the dosing period. In this case, the determination unit 214 determines the target drug as a drug that will not be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1 even if the expiration date of the target drug is within the designated period.

[0087] The designated period is a period that is set in advance, and can be set by the user via the touch panel 12. The designated date refers to the last day of the designated period.

[0088] As described above, the expiration date is set based on the start date of medication. The start date of medication is expected to be set on the day the prescription is issued by the doctor or a day close to that date (e.g., the next day). However, the date on which the patient begins taking the prescribed medication may be several days after the start date of medication. Examples of such cases include when a patient receives the prescribed medication but does not start using it immediately, when a patient goes to a pharmacy to pick up the medication several days after it is prescribed, or when the prescribed medication is delivered to the patient by mail.

[0089] The designated period may be set taking these circumstances into consideration so as to prevent the dispensing of expired medicines as much as possible. The designated period may be set, for example, based on the results of interviews with users or patients regarding the above circumstances. The designated period may be set to, for example, three days. The designated period may be set uniformly regardless of the type of medicine, or may be set for each type of medicine.

[0090] By controlling the dispensing of the target drug based on the specified period in this manner, the drug dispensing device 1 can reduce the possibility that the expiration date of the dispensed drug will expire during the period in which the patient is estimated to use the prescribed drug.

[0091] <Modification: Function to obtain the last day of the medication period> In the present embodiment, the identification unit 211 has been described as identifying the last day of the dosing period designated for the target drug, but the identification unit 211 may also function as a first acquisition unit that acquires the last day of the dosing period. In this case, for example, the identification unit 211 may acquire the last day of the dosing period from an external device that is communicatively connected to the drug dispensing device 1 and has the identification function of the identification unit 211. In this case, the acquisition unit 212 that acquires the expiration date of the target drug also functions as a second acquisition unit.

[0092] <Modification: Implementation of processing using a drug-removable device> In the above, the processing of the identification unit 211, the acquisition unit 212, the judgment unit 213, and the decision unit 214 is performed on the target drug that is the subject of the judgment as to whether it should be dispensed from the drug dispensing device 1. Not limited to this, the processing by these functional units may be performed on the target drug that is the subject of the judgment as to whether it can be taken out from the drug-extractable device 3. In this case, the DS control unit performs the processing by these functional units. Note that in this modified example, the target drug does not have to be a drug indicated in the prescription data, and may be, for example, a drug for which an instruction to take out has been received as the subject of the judgment as to whether it can be taken out from the drug-extractable device 3.

[0093] The DS control unit has the functions of the identification unit 211, acquisition unit 212, and determination unit 213, and is therefore able to control whether or not the target drug can be taken out based on the expiration date, based on the determination result of the determination unit 213.

[0094] Furthermore, when the determination unit 213 determines that the expiration date of the target drug satisfies a predetermined condition, the determination unit 214 determines that the target drug is a drug that cannot be taken out. In this case, the DS control unit does not transport the target drug stored in the main unit 31 to the drug delivery unit 321.

[0095] In addition to the predetermined conditions, the determination unit 213 determines whether the expiration date of the drug stored in the drug-removable device 3 has expired on the day the drug is taken out, and whether the expiration date of the drug will expire within a first predetermined period from the day the drug is taken out. The determination unit 213 also determines whether the expiration date of the target drug will expire within a second predetermined period from the last day of the administration period. The take-out date, the first predetermined period, and the second predetermined period can be understood by replacing "drug dispensation" with "drug removal" in the above-mentioned explanations of the dispensing date, the first predetermined period, and the second predetermined period. Furthermore, in this modified example, "drug dispensation" can be understood by replacing "drug removal" in the above-mentioned explanations of the specified period, etc.

[0096] Furthermore, the DS control unit may have the functions of a print control unit 215, a touch panel control unit 216, and a transmission unit 217. In this case, the print control unit 215 and the touch panel control unit 216 function as a notification unit that notifies the user that a target drug determined by the determination unit 214 as a drug that cannot be taken out from the drug-removable device 3 cannot be taken out from the drug-removable device 3. However, in this modified example, instead of the notification that the target drug is to be taken out from the drug-removable device 3 as described above, the notification may be made that the target drug is to be dispensed from the drug-dispensing device 1. This allows the user to pick up the target drug that could not be taken out from the drug-removable device 3 from a device or location other than the drug-removable device 3.

[0097] Furthermore, the transmitting unit 217 transmits information on the target drug that the determining unit 214 has determined as a drug that cannot be taken out from the drug-removable device 3 to at least either the auxiliary device 2 or the drug dispensing device 1. Therefore, the user can take out from the drug shelf the number of target drugs that should have been taken out from the drug-removable device 3. Alternatively, the drug dispensing device 1 can dispense the number of target drugs that should have been taken out from the drug-removable device 3.

[0098] The medicine dispensing device 1 in the description of the print control unit 215, the touch panel control unit 216 and the transmission unit 217 of this modified example may be a medicine dispensing device other than the medicine dispensing device 1. In this modified example, the medicine dispensing device 1 is an example of a first device capable of dispensing medicines.

[0099] <Modification: Control Device and Storage Device> For example, the control unit 21 may be realized as a device (control device) different from the medicine dispensing device 1 and communicatively connected to the medicine dispensing device 1. Also, for example, the memory unit 22 may be realized as a storage device different from the medicine dispensing device 1 and communicatively connected to the medicine dispensing device 1. The information stored in the memory unit 22 of the medicine dispensing device 1 may be stored in a memory unit (not shown) of the auxiliary device 2.

