Radial Wall Pill Dispenser with Sloped Slide for Accessibility
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medication dispensers are often difficult for elderly, arthritic, or handicapped patients to use due to small size, complexity, and difficulty in accessing and managing multiple pills, leading to poor compliance and increased healthcare costs.
Innovation Solution
A large-scale, user-friendly dispenser with radial walls and a sloped slide allows easy access and retrieval of pills, featuring compartments for each day of the week and multiple doses, facilitating easy loading and administration, and reducing the need for patients to remember medication schedules.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If prior art dispensers use small scale design, then device compactness is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates for elderly, arthritic, or handicapped patients
Solution Approach 1:
The dispenser is divided into multiple compartments, each containing pills for a specific day and dose. This segmentation allows patients to access only the required portion without handling the entire dispenser, reducing the operational burden for elderly and handicapped patients while maintaining an organized structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from a traditional single-compartment or linear arrangement to a three-dimensional radial wall structure with multiple levels. This dimensional change provides better depth perception and accessibility, allowing patients to easily locate and retrieve pills from various compartments without straining or requiring excessive dexterity.
2Device complexity
If prior art dispensers dispense one pill at a time, then device simplicity is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to frequent access required for multiple pills
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple pills for different days and doses are pre-organized and pre-positioned in separate compartments within the dispenser. This preliminary arrangement allows patients to retrieve multiple pills in a single action, eliminating the need to access the dispenser repeatedly throughout the day, thus improving productivity without adding complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Each compartment serves multiple functions: it stores pills for a specific day, indicates the dosing schedule, and provides easy access to the required medication. This multi-functionality consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate operations into a single efficient action.
3Ease of manufacture
If prior art dispensers use box-like configuration, then manufacturing simplicity is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to difficulty in reaching and retrieving pills
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces the traditional box-like configuration with a radially arranged structure where compartments are positioned around a central axis. This curved, radial arrangement provides better ergonomic access, allowing patients to reach into compartments from multiple angles and retrieve pills more easily without the constraints of a rigid rectangular structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The radial wall structure creates separate, easily accessible compartments for different days and doses. This segmentation is achieved through simple radial partitions rather than complex internal mechanisms, maintaining manufacturing simplicity while dramatically improving the ease of retrieving specific pills.
4Device complexity
If prior art dispensers lack day-specific organization, then device simplicity is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to difficulty in tracking medication schedules
Solution Approach 1:
The dispenser is segmented into compartments clearly labeled with day designations (e.g., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). This segmentation with explicit labeling provides immediate visual and physical organization, making it impossible to confuse different days or doses, thereby ensuring reliable medication schedule compliance without adding complex electronic or mechanical systems.
Solution Approach 2:
Different compartments may use color-coding or distinct visual markers corresponding to different days of the week. This visual differentiation provides quick and intuitive recognition, helping patients reliably identify which compartment contains which medication without requiring them to read or remember complex schedules, thus improving compliance while maintaining simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
The apparatus and method of the present invention provide for the simple and accurate dispensing of articles, particularly solid oral medication. The apparatus of the present invention according to one embodiment comprises a holder device, in which said holder device comprises a bottom surface, a sidewall engaging said bottom surface, a pair of radial walls adjoining a center of said bottom surface and said sidewall, and a sloped slide adjoining said pair of radial walls. In a preferred embodiment, the holder device further comprises seven pairs of radial walls to correspond with each day of the week. The present invention also includes a plurality of compartments within each pair of radial walls, which correspond to the time periods during which medication must be taken during a single day. Each compartment according to this embodiment contains a sloped slide. The present invention further provides a method for loading the apparatus whereby a filling tray with wells is placed on the holder device, the filling tray is arranged so that each well empties into a compartment, a number of articles are poured onto the filling tray, and spread over the tray so that the desired number of articles fall into each well. The embodiments of the present invention further describe methods for administering and storing articles.