System and method for printing edible medicament dosage containers having identifying indicia at dispensing sites

• US 10,460,624 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2016
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Wilsher, Michael J., Stevenson, Duncan I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Minskey, Jacob T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tsui, Melody
• Application Number:
  US15/227,106
• Publication Number:
  US 20180036205A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,182 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 2205/30 Printed labels
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 3/007 Marking tablets or the like apparatus for printing on tablets or the like B41F17/36
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/106 using only liquids or viscous materials, e.g. depositing a continuous bead of viscous material
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/182 in parallel batches
• CPC Class Codes: B29L 2031/753 Medical equipment; Accessories therefor bloodbags, medical bags B29L2031/7148; artificial eyes B29L2011/0008
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 10/00 Processes of additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 80/00 Products made by additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/00 Teaching, or communicating with, the blind, deaf or mute audible presentation of material to be studied G09B5/04; devices or methods for replacing direct visual or auditory perception by another kind of perception A61F9/08, A61F11/04; audible indication of meter readings or of colour G01D7/12; watches for blind persons G04B25/02; speech analysis, speech recognition G10L; sound-recording or reproducing, per se G11B
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/003 using tactile presentation of the information, e.g. Braille displays

Abstract

A system and method enables production of medicament containers with edible material at a site for dispensing medicaments. The containers are formed in shapes that indicate the contents of the containers and can be formed with indicia that indicate the times for taking the medicaments. Additionally, the containers can be formed with raised protuberances that provide information regarding the medicaments in the containers. In one embodiment, the raised protuberances are in Braille.

Claims

1. A method for producing medicament containers at a dispensing site comprising:

using a computer and interface to select single dose medicament container configuration data from a database for a single dose medicament container that corresponds to a medicament to be dispensed, the single dose medicament container configuration data corresponding to a single dose medicament container for the medicament without the medicament;

entering with the computer and interface data corresponding to a number of the single dose medicament containers to make and at least one time for taking single doses of the medicament;

sending the single dose medicament container configuration data and the entered data to a three-dimensional (3D) object printer; and

operating the 3D object printer with reference to the single dose medicament container configuration data and the entered data to form with edible material only the entered number of single dose medicament containers without the medicament in any of the single dose medicament containers and forming at least one of the single dose medicament containers with indicia indicating one time in the at least one time for taking a single dose of the medicament to be placed in the at least one single dose medicament container.

2. The method of claim 1, the entering of the data further comprising:

entering through the computer and interface data for a configuration of an array of the number of single dose medicament containers; and

the operation of the 3D object printer further including production of an array of the single dose medicament containers corresponding to the data for the configuration of the array and having the entered number of single dose medicament containers.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

modifying the single dose medicament container configuration data with reference to the data corresponding to the one time in the at least one time for taking the single dose of the medicament; and

operating the 3D object printer with reference to the modified single dose medicament container configuration data to produce the at least one single dose medicament container with the indicia.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

entering through the computer and interface data regarding visually impairment of a person receiving the single dose medicament containers;

modifying the selected single dose medicament container configuration data with reference to the data corresponding to the one time in the at least one time for taking the single dose of the medicament and the data regarding visually impairment of the person receiving the single dose medicament containers; and

operating the 3D object printer with reference to the modified single dose medicament container configuration data to produce the at least one single dose medicament container with raised protuberances corresponding to the indicia in response to the data being entered that the person receiving the single dose medicament containers is visually impaired.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the raised protuberances correspond to a code for assisting visually impaired persons.

6. The method of claim 5 where the raised protuberances correspond to Braille.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the raised protuberances correspond to alphanumeric characters.

8. The method of claim 1, the operation of the 3D object printer further comprising:

forming the at least one single dose medicament container as a sun symbol when the one time indicates daytime for taking the single dose of the medicament to be placed in the at least one single dose medicament container.

9. The method of claim 1, the operation of the 3D object printer further comprising:

forming the at least one single dose medicament container as a moon symbol when the one time in the at least one time indicates nighttime for taking the single dose of the medicament to be placed in the at least one single dose medicament container.

10. The method of claim 1, the operation of the 3D object printer further comprising:

forming the single dose medicament containers as a body part symbol to indicate the medicament to be placed in the at least one single dose medicament container formed with the indicia.

11. A system for producing medicament containers at a dispensing site comprising:

a database in which single dose medicament container configuration data for a plurality of single dose medicament containers are stored, the single dose medicament container configuration data corresponding to a single dose medicament container for a medicament without the medicament;

a computer having an interface configured to receive data identifying a medicament to be dispensed, to select single dose medicament container configuration data from the database for the medicament to be placed in the single dose medicament container, and to receive data corresponding to a time for taking single doses of the medicament; and

a three-dimensional (3D) object printer operatively connected to the computer to receive the selected single dose medicament container configuration data and data corresponding to the time for taking single doses of the medicament, the 3D object printer operating with reference to the selected single dose medicament container configuration data and the data corresponding to the time for taking single doses of the medicament to form with edible material only at least one single dose medicament container without the medicament and the at least one single dose medicament container having indicia indicating the time for taking single doses of the medicament.

12. The system of claim 11, the computer having the interface being further configured to receive data for a number of single dose medicament containers to be produced and a configuration of an array of the number of single dose medicament containers;

and

the 3D object printer operating with reference to the data for a number of single dose medicament containers to be produced and the configuration of the array of the number of single dose medicament containers to produce an array of single dose medicament containers having the entered number of single dose medicament containers.

13. The system of claim 11, the computer having the interface being further configured to:

modify the selected single dose medicament container configuration data with reference to the data corresponding to the time for taking single doses of the medicament; and

the 3D object printer operating with reference to the modified selected single dose medicament container configuration data to produce the at least one single dose medicament container with the indicia.

14. The system of claim 11, the computer having the interface is further configured to:

receive data regarding visually impairment of a person receiving the container;

modify the selected single dose medicament container configuration data with reference to the data corresponding to the time for taking single doses of the medicament and the data regarding visually impairment of the person receiving the container; and

the 3D object printer operating with reference to the modified selected single dose medicament container configuration data to produce the at least one single dose medicament container with raised protuberances in response to the data being entered that the person receiving the single dose medicament containers is visually impaired.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the 3D object printer operates to produce the at least one single dose medicament container with raised protuberances that correspond to a code for assisting visually impaired persons.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the 3D object printer operates to produce the at least one single dose medicament container with raised protuberances that correspond to Braille.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the 3D object printer operates to produce the at least one single dose medicament container with raised protuberances that correspond to alphanumeric characters.

18. The system of claim 11 wherein the operation of the 3D object printer with reference to the selected single dose medicament container configuration data and the data corresponding to the time for taking single doses of the medicament forms the single dose medicament container as a sun symbol to indicate daytime taking of the single dose medicament container.

19. The system of claim 11 wherein the operation of the 3D object printer with reference to the selected single dose medicament container configuration data and the data corresponding to the time for taking single doses of the medicament forms the single dose medicament container as a moon symbol to indicate nighttime taking of the single dose medicament container.

20. The system of claim 11, the operation of the 3D object printer with reference to the selected single dose medicament container configuration data and the data corresponding to the time for taking single doses of the medicament forms the single dose medicament container as a body part symbol to indicate the medicament stored in the single dose medicament container.