[0100] Furthermore, for example, when the function of the control unit 21 is realized by the medicine-removable device 3, the function of the control unit 21 may be realized as a device (control device) that is different from the medicine-removable device 3 and communicably connected to the medicine-removable device 3. The same applies to the memory unit 22.

[0101] <Summary> The device according to aspect 1 of the present disclosure includes a first acquisition unit that acquires the last date of the specified dosing period for a target drug that is the subject of a determination as to whether to dispense or allow removal from the drug storage device, a second acquisition unit that acquires the expiration date of the target drug from a storage device that stores expiration dates of drugs stored in the drug storage device, and a determination unit that determines whether the relationship between the expiration date acquired by the second acquisition unit and the last date acquired by the first acquisition unit satisfies a predetermined condition.

[0102] In the device of aspect 2 of the present disclosure, in aspect 1, the specified condition is that the expiration date acquired by the second acquisition unit is before the last date, before the last date, or before a specified date that is after the last date.

[0103] The device according to aspect 3 of the present disclosure is provided with a determination unit that, in aspect 1 or 2, determines that the target drug is a drug that will not be dispensed from the drug storage device or a drug that cannot be removed when the determination unit determines that the expiration date acquired by the second acquisition unit satisfies the specified condition.

[0104] The device according to aspect 4 of the present disclosure is, in aspect 3, provided with a transmitting unit that transmits information regarding the target drug that the determination unit has determined as a drug that will not be dispensed or cannot be removed from the drug storage device to at least one of a first device that can dispense or remove the target drug and a second device that assists in removing the target drug from the storage location.

[0105] The device according to aspect 5 of the present disclosure is provided with an alarm unit that alarms that the target drug determined by the determination unit in aspect 3 or 4 as a drug that will not be dispensed or cannot be removed from the drug storage device will not be dispensed or cannot be removed from the drug storage device.

[0106] [Embodiment 2] Other embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. For ease of explanation, the same reference numerals will be used to designate components having the same functions as those described in the above embodiments, and the description thereof will not be repeated. The same applies to the third and subsequent embodiments.

[0107] 1, the control unit 21 of this embodiment includes, for example, a cassette identification unit 221. When the same type of medicine is stored in multiple cassettes Ca1, the cassette identification unit 221 identifies the cassette Ca1 from which the medicine is to be dispensed based on the expiration date. Specifically, the cassette identification unit 221 acquires the expiration dates of the medicines associated with the cassette identification information of these cassettes Ca1, and thereby identifies the cassette Ca1 from which the medicine is to be dispensed in chronological order of the oldest expiration date.

[0108] When cassettes Ca1 that dispense medicines in the order of the numbers assigned to the cassettes Ca1 are identified, there is a possibility that medicines that are close to their expiration dates will continue to be stored in the medicine dispensing device 1. As described above, by identifying cassettes Ca1 that dispense medicines in the order of oldest expiration dates, it is possible to reduce the possibility that medicines that are close to their expiration dates will continue to be stored in the medicine dispensing device 1.

[0109] If the expiration date of the medicine is not stored in the storage unit 22, the cassette specifying unit 221 uses the filling date instead of the expiration date for the medicine to specify the cassette Ca1 from which the medicine is dispensed.

[0110] [Embodiment 3] In the second embodiment, when the same type of medicine is stored in multiple cassettes Ca1, the cassette identification unit 221 identifies the cassette Ca1 from which the medicine is to be dispensed based on the expiration date. In the third embodiment, the cassette identification unit 221 identifies the cassette Ca1 from which the medicine is to be dispensed based not only on the expiration date but also on the filling date and the grace period for the expiration date.

[0111] The storage unit 22 stores information indicating the expiration date, the filling date, and the grace period for the expiration date (hereinafter simply referred to as the grace period). The grace period is a period that is set in advance, and can be set by the user via the touch panel 12, for example. The grace period is set to, for example, 1 to 5 years. The grace period may be set to, for example, a period that can reduce the possibility that expired medicines will continue to be stored in the medicine dispensing device 1. The grace period may be set uniformly regardless of the type of medicine, or may be set for each type of medicine. The cassette identification unit 221 identifies the last day of the grace period, for example, counting from the medicine dispensing date.

[0112] The cassette identification unit 221 determines whether the expiration dates (two expiration dates) of the drugs stored in the two cassettes Ca1 containing the drugs to be dispensed are the same. If the cassette identification unit 221 determines that these two expiration dates are the same, it identifies the cassette Ca1 containing the drug with the oldest filling date as the cassette Ca1 from which the drug will be dispensed.

[0113] If the cassette identification unit 221 determines that the two expiration dates are different from each other, it determines whether both expiration dates are past the last day of the grace period. If the cassette identification unit 221 determines that both expiration dates are past the last day of the grace period, it identifies the cassette Ca1 containing the drug with the oldest filling date as the cassette Ca1 from which the drug will be dispensed. On the other hand, if the cassette identification unit 221 determines that neither of the two expiration dates is past the last day of the grace period, it identifies the cassette Ca1 containing the drug whose expiration date is approaching as the cassette Ca1 from which the drug will be dispensed.

