Medication dispenser system

• US 8,230,662 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2007
• Issued: 07/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Synergie Medicale BRG, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Synergie Medicale BRG, Inc.
• Inventors: Boutin, Jean
• Primary Examiner(s): GERRITY, STEPHEN FRANCIS
• Application Number:
  US12/440,522
• Publication Number:
  US 20100042255A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,785 Days
• Field of Search: 53/52, 53/55, 534/98, 534/99, 531/54, 535/39, 532/37, 532/46, 531/313, 532/81, 221/93, 221/94, 221/99, 221/211, 700/242
• US Class Current: 53/55
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 35/06 Separating single articles from loose masses of articles
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 35/38 by suction-operated grippers
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/08 Packaging groups of articles, the articles being individually gripped or guided for transfer to the containers or receptacles
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/103 for packaging pills or tablets
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/105 by grippers B65B5/12 and B65B5/108 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/1657 the picking arrangements using suction
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/18 Recessed drawers
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/44 in which magazines the articles are stored in bulk
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers

Abstract

A system for filling medication dose packs with oral-solid medication items comprises storage tray drawers each having storage trays. Each storage tray stores a specific type of oral-solid medication item. The storage tray drawers are displaceable to a drawn position to expose the storage trays thereof. A table supports dose packs having a plurality of receptacles arranged in rows, with each receptacle associated with an intake time and date of a patient prescription file. A dispensing mechanism has fingers for grasping by suction an oral-solid medication item, and degrees of freedom to displace the fingers from any one of the storage trays to the dose pack, to transfer the oral-solid medication items from the storage trays in the drawn position to the receptacles of the dose pack. A dispenser controller determines the specific types of oral-solid medication items required in the receptacles of the dose pack as a function of a patient prescription file, and actuates the dispensing mechanism to control displacements and the suction thereof to fill the dose packs from the patient prescription file.

Claims

1. A system for filling medication dose packs with oral-solid medication items, comprising:

at least one storage tray, with the at least one storage tray storing a specific type of oral-solid medication item;

a table supporting at least one dose pack having a plurality of receptacles arranged in rows, with each receptacle associated with an intake time and date of a patient prescription file;

a dispensing mechanism having at least two fingers each for grasping by suction an oral-solid medication item, and degrees of freedom to displace the at least two fingers from the at least one storage tray to the dose pack, to transfer the oral-solid medication items from the at least one storage tray to the receptacles of the dose pack; and

a dispenser controller for determining the specific types of oral-solid medication items required in the receptacles of the dose pack as a function of a patient prescription file, and for actuating the dispensing mechanism to control displacements and the suction thereof to fill the dose packs from the patient prescription file, the suction of each one of the fingers being actuated independently to selectively grasp and dispense one unit of the oral-solid medication items with only one of the two fingers while at least another of the fingers is concurrently unactuated in suction to grasp and dispense oral-solid medication items.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the dispensing mechanism has three translational degrees of freedom.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the fingers of the dispensing mechanism move along a vertical degree of freedom to grasp oral-solid medication items from the at least one storage tray, and move along two degrees of freedom in a horizontal plane to move the fingers from the at least one storage tray to the dose pack.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the vertical degree of freedom is actuated by a first degree of actuation for movement of the fingers in grasping an oral-solid medication item, and by a second degree of actuation for movement of the fingers from the at least one storage trays- to the dose pack.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the dispensing mechanism has seven of the fingers, with the rows of the dose pack each having seven receptacles to represent seven days of one week.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the fingers of the dispensing mechanism move along a vertical degree of freedom to grasp oral-solid medication items from the at least one storage tray, and wherein each said finger has an independent suspension to absorb vertical movement once the finger has grasped a oral-solid medication item.

7. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of the at least one storage tray, with each said storage tray storing an own type of oral-solid medication item, wherein the storage trays each have openings through which the oral-solid medication items are drawn by the fingers of the dispensing mechanism, the opening being sized as a function of the dimension of the oral-solid medication item to ensure at most one of the oral-solid medication items is carried by each said finger from the storage trays to the dose pack.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising at least one sensor for each said finger, for the dispenser controller to confirm that an oral-solid medication item is grasped by the finger.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the sensor is at least one of a pressure sensor monitoring a pressure in the finger, and an optical sensor monitoring a tip of the finger.

10. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an interface producing a report identifying oral-solid medication items required to manually complete the dose pack as a function of the patient prescription file.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the support table has on its top surface sequential characters for each receptacle of the dose packs, and the report indicates a medication item required in a receptacle using the sequential character.

12. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an interface producing a report sheet arranged in rows in accordance with the dose pack and identifying a number of oral-solid medication items in each receptacle, whereby superposing the dose pack in transparent material with the report sheet enables to see through the receptacles of the dose pack said number of oral-solid medication items required in respective ones of the receptacles of the dose pack for visual inspection.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein said report sheet seals off the dose pack to package the medication items in the dose pack, the report sheet having a patient identification thereon.

14. The system according to claim 1, comprising two of said tables, such that a first of the tables is displaced to a verification position when filling is completed while a second one of the tables is displaced to a filling position.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the dispenser controller has a database to store patient prescription files.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein the table supports a plurality of dose packs, and the dispenser controller fills the dose packs simultaneously as a function of different patient prescription files.

17. The system according to claim 1, further comprising storage tray drawers being displaceable to a drawn position, with each said storage tray drawer supporting at least one storage tray, the storage tray drawers displaced to the drawn position to expose the storage trays thereof.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the dispensing mechanism connects to the storage tray drawers to open/close the storage tray drawers to/from the drawn position.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein each said storage tray drawer has a plurality of the storage trays.

20. A system for filling medication dose packs with oral-solid medication items, comprising:

storage tray drawers each having at least one storage tray, with each storage tray storing a specific type of oral-solid medication item, the storage tray drawers being displaceable to a drawn position to expose the storage trays thereof;

a table supporting at least one dose pack having a plurality of receptacles arranged in rows, with each receptacle associated with an intake time and date of a patient prescription file;

a dispensing mechanism having at least one finger for grasping by suction an oral-solid medication item, and degrees of freedom to displace the at least one finger from any one of the storage trays to the dose pack, to transfer the oral-solid medication items from the storage trays in the drawn position to the receptacles of the dose pack; and

a dispenser controller for determining the specific types of oral-solid medication items required in the receptacles of the dose pack as a function of a patient prescription file, and for actuating the dispensing mechanism to control displacements and the suction thereof to fill the dose packs from the patient prescription file.