Interactive adherence drug dispensing and communications platform

• US 9,760,691 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2013
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Inventors: Seeger, Mark Elard
• Primary Examiner(s): Crawford, Gene
• Assistant Examiner(s): AKRIDGE, STEPHEN LEE
• Application Number:
  US14/647,079
• Publication Number:
  US 20150347713A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,442 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 2200/30 Compliance analysis for taking medication
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 2205/70 Audible labels, e.g. for pre-recorded info or messages
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/0084 for multiple medicaments
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/02 Pill counting devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/0409 with timers
• 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 7/0463 for multiple patients
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

Technologies are generally described for providing a pill dispensing device with adherence monitoring and alerting features, as well as communication capabilities. A pill pack may be integrated within a housing of the pill dispensing device, where removal of each pill in the pill pack may be monitored through a conductive trace or comparable mechanism. Timing of the removal, remaining pills, and similar information may also be detected by the pill dispensing device and provided along with additional information such as health status of the consumer monitored by one or more sensors to a health care provider or similar entity over wired and/or wireless networks. The pill dispensing device may include audio and/or visual output device(s) to provide alerts and health/medication related information to the consumer. A display technology may employed enabling continuous display with low power usage such as ink display while providing color and/or video capabilities.

Claims

1. A pill dispenser device, comprising:

a memory adapted to store instructions;

a processor coupled to the memory and adapted to execute the instructions stored on the memory;

a communication module coupled to the processor and configured to facilitate communication with one or more sources to exchange pill consumption and user data, wherein the one or more sources include external sources, and wherein the communication module is configured to transmit customized advertisements, which are based on the pill consumption and the user data and which are provided from the external sources, to the pill dispenser device to be displayed;

a printed circuit board adapted to support one or more of the memory, the processor, and circuitry associated with operations of the pill dispenser device;

a display in the electronic communication with the memory, the processor, and the circuitry;

a trigger device configured to activate a signal to destroy user data stored on the pill dispenser device;

a pill pack that includes a plurality of pharmaceutical pills, wherein the processor is adapted to monitor a removal of the pharmaceutical pills from the pill pack; and

a housing that includes one or more of the memory, the processor, the communication module, the printed circuit board, the display, and the pill pack.

2. The pill dispenser device of claim 1, wherein one or more of the memory, the processor, the printed circuit board, the display, and the housing include a biodegradable compound selected from:

plastics, polymers, starch-based materials, wood, plant based fiber products, or paper products, and wherein a common feature of the compound includes being compostable.

3. The pill dispenser device of claim 1, wherein the trigger device is further configured to accelerate biodegradation of the pill dispenser device.

4. The pill dispenser device of claim 1, wherein the processor is preprogrammed by a distributor with one or more of user specific data and a customized notification application.

5. The pill dispenser device of claim 1, wherein the pill dispenser device is configured to collect one or more of pill consumption information about a user and medical information about the user via input by the user or communication with one or more health monitor devices.

6. The pill dispenser device of claim 1, further comprising or more of:

an RFID tag, a QR code, and a bar code to track the pill dispenser device over its lifecycle.

7. The pill dispenser device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to execute a geo-aware function to determine and report a location of the pill dispenser device based on one or more of a global positioning service and a network based location determination.

8. The pill dispenser device of claim 1, wherein the pill dispenser device includes biometric identification features to verify an identity of a user that interacts with the pill dispenser device.

9. The pill dispenser device of claim 1, wherein a plurality of holes are formed in the housing to match a location of each pill within the pill pack.

10. The pill dispenser device of claim 1, wherein the communication module is further configured to transmit a survey or a questionnaire from the external sources to the pill dispenser device for population and integration with the pill consumption and the user data.

11. A communication system of a pill dispenser device to facilitate communication with one or more sources, the communication system comprising:

an audiovisual component integrated within the pill dispenser device and comprising;

an electronic ink display configured to provide a graphical user interface (GUI); and

one or more speakers;

a processor of the pill dispenser device configured to collect and store data associated with one or more of pill consumption and a user, wherein the stored data is erasable in response to activation of a trigger, and wherein the trigger includes one or more of a compound, a chemical agent, or an electrical signal; and

a server in communication with the processor and the audiovisual component, wherein the server is configured to;

notify the processor to display information to the user through the GUI and/or another computing device associated with the user, wherein the displayed information includes one or more of an alert to remind the user to consume a pill, an instruction associated with the pill, and information received from a third party;

obtain information representative of a behavior of the user over a particular period of time to determine when the user tends to take the pill, wherein;

the obtained information includes the data associated with one or more of pill consumption and the user,

the server is configured to automatically program the alert, based on the obtained information to remind the user to consume the pill, and

subsequent pill dispenser devices are provided to the user with the alert pre-programmed to correspond to the behavior of the user such that the subsequent pill dispenser devices omit having to obtain the information representative of the behavior of the user in order to program the alert; and

provide, to the third party, at least a portion of the data associated with one or more of pill consumption and the user that is collected and stored by the processor.

12. The communication system of claim 11, wherein a timing and a type of the alert is based on the behavior of the user.

13. The communication system of claim 11, wherein the server is configured to automatically alert the third party if the user fails to remove the pill from a pill pack housed within the pill dispenser device at a particular time or when the pill pack is one or more of:

almost empty and expired.

14. The communication system of claim 11, wherein the electronic ink display includes charged particles dispersed in a liquid that are deposited on a back side of the electronic ink display between two parallel conductive plates.

15. The communication system of claim 14, wherein the conductive plates are divided into pixels to enable, in response to application of a voltage to the conductive plates, polarization of the charged particles pixel by pixel to form text and images on the electronic ink display.

16. A pill consumption detection system integrated with a pill dispenser device, the detection system comprising:

a trace diagram that includes one or more conductive ink traces printed on a pill pack configured to detect a modification to the pill pack, wherein a location of each pill in the pill pack is tagged with a conductive ink trace such that;

removal of each respective pill from the pill pack is detected through the conductive ink trace, and

an opening and a closing of one or more halves of the pill dispenser device that join to form the pill dispenser device is detected through the one or more conductive ink traces to monitor for tampering of the pill dispenser device;

an electronic connection from the trace diagram to circuitry of the pill dispenser device; and

a processor in electronic communication with the circuitry of the pill device and configured to collect pill consumption information about a user, wherein the collected pill consumption information is erasable in response to activation of a trigger, and wherein the trigger includes one or more of a compound, a chemical agent, or an electrical signal.

17. The detection system of claim 16, wherein a connection of the one or more conductive ink traces is severed and a new connection is established after a pill is removed from the pill pack.

18. The detection system of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to measure or sense, via optical sensing or pressure sensing, one of a resistance change in the one or more conductive ink traces to detect whether a pill is removed from the pill pack.

19. The detection system of claim 16, wherein the conductive ink includes one of:

printed on a substrate and the substrate is attached to the pill pack, or printed directly on a backing of the pill pack.

20. The detection system of claim 16, further comprising a tag to track removal of each pill from the pill pack.