Prescription bottle imaging system and method

• US 7,995,831 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2006
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Express Scripts Strategic Development, Inc. (The Cigna Group)
• Original Assignee: Express Scripts Incorporated (The Cigna Group)
• Inventors: Youngs, Herbert A., Eller, Charles E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Vu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Abdi; Amara
• Application Number:
  US11/357,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20080056556A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,999 Days
• Field of Search: 382/142, 235/375, 235/383
• US Class Current: 382/142
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0036 Checkout procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage

Abstract

The invention is directed to a prescription imaging system for capturing, storing and displaying images of prescription bottles during the prescription fulfillment process to monitor the quality of the fulfillment process. The system includes one or more pill cameras for capturing images of pills dispensed into one or more prescription bottles and one or more label cameras for capturing images of the bottle labels. The images are stored on a storage device in a database record. The images can be used to verify that the pills in each bottle correspond with the associated prescription.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of pill cameras arranged in a row and oriented on a first axis, the plurality of pill cameras being positioned above an uncapped prescription bottle row of a pallet, the uncapped prescription bottle row including a plurality of uncapped prescription bottles, a first pill camera of the plurality of pill cameras to capture a first pill image from a first uncapped prescription bottle of the uncapped prescription bottle row, a second pill camera of the plurality of pill cameras to capture a second pill image from a second uncapped prescription bottle of the uncapped prescription bottle row;

a plurality of label image cameras arranged in a row and oriented on a second axis, the second axis being perpendicular to the first axis, a first label image camera of the plurality of label image cameras to capture a first label image from the first uncapped prescription bottle, a second label image camera of the plurality of label image cameras to capture a second label image from the second uncapped prescription bottle; and

a lift mechanism including

an upper bearing plate having a plurality of circular cavities arranged in a row to receive the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row; and

a plurality of lower lift pushers arranged in a row, the plurality of lift pushers to lift the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row out of the pallet such that when the upper bearing plate is lowered onto the top of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row of the pallet a neck portion of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row is received in the plurality of circular cavities, the plurality of pill cameras and the plurality of label image cameras to simultaneously capture pill image data and label image data respectively when the upper bearing plate is lowered onto the top of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row of the pallet and the neck portion of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row is received in the plurality of circular cavities, the pill image data including the first pill image and the second pill image, the label image data including the first label image and the second label image.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an indexing mechanism to index the pallet forward to an additional uncapped prescription bottle row including a plurality of additional uncapped prescription bottles.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of label image cameras includes a line scan label camera.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein a particular lower lift pusher of the plurality of lower lift pushers sandwiches a particular uncapped prescription bottle of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row between the upper bearing plate and the particular lower lift pusher when the upper bearing plate is lowered onto the top of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row of the pallet and the neck portion of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row is received in the plurality of circular cavities.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the particular lower pusher includes a rotate mechanism to rotate the particular lower lift pusher after it engages the particular uncapped prescription bottle and lifts the particular uncapped prescription bottle so that the particular uncapped prescription bottle is rotated to facilitate capture of its label image, and

an encoder in communication with the first label image camera to monitor the rotation of the particular uncapped prescription bottle and communicate information relating to the rotational speed to the first label image camera so that the first label image camera takes a plurality of images of portions of the label of the particular uncapped prescription bottle as the particular uncapped prescription bottle rotates, the first label image being composed of the plurality of images.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a computing device to read a bar code from the first label image and associate the first label image and the first pill image with an appropriate prescription.

7. A method comprising:

lifting, using a plurality of lower lift pushers arranged in a row, a plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of an uncapped prescription bottle row out of a pallet;

lowering an upper bearing plate onto the top of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row of the pallet to engage a neck portion of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row within a plurality of circular cavities of the upper bearing plate; and

simultaneously capturing pill image data and label image data using a plurality of pill cameras arranged in a row and oriented on a first axis and a plurality of label image cameras arranged in a row and oriented on a second axis respectively when the upper bearing plate is lowered onto the top of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row of the pallet and the neck portion of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row is received in the plurality of circular cavities, the plurality of pill cameras being positioned above the uncapped prescription bottle row of a pallet, the second axis being perpendicular to the first axis, the plurality of label cameras being positioned to the side of the uncapped prescription bottle row of the pallet when the upper bearing plate is lowered onto the top of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row of the pallet and the neck portion of the plurality of uncapped prescription bottles of the uncapped prescription bottle row is received in the plurality of circular cavities.