Product labeling method and apparatus

• US 7,061,831 B2
• Filed: 04/12/2001
• Issued: 06/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: B Braun Medical Incorporated (B. Braun Holding GmbH & Co. KG), Southwest Technology Innovations LLC, Telaric LLC
• Original Assignee: Telaric LLC
• Inventors: De La Huerga, Carlos
• Primary Examiner(s): Gibson, Randy W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Phan, Thanh S.
• Application Number:
  US09/833,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20010017817A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,888 Days
• Field of Search: 368/10, 368107-113, 221 2- 3, 221/15, 340/309.4, 340/573.1, 702/177, 283 67-114, 283/117, 215/11.2, 705 2- 3
• US Class Current: 368/10
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 1/035 Blister-type containers blisters in general B65D75/36
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 2200/30 Compliance analysis for taking medication
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 2205/10 Bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 2205/20 Colour codes
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 2205/30 Printed labels
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 2205/50 using icons or symbolic figures, e.g. by a graphical representation symbolising the type of pathology or the organ by an image
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 2205/60 using magnetic or electronic identifications, e.g. chips, RFID, electronic tags
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/0418 with electronic history memory
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/0436 resulting from removing a drug from, or opening, a container
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/0445 for preventing drug dispensing during a predetermined time period
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/0454 for dispensing of multiple drugs
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/0481 working on a schedule basis
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07762 the adhering arrangement making the record carrier wearable, e.g. having the form of a ring, watch, glove or bracelet record carriers for insertion in the human body for medical purposes A61B90/00; record carriers adapted for attachment to animals A01K11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers

Abstract

A method and apparatus for configuring indicating configurations for containers wherein at least a subset of indicating configurations include an enhanced indicating device such as an electronic storage device, the containers to include enhanced devices being a function of whether or not the end user uses an interacting device capable of receiving information from the enhanced devices, the method and system indicating whether or not standard or enhanced containers should be used for specific prescriptions or orders and, in some cases, automatically providing the correct container and specifying (i.e., printing and writing) information to the containers.

Claims

1. An apparatus for configuring an indicating configuration to be associated with a container wherein each indicating configuration includes an indicator and data stored thereon related to an order associated with the container and at least a sub-set of indicating configurations include an enhanced memory device and enhanced data stored thereon, an enhanced device being a device that cooperates with a data collector to gather information therefrom, at least one descriptor associated with each order that can be used to identify the indicating configuration and the data to be stored via the indicating configuration, the apparatus comprising:

a reader for reading each descriptor;

