Methods and apparatus for increasing and/or monitoring a party's compliance with a schedule for taking medicines
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- wirelessly communicating data from a first medicine container storing a first medicine therein to a second medicine container storing a second medicine therein, the data including information indicating when a portion of the first medicine has been removed from the first medicine container;
determining an amount of time that has lapsed since the patient removed a portion of the first medicine from the first container;
determining that the patient should take a portion of the second medicine; and
enabling access to the second medicine of the second medicine container.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for increasing and/or monitoring a party'"'"'s compliance with a schedule for taking medicines. In a first embodiment, a method is provided for use by a first container that is adapted to store a first medicine. The method includes storing information regarding the first medicine and wirelessly communicating a signal between the first container and a second container adapted to store a second medicine. In a second embodiment, a method is provided that includes determining if a first container for storing a first medicine is positioned so as to wirelessly communicate with a second container for storing a second medicine. The method further includes generating data based at least in part on whether the first container is positioned so as to wirelessly communicate with the second container. In a third embodiment, a method is provided that includes receiving a signal and, based at least in part on the received signal, determining whether a first container for storing a first medicine was positioned so as to wirelessly communicate with a second container for storing a second medicine. In a fourth embodiment, a method is provided that includes receiving a signal from a device that monitors whether a first container for storing a first medicine and a second container for storing a second medicine are positioned so as to communicate. The method further includes determining if at least one party has complied with a schedule for taking the first medicine and the second medicine based at least in part on the received signal. Systems, apparatus and computer program products are provided for carrying out the above-described embodiments and numerous other embodiments.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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wirelessly communicating data from a first medicine container storing a first medicine therein to a second medicine container storing a second medicine therein, the data including information indicating when a portion of the first medicine has been removed from the first medicine container; determining an amount of time that has lapsed since the patient removed a portion of the first medicine from the first container; determining that the patient should take a portion of the second medicine; and enabling access to the second medicine of the second medicine container. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A computer readable medium storing instructions configured to direct a processor to:
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wirelessly communicate data from a first medicine container storing a first medicine therein to a second medicine container storing a second medicine therein, the data including information indicating when a portion of the first medicine has been removed from the first medicine container; determine an amount of time that has lapsed since the patient removed a portion of the first medicine from the first container; determine that the patient should take a portion of the second medicine; and enable access to the second medicine of the second medicine container. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. An apparatus, comprising:
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a communication device associated with a first medicine container and adapted to receive a signal; a processor coupled to the communication device and adapted for inputting the signal from the communication device; and a computer program executable by the processor to direct the processor to; wirelessly communicate data from the first medicine container storing a first medicine therein to a second medicine container storing a second medicine therein, the data including information indicating when a portion of the first medicine has been removed from the first medicine container; determine an amount of time that has lapsed since the patient removed a portion of the first medicine from the first medicine container; determine that the patient should take a portion of the second medicine; and enable access to the second medicine of the second medicine container.
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Specification