Method and apparatus for remote monitoring of daily dispensing of medication

• US 8,725,291 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2010
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ANELTO
• Original Assignee: IPCOMM LLC
• Inventors: Czaja, Stanislaw, Welch, William, Stawski, Ilona, Marqusee, Cory
• Primary Examiner(s): WAGGONER, TIMOTHY R
• Application Number:
  US12/853,511
• Publication Number:
  US 20120065776A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,338 Days
• Field of Search: 700/237, 700/240, 700/244
• US Class Current: 700/240
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A method and apparatus for remote monitoring of daily dispensing of medication is disclosed. In one embodiment, a dispensing unit, equipped with a weight sensing mechanism, such as scale or balance, communicates with a monitoring application residing in a wireless terminal. The monitoring application provides supervision over a medication dispensing process.

Claims

1. A medicine dispensing compliance system, the dispensing system comprising:

a medicine dispensing unit; and

a medicine dispensing application, in wireless communication with the medicine dispensing unit,

wherein the medicine dispensing unit includes a medication container, a weighting unit, a dispensing control mechanism, and a wireless communication interface; and

wherein the medicine dispensing application includes a user interface adapted to interface with a selected user of the medicine dispensing compliance system, and wherein the medicine dispensing application further includes a plurality of user parameters associated with and corresponding to the selected user; and

wherein the plurality of user parameters include at least one of the following parameters;

identity information related to the selected user;

dispensing scheduling information including a desired weight of medicine to be dispensed at a pre-defined period of time;

a list of pre-approved alert cancellation responses;

a plurality of local alerts issued by the dispensing application; and

a plurality of actions to be taken by the dispensing application under selected conditions, wherein the medication container comprises a weekly medication container including individual compartments associated and corresponding to a single day dosage of medicine to be taken by the selected user.

2. The medicine dispensing system of claim 1, wherein the weighting unit outputs a current weight measurement Wk of medicine currently contained in the medication container.

3. The medicine dispensing system of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication interface comprises a cellular telephone interface.

4. The medicine dispensing system of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication interface comprises a Bluetooth radio interface.

5. The medicine dispensing system of claim 1, further comprising a cellular telephone in wireless communication with a cellular network, wherein the cellular telephone includes at least one processor, and wherein the medicine dispensing application comprises a software program executed by the at least one processor.

6. The medicine dispensing system of claim 5, wherein the cellular telephone comprises a smart phone.

7. The medicine dispensing system of claim 5, wherein the cellular telephone includes a Bluetooth radio interface in wireless communication with the wireless communication interface of the medicine dispensing unit.

8. The medicine dispensing system of claim 1, wherein the weighting unit comprises a sensitive weighting system.

9. The medicine dispensing system of claim 1, wherein the weighting unit comprises a balance or scale.

10. The medicine dispensing system of claim 1, wherein the medication container is integrated with the wireless communication interface and the weighting unit.

11. The medicine dispensing system of claim 1, wherein the medication container is separate from the wireless communication interface and the weighting unit.

12. The medicine dispensing system of claim 1, wherein the medicine dispensing application performs all of the following medicine dispensing functions:

authentication of the selected user and a plurality of selected medical supervisors;

scheduling of dispensing time intervals according to one or more scheduling parameters;

alerting the selected user of an incoming dispensing period by means of audio or textual messages;

calibration of the medication container and of the medicine dispensed at the pre-defined period of time;

measuring a weight of the medicine dispensed at the pre-defined period of time and comparing the measured weight with the desired weight;

alerting the selected user when the measured weight varies substantially from the desired weight;

alarming the selected medical supervisors if the dispensing time period is missed, or if the measured weight varies substantially from the desired weight; and

canceling the alarming function if a pre-defined set of conditions are met.

13. The medicine dispensing system of claim 1, wherein the medicine dispensing application includes all of the user parameters defined in claim 1.