[0114] As a result, when the same type of medicine is stored in two cassettes Ca1, the control unit 21 can dispense the medicine taking into consideration not only the expiration date but also the filling date. That is, it is possible to give priority to dispensing the medicine that was stored earlier in the medicine dispensing device 1. This reduces the possibility that the medicine will be stored in the medicine dispensing device 1 for a long period of time because there is a margin of time until the expiration date. This reduces the possibility of deterioration in the quality of the medicine due to long-term storage, or the possibility of discarding the medicine due to deterioration.

[0115] The medicine to be dispensed may be a medicine that the determination unit 214 has determined to be dispensed from the medicine dispensing device 1 based on the determination result of the determination unit 213. However, the determination unit 214 may determine the medicine indicated in the prescription data as a medicine to be dispensed when the medicine is contained in the medicine dispensing device 1, regardless of the determination result of the determination unit 213 or without the processing of the determination unit 213 being performed.

[0116] [Embodiment 4] 7 is a block diagram showing an example of a medicine dispensing system 100A of this embodiment. The medicine dispensing system 100A is a system that enables the dispensing of medicines, and includes, for example, a first medicine dispensing device 1A, a second medicine dispensing device 1B, an auxiliary device 2, and a medicine extracting device 3.

[0117] Similar to the medicine dispensing system 100 of embodiment 1, the first medicine dispensing device 1A may be configured to be communicatively connected to at least one of the auxiliary device 2 and the medicine extractable device 3. Similarly to the first medicine dispensing device 1A, the second medicine dispensing device 1B may be communicatively connected to at least one of the auxiliary device 2 and the medicine extractable device 3. The second medicine dispensing device 1B may be connected to an auxiliary device 2 different from the auxiliary device 2 connected to the first medicine dispensing device 1A.

[0118] The first medicine dispensing device 1A and the second medicine dispensing device 1B are devices that dispense medicines stored in the first medicine dispensing device 1A or the second medicine dispensing device 1B, respectively, similar to the medicine dispensing device 1. The first medicine dispensing device 1A and the second medicine dispensing device 1B differ in that the first medicine dispensing device 1A is provided with a dispensing destination determination unit 231, but have other functions in common. Furthermore, the first medicine dispensing device 1A and the second medicine dispensing device 1B may have the functions of the medicine dispensing device 1 described in other embodiments.

[0119] The first medicine dispensing device 1A includes a control unit 21A that performs overall control of the first medicine dispensing device 1A. The control unit 21A includes a print control unit 215, a touch panel control unit 216, a transmission unit 217, and a dispensing destination determination unit 231.

[0120] The dispensing destination determination unit 231 determines the dispensing destination of the medicine to be dispensed. In the present embodiment, the dispensing destination determination unit 231 determines either the first medicine dispensing device 1A or the second medicine dispensing device 1B as the dispensing destination of the medicine indicated in the prescription data received from the upper system based on the expiration date of the medicine.

[0121] The memory unit 22 stores first stored information about the medicines stored in the first medicine dispensing device 1A and second stored information about the medicines stored in the second medicine dispensing device 1B. The first stored information and the second stored information each include, for example, the type of medicine stored in the cassette Ca1, the number of medicines stored, and the expiration date of the medicine, in association with the cassette identification information. In addition, the information stored in association with the cassette identification information may include the information stored in the memory unit 22 described in the first embodiment.

[0122] The delivery destination determination unit 231 acquires the expiration date of the drug to be dispensed (hereinafter referred to as the first expiration date) included in the first storage information and the expiration date of the drug (hereinafter referred to as the second expiration date) included in the second storage information. Then, the delivery destination determination unit 231 determines whether the first expiration date and the second expiration date have expired on the date of dispensing the drug.

[0123] If the dispensing destination determination unit 231 determines that neither the first expiration date nor the second expiration date has expired, it determines the drug dispensing device (the first drug dispensing device 1A or the second drug dispensing device 1B) that contains a drug whose expiration date is closer than the other expiration date as the dispensing destination of the drug to be dispensed.

[0124] On the other hand, when the dispensing destination determination unit 231 determines that the first expiration date has not expired but the second expiration date has expired, it determines the first medicine dispensing device 1A as the dispensing destination of the medicine to be dispensed. Also, when the dispensing destination determination unit 231 determines that the second expiration date has not expired but the first expiration date has expired, it determines the second medicine dispensing device 1B as the dispensing destination of the medicine to be dispensed.

[0125] Therefore, for drugs of the same type stored in multiple drug dispensing devices, drugs that have not yet expired and drugs whose expiration date is approaching can be dispensed preferentially. The dispensing destination determination unit 231 can, for example, sequentially determine multiple drug dispensing devices as the drug dispensing target device, or can determine a drug dispensing device that is not currently dispensing as the drug dispensing target device. However, by the dispensing destination determination unit 231 determining a drug dispensing device that stores drugs whose expiration date is approaching as the drug dispensing target device, the possibility that drugs whose expiration date is approaching will continue to be stored in multiple drug dispensing devices can be reduced. In addition, the possibility that expired drugs will be dispensed can be reduced.

[0126] Furthermore, when the dispensing destination determination unit 231 determines that both the first expiration date and the second expiration date have expired, the transmitting unit 217 transmits information about the medicine to be dispensed to at least one of the auxiliary device 2 or the medicine extractable device 3, as in the first embodiment. The information about the medicine to be dispensed includes, for example, medicine identification information and information indicating the number that should have been dispensed by the first medicine dispensing device 1A or the second medicine dispensing device 1B. This allows the user to take out the medicine to be dispensed from the medicine shelf or the medicine extractable device 3, thereby reducing the possibility that expired medicines will be dispensed.

