Medication Verification via Serial Code and Facial Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for controlling prescription drugs are insufficient in verifying individual pills, leading to potential misuse and abuse, as pills can be substituted or obtained illegally without proper identification.
Innovation Solution
A coding system where medications are marked with unique serial numbers, linked to patient information in a prescription database, and verified using a mobile app or device, which scans codes and compares them to prescription data, optionally using facial recognition for identity verification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If prescription drugs are distributed through traditional dispensary channels, then drugs reach patients who need them, but control over the drugs is lost once they leave the dispensary counter
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the prescription drug verification process into distinct components: a code on each pill, a mobile application for scanning, and a prescription database for verification. This segmentation allows continuous monitoring of individual pills throughout the distribution chain while maintaining ease of operation through simple scan-verify steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by continuously verifying pill codes against the prescription database and providing real-time confirmation or alerts to users. This feedback loop maintains drug control by immediately identifying unauthorized pills while allowing legitimate distribution to proceed smoothly.
2Productivity
If individual pills are not verified, then distribution is simple and fast, but pills can be substituted or obtained illegally
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary verification by scanning and validating each pill code against the prescription database before the pill is consumed. This preliminary action prevents unauthorized pills from being used while maintaining distribution speed through quick scan-verify processes that take only seconds.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces manual inspection and physical verification of pills with automated optical scanning and digital database verification. This substitution dramatically increases distribution speed while simultaneously improving accuracy in identifying authorized versus unauthorized pills, thereby preventing drug abuse.
3Measurement precision
If a coding system is implemented on each pill, then verification accuracy improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts the verification functionality into a separate mobile application that uses the device's existing camera and processing capabilities. This extraction allows high verification accuracy through code scanning and database comparison while keeping the overall system complexity low by leveraging existing smartphone features rather than requiring specialized hardware.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile application serves multiple functions: scanning pill codes, communicating with the prescription database, verifying authorization status, and providing user feedback. This multi-functionality consolidates what could be a complex system into a single versatile application, maintaining high verification accuracy while minimizing device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for verifying proper possession of a medication is disclosed. A reader device scans a code printed on the medication to extract an embedded serial number and captures an image of the face of the person in possession of the medication. A first server queries a prescription database, which retrieves facial characteristic data associated with the embedded serial number. A determination is made if the retrieved facial characteristic data matches facial characteristic data extracted from the captured image. The match information is displayed on the reader device.