Patent Grant
8627639
1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to methods and systems for filling medication containers and, in particular, to a method of determining an order of filling a multi-dose medicament container for a plurality of prescriptions, nutraceuticals, vitamins, over-the-counter medications, etc.
2. Background Description
Traditional methods of packaging, for example, prescription medicaments include dispensing an entire single prescription's worth of pills into a single medicament container affixed with a label displaying (among other data) patient identification, pill identification, dosage, and ingestion instructions. If a patient needs to take multiple medications, a single, filled medicament container is typically issued for each prescription. Furthermore, if a patient is required to take the multiple medications at different times of the day and/or night, the patient must have all of the single, filled medicament containers readily available, and the patient must remember when, which and how many pills he or she needs to take. Thus, traditional methods of packaging multiple prescription medicaments result in inconvenience to the patient as entire sets of single, filled medicament containers must be brought along. Other undesirable effects of traditional packaging methods include difficulty for the patient in remembering the time, the type, and the number of pills to take. These types of problems may lead to a patient failing to take a medicine at the appropriate time or taking too much medicine within a short period of time, which may cause adverse affects to the patient's health.
Recent advances in prescription packaging have attempted to mitigate these problems. For instance, a multi-dose blister pack may be used to fill a plurality of prescriptions for a patient. Examples of multi-dose blister packs may be found in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/947,169 entitled “Nested Multi-Dose Blister Pack,” the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference. A machine and process for filling multi-dose blister packs may be found in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/940,790 entitled “Multi-Dose Filling Machine and Process,” the entire disclosure of which is also incorporated by reference.
Multi-dose blister packs may contain a plurality of individual blister cells, each of which may hold one or more pills of different medications prescribed for a patient. One multi-dose blister pack, for instance, may include a label “morning,” so that each individual blister cell on the “morning” pack may contain the complete set of pills from a patient's multiple prescriptions that are to be ingested in the morning. Of course, the multi-dose blister pack may also include other labels related to information other than the dosage regime. The patient may also receive additional filled, multi-dose blister packs that have individual blister cells, some or each containing the correct multiple medications to be ingested at “noon” and “night.” Alternatively, blister packs may be filled to a different level of granularity. For example, a single multi-dose blister pack may have rows labeled “morning,” “noon,” and “night” and have columns labeled with the day of the week. So, on Tuesday night, the patient would ingest the correct set of pills from his or her multiple prescriptions by taking the pills from the individual blister cell located at the intersection of the “night” row and the “Tuesday” column. Other fill patterns of multi-blister packs are also possible.
Multi-dose blister packs may be perforated into individual, easily-portable blister cells. In some embodiments, the blister cells on a single multi-dose blister pack may be similarly sized. Alternatively, some of the blister cells on a certain blister pack may be sized differently to accommodate a different number or volume of pills, for example. Each blister cell may be labeled on the back with the different medications contained within the blister cell, and may also list patient information, time/day/date information for ingestion, and the like. A patient may separate out from the pack the specific blister cells that he or she will need during a specific time period, and thus does not need to carry multiple large single filled medicament containers for each of his/her multiple prescriptions. The patient is not required to sort out the dosages of multiple medications for a particular dosage regime. Additionally, the labeling on the blister packs may aid the patient in keeping track of whether medications have been taken.
Another example of an advance in prescription packaging is an individual medicament pouch or packet. Examples of individual medicament pouch/packets may be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/741,539 entitled “Serially Connected Packets with Grasping Portion” and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/741,542 entitled “Serially Connected Packets with End Indicator.” The total combination of medications that are prescribed to be ingested at a same time may be filled into an individual medicament pouch or packet. A label may be affixed or printed directly onto the pouch that displays the time/day/date for ingestion, patient information, and medicaments contained inside the pouch. Thus, a patient need only port along the pouches that s/he will need during a specific time period. The patient need not determine what combination of pills needs to be taken at various times, as the individual filled pouches provide the groupings. The time/day/date label assists the patient in remembering whether or not the medicaments have been ingested or not.