[0127] Furthermore, when the dispensing destination determination unit 231 determines that both the first expiration date and the second expiration date have expired, the print control unit 215 may control the printing unit 14 to print, in the journal, information indicating that the medicine to be dispensed has expired. Furthermore, the touch panel control unit 216 may display, on the touch panel 12, information indicating that the medicine to be dispensed has expired. That is, the control unit 21A may notify that the medicine to be dispensed will not be dispensed from either the first medicine dispensing device 1A or the second medicine dispensing device 1B.

[0128] The delivery destination determination unit 231 may determine that the first expiration date has expired if it determines that the first expiration date will expire within a first predetermined period from the drug delivery date. The delivery destination determination unit 231 may also determine that the first expiration date has expired if it determines that the first expiration date is before the last day of the medication period (or the same day as the last day). The delivery destination determination unit 231 may determine whether the second expiration date has expired, similar to the first expiration date.

[0129] Furthermore, when control unit 21A includes acquisition unit 212, acquisition of the first expiration date and second expiration date may be performed by acquisition unit 212. When control unit 21A includes determination unit 213, the above determination may be performed by determination unit 213. Furthermore, when making a determination using the last day of the dosing period, control unit 21A may include identification unit 211.

[0130] Furthermore, even when a drug dispensing device other than the second drug dispensing device 1B is connected to the first drug dispensing device 1A, the dispensing destination determination unit 231 compares the expiration dates managed for each drug dispensing device for the drugs to be dispensed. Then, the dispensing destination determination unit 231 determines, as the dispensing destination of the drugs to be dispensed, the drug dispensing device that stores the drug with the nearest expiration date among at least one unexpired expiration date. When the dispensing destination determination unit 231 determines that all expiration dates have expired, the control unit 21A may perform the above-mentioned transmission process and / or notification process.

[0131] Furthermore, instead of the first medicine dispensing device 1A, the auxiliary device 2 may be provided with the dispensing destination determination unit 231. In this case, the information stored in the memory unit 22 described above may be stored in a memory unit (not shown) of the auxiliary device 2. Furthermore, the auxiliary device 2 may be provided with the function of a transmission unit 217 that transmits information on the medicine to be dispensed to the medicine extractable device 3.

[0132] [Embodiment 5] As shown in FIG. 1 , the control unit 21 of this embodiment includes, for example, a calculation unit 241. The calculation unit 241 calculates the number of drugs to be taken out from a location where the user stores drugs (e.g., a drug shelf) and filled into the drug dispensing device 1 based on the inventory number (total number) of drugs stored in the drug dispensing device 1 for the drugs to be filled. The touch panel control unit 216 displays the number of drugs to be filled calculated by the calculation unit 241. In this embodiment, a case where drug sheets are filled will be described as an example. Therefore, the calculation unit 241 calculates the number of drug sheets to be taken out from a location where the user stores drugs and filled into the drug dispensing device 1 based on the inventory number for the drugs to be filled.

[0133] Hereinafter, the number of filled medicines will be referred to as the medicine filling number, and the number of filled medicine sheets will be referred to as the sheet filling number. In this embodiment, the calculation unit 241 will be described as calculating the medicine filling number and the sheet filling number, but it may be configured to calculate only one of the medicine filling number and the sheet filling number. In this embodiment, the location where the medicines are stored will be referred to as the storage location.

[0134] In this embodiment, the control unit 21 notifies the user of the number of filled medicines and / or the number of filled sheets, and based on the notified information, the user can retrieve from the storage location the exact number of medicines that can be stored in the medicine dispensing device 1, and carry them to the medicine dispensing device 1. Therefore, the user only needs to go to the storage location once to retrieve the medicines in order to fill the medicine dispensing device 1, and can use the time that would have been spent on multiple trips to do other tasks.

[0135] The storage unit 22 stores, for example, the information described above. For the medicines contained in the medicine sheets, the storage unit 22 stores information indicating the number of medicines specified for one medicine sheet (full sheet) (the number of medicines previously contained in an unopened full sheet). The number of medicines specified for one full sheet is referred to as the specified number. The specified number may also be referred to as the number of sheets. The information indicating the specified number may be included in the prescription data or may be input by the user via the touch panel 12.

[0136] <Calculation method for the number of filled medicines and the number of filled sheets> As described above, when a drug is filled, the control unit 21 acquires cassette identification information of the cassette Ca1, which indicates whether the drug is to be stored or not, as indicated by a barcode attached to the cassette Ca1. Furthermore, when a drug is filled, the control unit 21 acquires drug identification information of the drug, which indicates by a barcode attached to the drug. Therefore, the calculation unit 241 can acquire information indicating the maximum capacity of the cassette Ca1, which is to store the drug to be filled, the capacity of the drug, and the specified number, from the storage unit 22.

[0137] In this embodiment, the calculation unit 241 calculates the number of filled sheets using, for example, the following formula (1), and calculates the number of filled medicines using, for example, the following formula (2). Sheet filling number = (maximum storage capacity - storage capacity) / (prescribed number) ... formula (1). If the calculation result on the right side includes a value to the first decimal place, the calculation unit 241 rounds up the value to the first decimal place and specifies the result as the sheet filling number. The reason for rounding up the value to the first decimal place will be described later. Number of drugs filled = (Number of sheets filled) x (Specified number)...Equation (2).

