Systems and methods for dispensing medical products

• US 20040210341A1
• Filed: 05/10/2004
• Published: 10/21/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Telepharmacy Solutions, Inc. (Cencora, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Telepharmacy Solutions, Inc. (Cencora, Inc.)
• Inventors: Buciuman-Coman, Liana, Wallace, Robert L., Liff, Harold J., Berube, Arthur A., Hart, Brian T., Hart, Richard D., Dowling, James, Piantedosi, Steve
• Application Number:
  US10/842,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20040210341A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/237
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 5/18 specially adapted for controlling several coin-freed apparatus from one place
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/00 Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/001 Interfacing with vending machines using mobile or wearable devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/002 Vending machines being part of a centrally controlled network of vending machines
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods for the remote dispensing of packaged and non-packaged medical products using networked communications systems. A preferred embodiment of the invention utilizes a network to provide for the secure delivery of confidential patient information and the sending of dispense instructions to a remote dispensing station. A preferred embodiment of the present invention relates to systems and methods of dispensing samples of drugs or other medical products. Another preferred embodiment of the invention provides a system and method for dispensing non-prescription medications.

Claims

1. A medical product sample dispenser comprising:

a housing;

a plurality of sample storage locations within the housing; and

a processor that records dispensing of a sample, the processor generating a script corresponding to the sample such that the script is sent to a dispense location.

2. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 wherein the processor further comprises a computer mounted to the housing.

3. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 wherein the dispenser further comprises a user identification system.

4. The medical product dispenser of claim 3 wherein the user identification system comprises a thumb print detector.

5. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 wherein the dispenser further comprises a magnetic card reader.

6. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 wherein the dispenser further comprises a security monitoring device.

7. The medical product dispenser of claim 6 wherein the security monitoring device comprises a camera.

8. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 wherein the dispenser comprises a labeling device.

9. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 wherein the dispenser comprises a barcode reader.

10. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 wherein the dispenser comprises a helix coil dispenser device.

11. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 further comprising a collector having a tray with a pushing device.

12. The medical product dispenser of claim 11 wherein the pushing device comprises an S-rail screw.

13. The medical product dispenser of claim 11 wherein the collector tray comprises at least one S-rail screw.

14. The medical product dispenser of claim 2 wherein the computer is in communication with a database data processor.

15. The medical product dispenser of claim 14 wherein the communication between the computer and the database data processor includes transmission using one of at least the Internet, a telephone system, a satellite system, a wireless system, a facsimile device and a pager system.

16. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 further comprising a card reader.

17. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 wherein each storage location comprises a tray that stores a plurality of packaged medical products.

18. The medical product dispenser of claim 11 wherein the collector is mounted within a housing door such that the collector moves vertically within the housing.

19. The medical product dispenser of claim 8 wherein the labeling device prints a label for a product being dispensed and attaches the label to the product package.

20. The medical product dispenser of claim 1 further comprising an adjudication system within the dispenser including a card reader and a communication link to a network to record payment for the medical product.

21. A method of obtaining a sample of a drug from a drug dispenser comprising the steps of:

providing a drug dispenser housing with a plurality of drug samples;

providing a user identification to a database interfaced with the drug dispenser;

selecting a drug to be dispensed by the drug dispenser from the database;

retrieving the selected drug from the drug dispenser; and

sending a script corresponding to the sample to a dispense location.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing computer-readable data transmission medium between a plurality of computers having a data structure including:

a first subset of data for processing at a first authorizing computer, the first subset of data including authorization for dispensing a medical product; and

a second subset of data for processing at a second dispensing computer, the second subset of data including the data for a medical product label that accompanies a dispensed medical product.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising providing a third subset of data for processing at a controlling computer, the third subset of data including data that includes data resulting from parsing the first subset of data.

24. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing a computer program product for implementing a dispensing of a medical product, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer-readable code therein, including a program code which;

authorizes the dispensing of the medical product at a first location, and

executes the dispensing of the medical product at a second location.

25. The method of claim 21 wherein the script is dispensed as a packaged pharmaceutical at a pharmacy.

26. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing at least one door mounted to the housing the at least one door having a plurality of bins.

27. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing a camera attached to the housing to record an image of each user.

28. The method of claim 21 further comprising printing a label in the housing and attaching the label to the package.

29. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing a user identification system.

30. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing drug a card reader.

31. The method of claim 29 further comprising providing a control system connected to the identification system.

32. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing a barcode reader.

33. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing a computer in communication with a database data processor.

34. The method of claim 33 further comprising communicating between the computer and the database data processor by transmission using one of at least the Internet, a telephone system, a satellite system, a wireless system, and a pager system.

35. A method of dispensing a drug sample comprising the steps of:

storing a plurality of sample drug packages;

dispensing a sample drug package to a user;

generating a script corresponding to the sample; and

sending the script to a dispense location.

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising sending the script to a drug dispensing device.

37. The method of claim 35 further comprising sending the script to a pharmacy.

38. The method of claim 35 further comprising transmitting the script to a pharmacy via facsimile

39. The method of claim 35 further comprising providing a computer connected to a sample dispenser, the computer being connected to a communication link for transmission of the script to a dispense location.

40. The method of claim 35 further comprising providing a dispenser housing having a plurality of storage locations for a plurality of different drug samples.