METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INSPECTING MANUAL DISPENSING TRAY OF AUTOMATIC MEDICINE PACKAGING MACHINE

• US 20080149657A1
• Filed: 05/29/2007
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JVM Company Limited
• Original Assignee: JVM Company Limited
• Inventors: Kim, Jun Ho
• Granted Patent: US 7,894,656 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 221/2
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/15 Medicinal preparations ; Physical properties thereof, e.g. dissolubility drug screening with animal cells G01N33/5008
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00

Abstract

A method for inspecting manual dispensing tray of the automatic medicine packaging machine that stably inspects dispensing error of the manual dispensing tray due to manual dispensing by a pharmacist and that prevents the inferiority of packaging due to the dispensing error of the manual dispensing tray is disclosed. The method includes step of confirming manual dispensing; step of photographing tray; step of acquiring medication information; step of analyzing information equivalence; and step of displaying dispensing error.

Claims

1. A method for inspecting manual dispensing tray of an automatic medicine packaging machine including steps of:

a) confirming manual dispensing, wherein, after a manual dispensing tray is drawn from a body of an automatic medicine packaging machine, by detecting the manual dispensing tray'"'"'s being received back into the interior of the body, manual dispensing of medications onto the manual dispensing tray is confirmed;

b) photographing tray, wherein, when the manual dispensing of medications onto the manual dispensing tray is confirmed, state of the manual dispensing of medications onto the manual dispensing tray is acquired as images by photographing the top view of the manual dispensing tray;

c) acquiring medication information, wherein information on medications that are dispensed on each compartment of the manual dispensing tray is acquired by analyzing the images obtained from photographing the manual dispensing tray; and

d) analyzing information equivalence, wherein equivalence between the medication information obtained from the image analysis and manual prescription information extracted from prescription data inputted from a server computer is analyzed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein in the step of acquiring medication information, the image analysis is to acquire information on kind and number of medications by comparing and analyzing shapes and colors of medications extracted from the images obtained from photographing the manual dispensing tray and those of medications extracted from medication shape information which is stored in advance.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein in the step of analyzing information equivalence, if the medication information and the manual prescription information are mutually equivalent, then the process proceeds to step of compounding prescription, wherein medications are compounded as prescribed, but if they are mutually inequivalent, then the process proceeds to step of displaying dispensing error, wherein dispensing error due to manual dispensing is displayed according to the analysis of the information equivalence.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising step of re-dispensing medication after the step of displaying dispensing error, wherein each compartment of the manual dispensing tray that has mutually inequivalent information is displayed, and the manual dispensing tray outside the body of the automatic medicine packaging machine is ejected for re-dispensing medications.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising step of acquiring number of compartments after the step of photographing tray, wherein number of compartments of the manual dispensing tray that medications are dispensed is acquired by analyzing the images obtained from photographing the manual dispensing tray.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising step of analyzing dispensing number equality after the step of acquiring number of compartments, wherein equality between the number of compartments of the manual dispensing tray that medications are dispensed and number of compartments that medications will be dispensed is analyzed, in which the latter number is extracted from the prescription data inputted from the server computer.

7. The method of claim 6, in the step of analyzing dispensing number equality, wherein, if the number of compartments of the manual dispensing tray that medications are dispensed and the number of compartments that medications will be dispensed are mutually equal, then the process proceeds to the step of acquiring medication information, but if they are mutually unequal, then the process proceeds to step of displaying dispensing number error, wherein dispensing number error due to manual dispensing is displayed according to the analysis of the dispensing number equality.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising step of dissolving inequality after the step of displaying dispensing number error, wherein the mutually unequal numbers of compartments of the manual dispensing tray are displayed, and also the manual dispensing tray is ejected outside the body of the automatic medicine packaging machine for re-dispensing medications.

9. An apparatus for inspecting manual dispensing tray of an automatic medicine packaging machine based on a preferred embodiment comprising:

a) a manual dispensing tray that can be operated to be injected and ejected from a body of the automatic medication packaging machine;

b) a camera that acquires state of the manual dispensing medications onto the manual dispensing tray as images by photographing the top view of the manual dispensing tray;

c) a shape information storage unit that stores shapes and colors of each medication that will be dispensed onto the manual dispensing tray;

d) an image analysis unit that acquires information on medications which are dispensed on each compartment of the manual dispensing tray by comparing and analyzing shapes and colors of medications extracted from the images photographed by the camera and those of medications extracted from the shape information storage unit; and

e) a controller that inspect whether a pharmacist has precisely dispensed medications to the manual dispensing tray by analyzing equivalence between medication information obtained from the image analysis unit, and manual prescription information extracted from prescription data inputted from a server computer.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a display which displays inequivalent state if the information on medications dispensed to the manual dispensing tray is inequivalent to the manual dispensing information according to the analysis of the controller.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the image analysis unit extracts number of compartments of the manual dispensing tray that medications are dispensed, in which the number is extracted by analyzing the images obtained from photographing the manual dispensing tray by the camera.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller analyzes equality between the number of compartments of the manual dispensing tray extracted from the image analysis unit and number of compartments that medications will be dispensed, in which the latter number is extracted from the prescription data inputted from the server computer.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the display displays dispensing number error if the number of compartments of the manual dispensing tray extracted from the image analysis unit and the number of compartments extracted from the prescription data are mutually unequal according to the analysis of the controller.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the controller operates to make the manual dispensing tray to be ejected outside the body of automatic medicine packaging machine by controlling the manual dispensing tray if the number of compartments extracted from the image analysis unit is unequal to the one from the prescription data or if the medication information extracted from the image analysis unit is inequivalent to the one from the prescription data.