Medication Housing with Segmented Closure Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current pill dispensers are cumbersome, insecure, and difficult to monitor, leading to non-compliance with medication schedules and potential adverse effects due to uncontrolled reloading and lack of visual monitoring of dose delivery over time intervals.
Innovation Solution
A housing with movable closure elements for each day of the week, allowing independent access to pill boxes compartmentalized by time intervals, facilitating secure and visual monitoring of medication delivery, and simplifying reloading and handling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single closure element is used to close the compartment, then the structure is simple, but it is difficult to visually monitor the delivery of doses over time intervals and to manage different medication intake times
Solution Approach 1:
The single closure element is divided into multiple independent closure elements (at least seven, corresponding to days of the week). Each closure element can be independently opened or closed to indicate whether doses for that day have been taken. This segmentation allows visual monitoring of medication compliance across different time intervals while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure.
2Ease of operation
If pill boxes are refilled by the patient themselves, then the process is convenient, but it is not controlled by a health professional and can be dangerous in the event of an error
Solution Approach 1:
The pill boxes are pre-filled by a health professional (pharmacist or nurse) before being placed in the housing. The closure elements are also pre-positioned in the closed state. This preliminary preparation ensures that the refilling process is controlled by a health professional, eliminating patient errors, while the patient can still easily open the closure elements to access their pre-prepared medication.
3Ease of operation
If multiple closure elements are used for each day of the week, then visual monitoring of medication schedules is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each closure element serves multiple functions: it closes the compartment for that day, provides a visual indicator of whether the day's doses have been taken, and can be manipulated by the patient to mark completion. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional separate components, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity while achieving improved visual monitoring.
4Quantity of substance
If the housing is designed to be bulky to accommodate multiple pill boxes, then storage capacity is increased, but handling and transportation become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple pill boxes are stacked vertically within a single housing, with each pill box containing multiple compartments for different times of day. This nesting arrangement maximizes storage capacity within a compact footprint, making the housing manageable in size for easy handling and transportation while still accommodating a week's worth of medication.
Data Source
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AI summary
A case for the storage and delivery of doses of medication to be administered, comprising a body (2) having a compartment (6) for the storage of a plurality of pillboxes (7), each comprising cavities (8) in which doses of medication are placed and each corresponding to a time interval, in particular a day, of taking medication, each pillbox (7) corresponding to a time of taking medication in said time intervals, and means for closing (9) the compartment (6).In addition, the closure means (9) comprise a set of closure elements (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d, 9e, 9f, 9g) movable independently of each other, at least a part of the closure elements (9a, 9b, 9c, 9d, 9e, 9f, 9g) being movable between closure and open positions of an area of the compartment (6) corresponding to a drug intake interval, and the body (2) comprising two arms (3, 4) joined at their apex (5) and whose free ends constitute feet for the case (1).