[0138] Furthermore, in this embodiment, when there are multiple cassettes Ca1 that are intended to store the drugs to be filled, the calculation unit 241 sets the numerator on the right side of the above formula (1) to the total value when "(maximum storage capacity - storage capacity)" is calculated for all cassettes Ca1. In other words, the numerator on the right side of the above formula (1) is the total value of the maximum storage capacity of all cassettes Ca1 that are intended to store the drugs to be filled minus the inventory number of the drugs stored in the drug dispensing device 1. Information indicating the inventory number may be calculated for each type of drug based on the cassette identification information, the type of drug, and the storage capacity of the drug, and may be stored in the memory unit 22.

[0139] For example, consider a case where there is only one cassette Ca1 to store the drug α to be filled, the maximum capacity of the cassette Ca1 is 420 tablets, the number of drug α in stock is 123 tablets, and the specified number of drug sheets to store drug α is 14 tablets. In this case, the calculation unit 241 calculates (420-123) / 14=21.2 using the above formula (1). Therefore, the calculation unit 241 calculates the number of drug α sheets to be filled as 22. Then, the calculation unit 241 calculates the number of drug α sheets to be filled as 22 x 14 = 308 tablets using the above formula (2).

[0140] For example, consider a case where three cassettes Ca1A, Ca1B, and Ca1C are cassettes Ca1 intended to contain filled drug α, and the capacity of the drug α contained in cassettes Ca1A, Ca1B, and Ca1C is 3 tablets, 230 tablets, and 420 tablets, respectively. The maximum capacity of cassettes Ca1A, Ca1B, and Ca1C is 420 tablets, and the specified number of drug sheets containing drug α is 14 tablets. In this case, the calculation unit 241 calculates {(420-3)+(420-230)+(420-420)} / 14=43.3 using the above formula (1). Therefore, the calculation unit 241 calculates the number of sheets filled with drug α to be 44. Then, the calculation unit 241 calculates the number of drug α filled with drug α to be 44 × 14 = 616 tablets using the above formula (2).

[0141] Here, the reason why the calculation result of the above formula (1) is rounded up to one decimal place is related to the operation of the cassette Ca1. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a cassette Ca1 capable of accommodating drug sheets. The cassette Ca1 includes, for example, a first storage section Ca11 that stores full sheets and a second storage section Ca12 that stores remaining sheets. In this embodiment, the second storage section Ca12 is provided on the outside of the side wall of the cassette Ca1 that constitutes the first storage section Ca11. However, the second storage section Ca12 may be provided in a location accessible to the user, such as the inside of the side wall or the bottom wall.

[0142] The total number of medicines contained in cassette Ca1 is stored in memory unit 22. The sum of the number of medicines contained in first container Ca11 and the number of medicines contained in second container Ca12 is stored in memory unit 22. Therefore, the quotient obtained by dividing the number of medicines contained by the specified number represents the number of full sheets contained in first container Ca11, and the remainder represents the number of fractional sheets contained in second container Ca12.

[0143] Therefore, when the calculation result of the above formula (1) is rounded down to the first decimal place, the calculation unit 241 will calculate one less than the number of full sheets that can fill the first container Ca11 (the number of full sheets to be taken out from the storage location and brought to the drug dispensing device 1). In this case, even if the user takes out the full sheets from the storage location and stores them in the first container Ca11 as many times as the number of full sheets indicated by the calculation result of the calculation unit 241, the first container Ca11 will not be fully filled, but will only be able to store one more drug sheet. Therefore, some users will have to go back to the storage location to get more drug sheets in order to fill the first container Ca11.

[0144] On the other hand, if the calculation result of the above formula (1) is rounded up to the first decimal place, the number of full sheets that can fill the first container Ca11 can be calculated. Therefore, the user can carry the exact number of drug sheets that can fill the first container Ca11 to the drug dispensing device 1 by simply going to the storage location to pick up the drugs to be filled.

[0145] Consider the case where the maximum capacity of the cassette Ca1 described above is 420 tablets, the inventory of drug α is 123 tablets, and the prescribed number of drug sheets containing drug α is 14 tablets. In this case, 420 / 14 = 30, so the first storage unit Ca11 can store a maximum of 30 full sheets. Furthermore, since 123 / 14 = 8...11, theoretically, the first storage unit Ca11 stores 8 full sheets, and the second storage unit Ca12 stores 11 fractional sheets.

[0146] In this situation, consider a case where the calculation unit 241 calculates the number of filled sheets to be 21 based on the result of (420-123) / 14=21.2. In this case, since the number of full sheets contained in the first storage unit Ca11 is 8, the number of full sheets in the first storage unit Ca11 after filling is 8+21=29, which is one less than 30. On the other hand, if the calculation unit 241 calculates the number of filled sheets to be 22, then 8+22=30, and the first storage unit Ca11 can be fully filled with full sheets.

[0147] In addition, if the drug to be filled is a drug that is not contained in a drug sheet, the calculation unit 241 simply calculates the drug filling number as the value obtained by subtracting the number of drugs contained from the maximum capacity of the cassette Ca1 that contains the drug to be filled.