Thus, a “multi-dose medicament container,” as used herein, is a receptacle that holds a set of medications, over-the-counter pills, vitamins, or nutraceuticals corresponding to multiple prescriptions or non-prescription dosages of a patient, usually (but not necessarily) on a per-ingestion time basis. A multi-dose medicament container may have a single receptacle, such as a traditional prescription container or a pouch. A multi-dose medicament container may have multiple receptacles, such as a blister pack. Other types of multi-dose medicament containers may be possible. A “dosage regime,” as used herein, may refer to time of ingestion for example and is a general time reference for ingestion of the medication rather than an exact time on a clock. For instance, a dosage regime may be with an evening meal, before or after a meal, every other day, and the like. Further, the dosage regime may specify or restrict ingestion according to prescription directions or medication directions (e.g., for nutraceuticals and OTCs).
Filling the multi-dose blister packs, pouches, and other multi-dose medicament container configurations may be done manually or automatically. A “fill pattern,” as used herein, is defined as a mapping of pills from one or more prescriptions of a patient into one or more receptacles of one or more multi-dose medicament containers. Fill patterns may be complex. For example, in the case of a blister pack, if Prescription A is required to be ingested once a day, and Prescription B is required to be ingested twice a day, the fill pattern may perform the appropriate mapping so that each labeled blister cell of the blister pack contains the appropriate combination of pills. A “morning” blister cell may be mapped to contain two pills, one of Prescription A and one of Prescription B. An “evening” blister cell may be mapped to contain only one of Prescription B's pills.
A pattern of filling a multi-dose container for one or more medications may be determined in view of such factors as the cubic volume of an individual pill, the prescribed or suggested dosage regime of each medication, the number of times a particular medication is to be ingested, etc. However, filling a multi-dose container such as a blister pack according to a determined pattern may not always produce the desired result due to the differences in volume, shape, and weight of the medication pills. For example, depositing a relatively small pill into a blister cell prior to depositing a relatively large pill into the same cell may result in an inefficient configuration of the pills in the cell. In particular, the larger pill may not fit into the cell, or may prevent another pill from fitting into the cell.
Moreover, filling a multi-dose blister pack may require complex manipulations of single-medication blisters or other sources. For example, a patient may be prescribed five types of medication to be ingested over the course of one or more weeks. The five types of medication may be available as pills in the form of capsules, tablets, etc., and may be packaged in single-medication blister cells or other types of containers. Preferably, a single weekly multi-dose blister pack can include all five prescribed medications which may be distributed among the cells of the blister pack according to a particular fill pattern. However, a single blister pack may not always accommodate all prescribed pills. The fill pattern may accordingly require multiple multi-dose blister packs. For example, a patient may have multiple “morning” blister packs and may need to open multiple individual blisters, one in each blister pack, at a particular time of day to retrieve all of the required medication, or may require an additional weekly card. Moreover, some of the pills of the same type may need to be distributed into multiple blisters. For example, the patient may be prescribed two dosages of a certain medication four times a day, and the medication may be available as a large pill. A system for determining a fill pattern (or a pharmacist) may determine that only one of the two pills can fit into an individual blister cell and, as a result, decide to place each of the two pills into separate blister packs. Thus, a filling unit or a pharmacist may retrieve medication from multiple sources at different stages of filling one or multi-blister packs. Depending on the order in which the system or pharmacist retrieves medication, each of the source containers may be accessed once or multiple times. In other words, the order of fill will frequently have direct impact on a number of operations performed while filling a prescription and, therefore, on the overall efficiency of prescription filling.
