Personal medication dispenser

• US 20030222090A1
• Filed: 05/14/2003
• Published: 12/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Antioch Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Antioch Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Dean, Chadwick E., Abdulhay, Gazi
• Granted Patent: US 7,048,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 221/3
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/10 two or more magazines having a common delivery chute
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/44 in which magazines the articles are stored in bulk
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/62 in which the articles are stored in compartments in fixed receptacles
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/70 in which the articles are formed in the apparatus from components, blanks, or material constituents
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 13/025 wherein the volume is determined during delivery
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00

Abstract

An automated personal pill dispenser has at least two chambers, each for holding a supply of pills. A feed mechanism is associated with each of the chambers and is operable selectively to feed an incremental number of pills from a respective one of the chambers. A programmable controller is coupled to control and operate the feed mechanism to dispense pills from the chambers. The controller has a timer, a memory and an input means. The controller is operable programmably, by the user and/or by remote input from a smart card, PDA or network, for example with access to data from a pharmacy including instructions and warnings. The programming presets at least one of a time and a number of pills to be dispensed from each of said chambers. The controller operates an alarm to alert the user and operates the feed mechanism to feed pills from the chambers at the preset time and number, also detecting the user'"'"'s access to obtain the dispensed pills.

Claims

1. A pill dispenser, comprising:

at least two chambers for holding a supply of pills;

a feed mechanism associated With each of the chambers operable selectively to feed an incremental number of pills from each of the chambers;

a programmable controller coupled to control the feed mechanism, wherein the controller has a timer, a memory and an input means, wherein the controller is operable programmably to preset at least one of a time and a number of pills to be dispensed from each of said chambers and to operate the feed mechanism to feed pills from the chambers at the preset time and number.

2. The pill dispenser of claim 1, further comprising an alarm coupled to the controller, operable to alert a user when the feed mechanism is operated to feed the pills.

3. The pill dispenser of claim 1, further comprising a user-operated element for extracting pills that are produced by the feed mechanism, and further comprising a sensor coupled to the controller, operable to signal the controller when the user has operated the user-operated element.

4. The pill dispenser of claim 3, further comprising an alarm coupled to the controller, operable to alert a user when the feed mechanism is operated to feed the pills, and wherein the alarm is operated at least one of continuously and intermittently until the user-operated element has been operated.

5. The pill dispenser of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to maintain a schedule dispensing of pills from each of the respective chambers according to at least one of a predetermined dosage amount and time, and wherein the dosages and times for the respective chambers can involve different frequencies, start times and special warnings.

6. The pill dispenser of claim 1, further comprising an interface coupled to the controller for programming data including at least one of a pill identity, a user identity, a dosage schedule and a special instruction, and wherein each of said data can be different for each said chamber.

7. The pill dispenser of claim 6, wherein the controller is programmable form user-operable switches under prompting from a controller-operable display panel.

8. The pill dispenser of claim 7, wherein the controller program is subject to override by input from the user-operable switches, so as to dispense a pill from at least a selected one of the chambers apart from a preset program in the controller.

9. The pill dispenser of claim 8, wherein the controller is operable to monitor at least one of a count of pills remaining in the chambers and a count of pills dispensed to the user, and to produce at least one report based thereon.

10. The pill dispenser of claim 9, wherein the report includes a warning to the user indicating impending exhaustion of a supply in at least one of the chambers.

11. The pill dispenser of claim 8, wherein pills dispensed by the controller under said override are counted by the controller in determining at least one of a count of pills remaining in the chambers and a count of pills dispensed to the user.

12. The pill dispenser of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmable by access to data from at least one of a pharmacy, a smartcard reader, a programmable digital assistant (PDA) and a network.