[0148] <Display example> FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a drug filling image displayed on the touch panel 12. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a filling image displaying the number of filled drugs and the number of filled sheets. Reference numeral 1011 in FIG. 9 shows an example of a filling image when the barcode attached to the cassette Ca1 is acquired before the barcode attached to the drug. Reference numeral 1012 in FIG. 9 shows an example of a filling image when the barcode attached to the drug is acquired before the barcode attached to the cassette Ca1. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a filling image displayed on the touch panel 12 when two barcodes are compared. FIGS. 9 and 10 are diagrams showing examples of a filling image for one cassette Ca1. Furthermore, in the filling images of FIGS. 9 and 10, as in the filling image of FIG. 6, different expiration dates, lot numbers, and filling dates may be displayed.

[0149] As shown in Figure 9, the filling image includes, for example, a first display area AR1 that displays the cassette number, a second display area AR2 that displays the number of sheets filled, a third display area AR3 that displays the number of medications filled, and a fourth display area AR4 that displays notification information to the user.

[0150] The touch panel control unit 216 displays the cassette number of the cassette Ca1 that contains the medicine to be filled in the first display area AR1. If there are multiple cassettes Ca1 that contain the medicine to be filled, the cassette numbers of all the cassettes Ca1 are displayed in the first display area AR1.

[0151] Touch panel control unit 216 displays in second display area AR2 and third display area AR3 the number of filled sheets and the number of filled medicines calculated by calculation unit 241. Therefore, if there are multiple cassettes Ca1 that contain the medicines to be filled, the number of medicines and the number of medicine sheets contained in all cassettes Ca1 are displayed in second display area AR2 and third display area AR3, respectively.

[0152] When the barcode attached to the cassette Ca1 is acquired first, the control unit 21 identifies the type of medicine based on the cassette identification information indicated by the barcode. Then, the control unit 21 identifies the identification information of all cassettes containing the identified type of medicine. As a result, the control unit 21 can identify all cassettes Ca1 containing the medicine to be filled and obtain the number of medicines contained in each cassette Ca1 and the maximum number of medicines that can be contained. Furthermore, as shown by reference numeral 1011 in FIG. 9, the touch panel control unit 216 displays notification information in the fourth display area AR4 to prompt the user to have the barcode reader 13 read the barcode attached to the medicine to be filled.

[0153] On the other hand, if the barcodes attached to the drugs to be filled are acquired first, the control unit 21 identifies all cassettes Ca1 (cassette identification information) containing the drugs to be filled based on the drug identification information indicated by the barcodes. This makes it possible to acquire the number of drugs contained in each cassette Ca1 and the maximum number that can be contained. Furthermore, as indicated by reference numeral 1012 in FIG. 9, the touch panel control unit 216 displays notification information in the fourth display area AR4 that prompts the user to have the barcode reader 13 read the barcodes attached to the cassette Ca1 containing the drugs to be filled.

[0154] By displaying such information, the user can bring from the storage location to the medicine dispensing device 1 the exact number of medicine sheets that will fill the cassette Ca1.

[0155] When the control unit 21 acquires the other barcode, it compares the two acquired barcodes. At reference numeral 1011 in Fig. 9, when the barcode attached to the drug to be filled is acquired after the barcode attached to the cassette Ca1 is acquired, the control unit 21 compares the two acquired barcodes. At reference numeral 1012 in Fig. 9, when the barcode attached to the drug to be filled is acquired after the barcode attached to the cassette Ca1 is acquired, the control unit 21 compares the two acquired barcodes.

[0156] 10, the touch panel control unit 216 displays the result of matching the two barcodes in the fourth display area AR4. At this time, the touch panel control unit 216 hides the first display area AR1 and the second display area AR2. When information indicating the number of drugs filled in one cassette Ca1 is input, the touch panel control unit 216 displays the number filled ("filled amount" in the figure) as well as the expiration date and lot number obtained from the barcode attached to the drug.

[0157] [Embodiment 6] There are cases where multiple types of medicine prescribed to a patient are dispensed from medicine dispensing device 1 and taken out from medicine removable device 3. For example, if prescription data for a patient includes medicines contained in a medicine sheet and an ointment, the upper system instructs medicine dispensing device 1 to dispense the medicines contained in the medicine sheet and instructs medicine removable device 3 to dispense the ointment. As a result, medicine dispensing device 1 dispenses the medicine sheet and medicine removable device 3 is ready to take out the ointment.

[0158] In such a case, the tray 120 containing the medicines dispensed from the medicine dispensing device 1 and the tray (a tray different from tray 120) containing the medicines extracted from the medicine extractable device 3 are collected in a single tray different from these trays. In this operation, if the user visually determines whether the medicines contained in each tray correspond to the same prescription, it takes time and effort to make the determination, and there is a possibility that the determination will be incorrect.

[0159] As described above, both the medicine dispensing device 1 and the medicine extractable device 3 store a journal on which information about the medicine is printed in a tray along with the medicine. In this embodiment, the printing unit 14 of the medicine dispensing device 1 and the output unit 324 of the medicine extractable device 3 print prescription identification information that can identify the prescription on the journal.

[0160] For example, the upper system assigns prescription identification information (e.g., a prescription number) that identifies each prescription, includes this prescription identification information in the prescription data, and transmits it to the medicine dispensing device 1 and the medicine extractable device 3. The printing unit 14 and the output unit 324 each print a barcode indicating the received prescription identification information in the journal as prescription identification information. Figure 11 is an example of a journal in which the printing unit 14 has printed a barcode BC together with information about the medicine.

