Methods and Systems for Cloud Based Usage Monitoring and Adaptive Enforcement for Medications

• US 20140058560A1
• Filed: 07/11/2013
• Published: 02/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wellocity Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Santana Row Venture, LLC
• Inventors: KANAGALA, Sameer
• Granted Patent: US 9,251,314 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/240
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 1/00 Containers specially adapted for medical or pharmaceutical purposes capsules or the like for oral use A61J3/07; specially adapted for surgical or diagnostic appliances or instruments A61B50/30; containers for radioactive substances G21F5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring

Abstract

A cloud based system that constantly monitors the consumption of each medication by an individual, specifies medication regimes and schedules and provides a means of enforcing compliance based on both local and cloud based intelligence. Enforcing compliance to a medication schedule is achieved through complex logic that correlates events from the medication bottles; behavior learned from the individual, individual'"'"'s schedules and geo-location. The system employs this complex logic per medication and generates a variety of email, phone call, SMS, MMS, voice messages, audio, visual and multimedia cues and alerts to enforce compliance. These same alerts are also used by multiple caregivers, who can further reinforce compliance by the patient via similar types of communications.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring usage of medication and adaptively enforcing compliance with a medication schedule comprising:

a medication dispenser configured to generate an event indicating one or more of the opening of the dispenser, the closing of the dispenser, or a change in weight of contents of the dispenser;

a computing device coupled to the medication dispenser over a wireless network and configured to receive the event from the medication dispenser;

an Internet based server coupled to the computing device over a wired or wireless network and configured to receive the event from the computing device;

wherein the Internet based server is configured to generate an alert if an event is not received during a predetermined time period; and

wherein the computing device is configured to generate in response to the alert another event indicating the consumption or cancellation of a medication.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the medication dispenser comprises a sensor for determining that the dispenser has been opened or closed.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the medication dispenser comprises a weight detection device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a smart phone.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the Internet based server is configured to generate a report comprising date, time and location information for medication usage.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the medication device comprises a GPS unit.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises a GPS unit to generate a GPS location of the computing device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the Internet based server correlates the GPS location of the computing device and the location of the medication dispenser to adapt one or more medication schedules to ensure close proximity of the computing device to the medication dispenser to allow medication consumption.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the Internet based server is configured to send the alert to the computing device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the Internet based server is configured to proactively monitor events from the medication dispenser and to not send alerts to the computing device for a medication schedule that is already completed

11. A method of enforcing a medication schedule, comprising:

determining, by a server, that an event has not been received from a medication dispenser during a predetermined time period according to a medication schedule; and

generating, by the server, an alert indicating a violation of the medication schedule.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the alert comprises a phone call.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the alert comprises an SMS message.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating, by the server, a report comprising date, time and location information for medication usage.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the medication schedule is associated with a unique identifier for a patient.

16. A method of detecting medication overdosage, comprising:

removing more than one pill from a medication dispenser;

detecting a change in weight of the medication dispenser;

determining, by the medication dispenser, the magnitude of the change in weight;

generating, by the medication dispenser, an event;

transmitting, by the medication dispenser, the event to a computing device over a wireless interface;

determining, by a server, that more than one pill has been removed from the medication dispenser;

generating, by the server, an alert indicating an overdosage situation.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

storing, by the server, the weight of a single pill in a database.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the alert comprises a voice message.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the alert comprises a phone call.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the alert comprises an SMS message.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating, by the server, a report comprising date, time and location information for medication usage.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the medication schedule is associated with a unique identifier for a patient.