a writer for writing data to enhanced devices; and

a processor linked to the reader for receiving each descriptor and using the descriptor to identify when enhanced data is associated with an order, the processor, when enhanced data is associated with an order, causing the writer to write enhanced data to an enhanced device and, when enhanced data is not associated with an order, causing another indicating function to be performed.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further including a database correlating descriptors with associated data to be written to enhanced devices, the processor linked to the database and, when a descriptor is received, identifying by accessing the database and determining if enhanced data corresponds to the specific descriptor.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the database includes an order queue including a plurality of orders, each order including a descriptor, the reader including a queue pointer that sequentially identifies each of the descriptors in the queue and provides the descriptors to the processor.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein each container is a medication container, each order is a medication prescription for a particular medication user and the data is data related to the medication to be stored in the container.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the data is also a function of a medication user corresponding to the order.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least a sub-set of the descriptors indicate that no data should be written to an enhanced device and wherein the another function includes disabling the writer when no data is to be written to an enhanced device.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 further including a container source controlled by the processor and providing containers having enhanced devices attached thereto.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein at least a sub-set of the descriptors indicate that no data should be written to an enhanced device and wherein the another function includes disabling the writer when no data is to be written to an enhanced device.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the container source includes an enhanced container source and a non-enhanced container source for providing enhanced and non-enhanced containers, respectively, and wherein, when a descriptor indicates that no data is to be written to an enhanced device, the another function includes causing the non-enhanced source to provide a non-enhanced container.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the enhanced container source includes an enhanced device source and a device attacher, the attacher receiving non-enhanced containers and, when an enhanced container is required, attaching an enhanced device to a container to provide the enhanced container.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the processor also uses the descriptor to identify human readable indicia related to the order and the apparatus further includes an indicia printer for printing the indicia for inclusion on the container.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 further including a label source for providing labels and wherein the printer prints the indicia on the label.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 further including a label attacher for attaching the labels to the containers.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the enhanced devices are attached to labels and wherein the attacher attaches by attaching the labels to the container.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processor also uses the to identify human readable indicia related to the order and the apparatus further includes an indicia printer for printing the indicia on the label.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 further including a label source controlled by the processor and providing labels having enhanced devices attached thereto for inclusion on the containers.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the another indicating function includes disabling the writer.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the label source includes an enhanced label source and a non-enhanced label source for providing enhanced labels including enhanced devices and non-enhanced labels, respectively, and wherein, when a descriptor indicates that no data is to be written to an enhanced device, the processor causes the non-enhanced source to provide a non-enhanced label.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the enhanced label source includes an enhanced device source and a device attacher, the attacher receiving non-enhanced labels and, when an enhanced label is required, attaching an enhanced device to a label to provide the enhanced label.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the processor also uses the descriptor to identify human readable indicia related to the product to be stored in the container and further including an indicia printer for providing the indicia on the label.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor also uses the descriptor to identify human readable indicia to be included on the container wherein the indicia is related to the order, the apparatus further including a label source and an indicia printer linked to the processor, the processor sequencing the indicia printing and data writing such that indicia and data corresponding to the same descriptor are provided on the same container.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein each label includes an indicia surface and an attached enhanced device and wherein the printer and writer print and write the indicia and data corresponding to a single descriptor to the surface and device, respectively, at the same time.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein each of the writing and printing steps is a specifying step and each of the indicia and data are specifying information, a first of the specifying steps occurs before a second of the specifying steps, each printing and writing cycle is a specifying cycle, for each descriptor, the first step occurs N specifying cycles prior to the second step and the processor sequences the second step specifying information to be specified N cycles after the first step specifying information is specified.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein N is 1.

25. The apparatus of claim 1 further including a container source wherein the source provides containers with attached descriptors.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the descriptor includes one of a bar code, a magnetic code, a Braille code and machine readable optical characters and the reader includes a matching one of a bar code reader, a magnetic code reader, a Braille code reader and a reader of the optical characters.

27. The apparatus of claim 25 further including a database that correlates each descriptor with associated data to be written to enhanced devices, the processor linked to the database and, when a descriptor is received, identifying by accessing the database and locating the descriptor and associated data.

28. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the reader includes a hand held device that can be positioned in the vicinity of the descriptor and activated to read the descriptor.

29. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein the hand held device also comprises the writer that can be positioned in the vicinity of the enhanced device and activated to write to the enhanced device.

30. The apparatus of claim 1 further including an enhanced device source that includes the writer and that is linked to the processor wherein, the source provides an enhanced device to an apparatus user for attachment to the container and after the processor identifies the data, the writer writes to the enhanced device.

31. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the container is a medication container, the data is medication data and the data includes at least a sub-set of a patient ID, the medication type, prescribed dose, recommended dose, a prescribing physician'"'"'s identification, primary physician'"'"'s identification and instructions regarding a health safety function.

32. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein descriptors that indicate enhanced data include the enhanced data and the processor identifies by reading the enhanced data.

33. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein each enhanced device is one of a RFID tag, an electronic memory, a magnetic tag, a multi-dimensional bar code and a dot matrix.

34. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor also uses the descriptor to identify human readable indicia to be included on the container wherein the indicia is related to the order, the apparatus further including an indicia printer linked to the processor, the another function including causing the indicia printer to print the human readable indicia for inclusion on the container.