[0161] The user has a portable terminal equipped with a barcode reader read the barcodes of the journals contained in each tray. The portable terminal may be, for example, the auxiliary device 2. When the portable terminal acquires multiple barcodes, it determines whether the prescription identification information indicated by these barcodes matches and displays the determination result. This reduces the user's effort in collecting the drugs contained in each tray onto one tray compared to visual inspection, and also reduces the possibility of making an error in determining whether the drugs correspond to the same prescription.

[0162] If the host system determines that a drug is to be dispensed from only one device for the same prescription, it sends information about the drug and prescription identification information to one device and only the prescription identification information to the other device. This allows the other device to print information in its journal indicating that the drug dispensing or retrieval for that prescription was completed by only one device. This allows the user to easily recognize that the drug has not been dispensed or retrieval from the other device.

[0163] [Embodiment 7] Figures 12 and 13 are schematic diagrams illustrating an example of a medicine dispensing device 1C. As shown in Figures 12 and 13, the medicine dispensing device 1C includes, for example, a control unit 21C, an imaging unit 25, a first illumination unit 26, a second illumination unit 27, and a pin board 28. The control unit 21C controls the operations of the imaging unit 25, the first illumination unit 26, and the second illumination unit 27, and has a function of identifying the cutting position on the medicine sheet (full sheet). The medicine dispensing device 1 may have the configuration and function of the medicine dispensing device 1C.

[0164] The medicine dispensing device 1C includes a cutting unit that cuts the medicine sheet. The control unit 21C identifies the medicine cutting position before cutting the medicine sheet so as not to cut the medicine portion (hereinafter referred to as the pocket portion MSP) that the medicine sheet contains.

[0165] The medicine dispensing device 1C may store master information indicating the cutting position for each type of medicine. However, in this case, for example, when a new medicine is added to the medicines handled by the medicine dispensing device 1C, the medicine dispensing device 1C does not store master information for that medicine, so it needs to newly store master information for that medicine. Also, for example, when a change occurs in the packaging form of a medicine, such as a change in the design of the medicine sheet, for a medicine whose master information is stored in the medicine dispensing device 1C, the master information needs to be updated. When master information for multiple medicine dispensing devices 1C with different delivery destinations is managed collectively, the delivery destination contacts the management source to newly register or update the master information, and the management source creates the master information and provides it to the delivery destination.

[0166] According to the medicine dispensing device 1C, the cutting position of the medicine sheet can be identified even if master information is not stored. Therefore, the time and effort required for newly registering or updating master information, which may occur when master information is stored, can be reduced. However, the medicine dispensing device 1C may newly store the identified cutting position of the medicine sheet as master information, or may update the already stored master information to the identified cutting position of the medicine sheet.

[0167] As shown in Fig. 12, when a drug sheet MS containing drugs to be dispensed is placed on the upper surface of second illumination unit 27, control unit 21C turns on second illumination unit 27. With the drug sheet MS illuminated from below by second illumination unit 27, imaging unit 25 located above second illumination unit 27 captures an image of the drug sheet MS. The illumination from second illumination unit 27 allows imaging unit 25 to clearly capture the outline of the drug sheet MS. Control unit 21C identifies the position and size of the drug sheet MS in second illumination unit 27 from the captured image.

[0168] Reference numeral 1031 in FIG. 14 is a plan view schematically showing the position of the tablet sheet MS in the second illumination unit 27. The position of the tablet sheet MS is specified, for example, as a position in an xy plane having a predetermined position in the imaging area as the origin O. In the example of reference numeral 1031 in FIG. 14, the control unit 21C specifies, as the position of the tablet sheet MS, two corners (coordinates a, b) located on a diagonal line of the tablet sheet MS in the xy plane having one corner of the second illumination unit 27 as the origin O. If the corners of the tablet sheet MS are rounded, the control unit 21C specifies, as the corners of the tablet sheet MS, the intersections of virtual lines L extending from each side of the tablet sheet MS. Furthermore, the control unit 21C specifies the size of the tablet sheet MS (in the example of FIG. 14, the length Lx in the x-axis direction and the length Ly in the y-axis direction) from the specified position of the tablet sheet MS.

[0169] Next, as shown in FIG. 13, the pin art board 28 is placed on the upper surface of the second illumination unit 27 on which the drug sheet MS is placed. If the drug dispensing device 1C has a mechanism (not shown) for changing the position of the pin art board 28, the control unit 21C can control the mechanism to automatically move the pin art board 28 to the upper surface of the second illumination unit 27. The drug dispensing device 1C may also have a mechanism (not shown) for changing the position of the second illumination unit 27. In this case, the control unit 21C can control the mechanism to automatically press the upper surface of the second illumination unit 27 against the lower surface of the pin art board 28. Alternatively, the drug dispensing device 1C may not have the mechanism, and the user may manually place the pin art board 28 on the upper surface of the second illumination unit 27.

[0170] The pin art board 28 is a board on which multiple pins are arranged on a plane. The multiple pins are arranged to be movable in the axial direction (a direction approximately perpendicular to the plane on which the multiple pins are arranged). Therefore, as shown by reference numeral 1022 in FIG. 13, by pressing the pin art board 28 against the medicine sheet MS located on the upper surface of the second illumination unit 27, the pin portion 281 of the pin art board 28 corresponding to the pocket portion MSP of the medicine sheet MS is raised. In this state, the control unit 21C turns on the first illumination unit 26 and controls the imaging unit 25 to capture an image of the pin art board 28. This allows the control unit 21C to identify the position of the pin portion 281 corresponding to the pocket portion MSP from the captured image. The captured image may be, for example, a photomeric stereo image. In this case, the control unit 21C can accurately identify the position of the pin portion 281.

