Programmable Drug-Dosing Device for Timed, Authorized Dispensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional pill boxes and electronic dispensers fail to ensure timely and individual dispensing of medicinal products, allowing patients to access multiple doses simultaneously, leading to potential confusion, overdose, and lack of chronopharmacological control.
Innovation Solution
A programmable medicinal product dosing device with individual cavities for storing units, a selector body, and a central processing unit to manage dispensing times, ensuring only authorized personnel can refill and preventing errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional pill boxes with shared cover are used, then patients can access all pills easily, but patients may take wrong doses or multiple doses simultaneously leading to overdose
Solution Approach 1:
The pill box is divided into multiple separate compartments, each dedicated to a specific medication or time slot. This segmentation prevents patients from accessing all pills at once and reduces the risk of taking wrong doses, while maintaining easy access to the appropriate medication through clearly marked sections.
2Loss of time
If electronic pill boxes with alarms are used, then patients receive reminders to take medication, but patients still have access to all pills and may confuse medications from different days
Solution Approach 1:
The electronic pill box maintains separate compartments for different medications and time slots, preventing confusion between medications from different days. Each compartment is clearly labeled and accessible only when needed, combining digital reminders with physical organization to ensure both timely administration and correct identification.
3Extent of automation
If automatic dispensers with carousel are used, then pills are dispensed automatically at scheduled times, but all released pills for the day are accessible and can be collected by anyone
Solution Approach 1:
The automatic dispenser uses separate compartments for different time slots, with each compartment becoming accessible only at its designated time. This segmentation ensures that pills dispensed at different times are kept separate, preventing unauthorized collection while maintaining automated dispensing functionality.
4Reliability
If separate compartments are used for different medicinal products at different times, then chronopharmacological control is achieved, but the pill box size becomes very large
Solution Approach 1:
The pill box employs a rotating carousel mechanism that dynamically repositions compartments to bring the current time slot's medication to an accessible position. This dynamic arrangement allows chronopharmacological control with separate compartments for different times while maintaining a compact size, as compartments are accessed sequentially rather than all simultaneously.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to an intelligent medicinal product dosing device configured for allowing a pharmacist, but not the patient, to access an inner storage area. By means of accessing the inside of the device after authentication, the pharmacist is in charge of refilling the inner storage area with the medicinal products prescribed by a physician, and in an operative mode, the device dispenses the medicinal products to the patient at the appropriate time, as it has the chronopharmacology of the medicinal products incorporated therein with the prescribed dose. The device is characterized by a specific internal structure with components that allow managing which medicinal products are dispensed and at what time. Specific embodiments of the invention allow increasing the functionalities of the device, such as expanding the storage capacity, notifying the patient who must be authenticated, being integrated in a web platform in which at least the actions of the patient, the pharmacist, and the physician, or the control of the biological rhythm of people are coordinated. The warning system is suitable for the elderly. The dosing device has a closure system that can only be manipulated by the pharmacist to prevent medication errors among senior citizens or their caregivers. The dosing device systematically dispenses the medication corresponding to a given time and removes it in the event of a memory lapse, preventing it from being taken together with the next dose, eliminating interactions and toxicities. Furthermore, it has pharmaceutical care integrated therein.