Apparatus and method for automatic prescription verification

• US 7,028,723 B1
• Filed: 11/02/2004
• Issued: 04/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ali Tahor Alouani, Kenneth R. Currie
• Original Assignee: Ali Tahor Alouani, Kenneth R. Currie
• Inventors: Alouani, Ali Tahor, Currie, Kenneth R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Douglas, Steven O.
• Application Number:
  US10/979,474
• Time in Patent Office: 532 Days
• Field of Search: 141/83, 141/94, 141/104, 221/129, 221/219, 702/128, 702/129
• US Class Current: 141/83
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/101 by gravity B65B5/12 and B65B5/108 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 57/10 responsive to absence, presence, abnormal feed, or misplacement of articles or materials to be packaged
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/66 Trinkets, e.g. shirt buttons or jewellery items recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0054 with control of supplementary check-parameters, e.g. weight or number of articles
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage

Abstract

An apparatus and method are used to perform the verification of a pharmaceutical prescription after it is filled but prior to shipment. Due to the high volume of mail/internet orders, the analysis is to be performed on the whole prescription, not on each individual pill of the prescription. The apparatus automatically gathers information about the pills contained in a pill bottle, including image and weight information, and incorporates a decision-making engine to decide whether the content of the pill bottle matches the prescription order.

Claims

1. An apparatus for verifying accuracy of a filled prescription of pills in a pill bottle, comprising:

an image acquisition apparatus which obtains image data associated with said pills in said pill bottle when said pill bottle is placed in a predetermined position;

a scale which obtains weight data associated with said pills in said pill bottle;

a prescription decision processor which determines a level of accuracy of said filled prescription of pills in said pill bottle based on said image data, said weight data, prescription information associated with said prescription associated with said pill bottle, and expected image information and expected weight information determined based on said prescription information.

2. An apparatus in accordance with claim 1, comprising;

a conveying mechanism which conveys said pill bottle to each of said image acquisition apparatus and said scale for obtaining said image data and said weight data respectively.

3. An apparatus in accordance with claim 2, wherein:

said image acquisition apparatus obtains image information from a first pill bottle and said scale obtains weight information from a second pill bottle simultaneously.

4. An apparatus in accordance with claim 1, comprising:

a range sensor which obtains a range measurement between said range sensor and a predefined area of said pill bottle or contents of said pill bottle when said pill bottle is positioned in said predetermined position.

5. An apparatus in accordance with claim 4, wherein:

said image acquisition apparatus comprises a camera having a camera lens; and

said camera utilizes said range measurement as a focal length between said lens and said pill bottle positioned in said predetermined position when said image acquisition apparatus obtains said image data.

6. An apparatus in accordance with claim 4, wherein:

said image acquisition apparatus utilizes said range measurement to position said image acquisition apparatus prior to obtaining said image data.

7. An apparatus in accordance with claim 4, wherein:

said prescription decision processor utilizes said range measurement to determine a volume of contents of said pill bottle present in said pill bottle for use in determining said level of accuracy of said filled prescription of pills in said pill bottle.

8. An apparatus in accordance with claim 4, comprising:

a conveying mechanism which conveys said pill bottle to each of said range sensor, said image acquisition apparatus, and said scale for obtaining said range measurement, said image data, and said weight data respectively.

9. An apparatus in accordance with claim 4, wherein:

said range sensor obtains a range measurement from a first pill bottle and said image acquisition apparatus obtains image information from a second pill bottle and said scale obtains weight information from a third pill bottle simultaneously.

10. An apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein:

said prescription decision processor comprises;

a local image based decision engine that determines an image accuracy level decision based on said image data and said expected image information;

a local weight based decision engine that determines a weight accuracy level decision based on said weight data and said expected weight information; and

a decision fusion inference engine that determines an overall prescription accuracy level decision based on said image accuracy level decision and said weight accuracy level decision.

11. An apparatus in accordance with claim 10, wherein:

said local image based decision engine classifies image information about contents of said pill bottle into at least one of a plurality of image based classes.

12. An apparatus in accordance with claim 10, wherein:

said local weight based decision engine classifies weight information about contents of said pill bottle into at least one of a plurality of weight based classes.

13. An apparatus in accordance with claim 10, wherein:

said decision fusion inference engine that classifies said filled prescription into at least one of a plurality of prescription accuracy levels.

14. An apparatus in accordance with claim 10, wherein:

said local image based decision engine classifies image information about contents of said pill bottle into at least one of a plurality of image based classes; and

said local weight based decision engine classifies weight information about contents of said pill bottle into at least one of a plurality of weight based classes.

15. An apparatus in accordance with claim 14, wherein:

said decision fusion inference engine classifies said filled prescription into at least one of a plurality of prescription accuracy levels.

16. A method for verifying accuracy of a filled prescription of pills in a pill bottle, said method comprising:

receiving actual image information about a filled prescription of pills in a pill bottle;

receiving actual weight information about a filled prescription of pills in a pill bottle;

determining a prescription accuracy level based on said actual image information and/or said actual weight information in view of expected image information and/or expected weight information respectively that is associated with said filled prescription of pills.

17. A method in accordance with claim 16, wherein said image information comprises a pill color of said pills in said pill bottle and/or a pill label on said pills in said pill bottle.

18. A method for verifying accuracy of a filled prescription of pills in a pill bottle, said method comprising:

positioning said pill bottle in a predetermined position;

reading prescription information from a prescription identifier on said pill bottle;

obtaining expected image information and expected weight information associated with said prescription information;

receiving actual image information about said filled prescription of pills in said pill bottle;

receiving actual weight information about said filled prescription of pills in said pill bottle;

determining a prescription accuracy level based on said actual image information and said actual weight information in view of said expected image information and expected weight information associated with said prescription information.

19. A method in accordance with claim 18, wherein said prescription information comprises one or more of a pill identifier, an ordered quantity of pills, a single pill weight associated with a single pill of a type indicated by said pill identifier, a pill color, and a pill label.

20. A method for performing quality control on a filled prescription of pills in a pill bottle, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving actual image information about said filled prescription of pills in said pill bottle;

obtaining expected image information about said filled prescription of pills in said pill bottle;

determining an image test accuracy level of said filled prescription based on said actual image information relative to said expected image information;

receiving actual weight information about said filled prescription of pills in said pill bottle;

obtaining expected weight information about said filled prescription of pills in said pill bottle;

determining a weight test accuracy level of said filled prescription based on said actual image information relative to said expected image information;

determining a prescription accuracy level based on said image test accuracy level and said weight test accuracy level.