[0171] Thereafter, the control unit 21C applies the positions of the pin portions 281 acquired from the next captured image to the drug sheet MS identified from the position and size of the drug sheet MS acquired from the first captured image. As a result, as shown by reference numeral 1032 in Fig. 14, the control unit 21C can identify the cutting positions, i.e., the cutting line CLx in the x-axis direction (vertical cut position) and the cutting line CLy in the y-axis direction (horizontal cut position), so as not to cut the pin portions 281 corresponding to the pocket portions MSP. Reference numeral 1032 in Fig. 14 is a plan view schematically showing an example of the identified cutting positions of the drug sheet MS.

[0172] Generally, there are thousands of types of medicines that can be stored in the medicine dispensing device 1C, and therefore there are a wide variety of types of medicine sheets. Furthermore, the pocket portion MSP is colorless and transparent. Therefore, in order to identify the pocket portion MSP of any medicine sheet MS from the captured image, it is necessary to provide a high-resolution imaging unit or a 3D (dimensional) sensor as the imaging unit 25.

[0173] On the other hand, the pins of the pin art board 28 can be made using any material and color. Therefore, the material and color of the pin can be selected so that the pin portion 281 can be easily identified from the captured image. Furthermore, the control unit 21C can replace the position identification of the pocket portion MSP in many types of medicine sheets MS with the position identification of the pin portion 281 (i.e., position identification based on a single type of indicator, the pin). Therefore, when identifying the position of the pocket portion MSP using the pin art board 28, the control unit 21C can identify the pin portion 281 corresponding to the pocket portion MSP from the captured image even if the imaging unit 25 does not have a high-performance imaging function.

[0174] Therefore, the medicine dispensing device 1C is inexpensive and can identify the cutting position of the medicine sheet MS without necessarily requiring master information.

[0175] In the present embodiment, the medicine dispensing device 1C has been described as having the function of identifying the cutting position of the medicine sheet MS. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the cutting position of the medicine sheet MS may be identified by a device communicably connected to the medicine dispensing device 1C.

[0176] [Software implementation example] The functions of the drug dispensing devices 1, 1C, and first drug dispensing device 1A (hereinafter referred to as "devices") can be realized by a program that causes a computer to function as the device, and a program that causes a computer to function as each control block of the device (particularly each part included in the control units 21, 21A, 21C).

[0177] In this case, the device includes a computer having at least one control device (e.g., a processor) and at least one storage device (e.g., a memory) as hardware for executing the program. The control device and storage device execute the program, thereby realizing the functions described in each of the above embodiments.

[0178] The program may be non-transitory and may be recorded on one or more computer-readable recording media. The recording media may or may not be included in the device. In the latter case, the program may be supplied to the device via any wired or wireless transmission medium.

[0179] In addition, some or all of the functions of each of the control blocks can be realized by logic circuits. For example, integrated circuits in which logic circuits that function as each of the control blocks are formed are also included in the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, the functions of each of the control blocks can also be realized by, for example, a quantum computer.

[0180] Furthermore, each process described in each of the above embodiments may be executed by AI (Artificial Intelligence). In this case, the AI ​​may run on the control device or on another device (for example, an edge computer or a cloud server).

[0181] [Additional Notes] The present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the claims. Embodiments obtained by appropriately combining the technical means disclosed in different embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present disclosure. [Explanation of symbols]

[0182] 1. Drug dispensing device (device, first device, drug storage device) 2 Auxiliary device (second device) 3. Drug-removable device (device, first device, drug storage device) 22 Storage unit (storage device) 211 Specific Department (1st Acquisition Department) 212 Acquisition Department (Second Acquisition Department) 213 Judgment section 214 Decision Section 215 Printing control unit (notification unit) 216 Touch panel control unit (alert unit) 217 Transmitter

Claims

1. a first acquisition unit that acquires the last day of a dosing period designated for a target drug that is to be determined as to whether it should be dispensed or made available for removal from the drug storage device; a second acquisition unit that acquires the expiration date of the target drug from a storage device that stores expiration dates of drugs stored in the drug storage device; a determination unit that determines whether a relationship between the expiration date obtained by the second acquisition unit and the final date obtained by the first acquisition unit satisfies a predetermined condition.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined condition is that the expiration date acquired by the second acquisition unit is before the last date, is on or before the last date, or is on or before a specified date that is later than the last date.

3. The device described in claim 1, further comprising a determination unit that determines the target drug as a drug that will not be dispensed from the drug storage device or a drug that cannot be removed when the determination unit determines that the expiration date acquired by the second acquisition unit satisfies the specified condition.

4. The device described in claim 3 is provided with a transmitting unit that transmits information regarding the target drug that the determination unit has determined to be a drug that will not be dispensed or cannot be removed from the drug storage device to at least one of a first device that can dispense or remove the target drug and a second device that assists in removing the target drug from the storage location.

5. The device described in claim 3 or 4, further comprising an alarm unit that notifies the user that the target drug determined by the determination unit as a drug that will not be dispensed or cannot be removed from the drug storage device will not be dispensed or cannot be removed from the drug storage device.

Images