A method for determining an efficient order of filling a set of containers with medication, vitamin, or nutraceutical pills includes comparing one or more attributes of each pill and placing the pills into the set of containers based on the one or more compared attributes. In one aspect, a rule for generating an order of fill may be based on one or several attributes such as, for example, pill size, pill shape, pill color, pill compatibility, etc. In some embodiments, the method includes obtaining a cubic volume of each pill, obtaining a fill pattern mapping each pill to a corresponding container within the set, and sorting the pills by cubic volume to generate a fill order for the set of containers. In one aspect, each container is a cell of a multi-dose blister pack designed to hold multiple types of medication prescribed to or otherwise associated with a particular patient for a certain period of time. In general, a “multi-dose medicament container” as used herein may be an individually sealed receptacle that holds a set of medication pills corresponding to multiple prescriptions or non-prescribed dosages of a patient, usually (but not necessarily) on a per-ingestion time basis. Accordingly, a multi-dose blister pack may include multiple multi-dose medicament containers or “cells,” so that a patient may open a single cell of a multi-dose blister pack at a particular time and ingest one or more medications stored in the cell. The cells of a multi-dose blister pack may be of an equal size or, according to other possible embodiments, some or all of the cells may differ according to, for example, an amount of medication to be deposited.
In an embodiment, the pills in a particular set are ordered in a descending order of cubic volume, so that the largest pill in the set is placed into a corresponding container first. In some embodiments, all pills in the generated order of fill are associated with a single set. In other embodiments, the generated order of fill includes multiple sets, each set sorted in the ascending order of cubic volume and corresponding to a particular multi-dose blister pack.
In another aspect, an individual pill may be described as a geometric solid such as a sphere, an ellipsoid with two or more unequal radii, a cylinder, or another shape common to prescription, over-the-counter, or vitamin pills, this solid having correspondence to the volume of the pill. In some of the embodiments which involve size-based ordering, the cubic volume of a pill is determined by multiplying the length, width, and height of a cuboid into which the pill may be inscribed. In some of the applications of the possible embodiments, the pills associated with different medications have different shapes. Additionally or alternatively, a medication having the same chemical composition may be provided in multiple shapes and/or sizes to facilitate allocating proper dosage for each prescribed or non-prescribed dosage regime with appropriate authorization. In some embodiments, the information pertaining to the cubic volume of each pill is stored in a database. In one such embodiment, the database may additionally store fill pattern information for one or more patients and blister size information for one or more blister pack configurations.
In some possible embodiments, the fill pattern specifies pill-to-cell mapping as well as pill-to-blister-pack mapping if the medication associated with a particular dosage regime does not fit into a single cell. A fill pattern consistent with this embodiment includes information regarding the number of blister packs required to package the necessary medication for a patient. In this sense, the fill pattern is explicit. In another embodiment, a fill pattern specifies the mapping of one or more pills to a blister cell which may not always accommodate all of the pills mapped to the cell. In this case, the method for generating an order of fill additionally may include the act of calculating a number of required multi-dose blister packs.
In accordance with some embodiments, a computer executes a software routine to generate a fill order based on the fill pattern and, in at least one embodiment, pill size information and communicates the generated order to an automated filling entity or to a human operator. In some embodiments, the computer may apply one or more rules to the pill information, each rule related to an aspect of generating an order of fill based on at least one pill attribute. The computer may be physically located at a pharmacy store-front, mail-order location or otherwise in physical proximity to a filling entity. Alternatively, the computer may be at another physical location or co-located with a web server so that communication with the filling entity is performed over a network. In another embodiment, a distributed system including one or more computing hosts such as operator workstations connected via an internet, an intranet, or any other type of a network may determine orders for fill for multiple patients. The computer may output the generated order on a monitor, send the order to a workstation via a network, or direct the order to a peripheral device such as a printer or a fax machine. In accordance with these embodiments, a human operator such as a pharmacist refers to the generated order during a manual process of filling one or more multi-dose blister packs. Alternatively, the operator may use a multi-dose filling machine capable of simultaneously depositing multiple pills from a single-medication blister pack into the corresponding cells of a multi-dose blister pack. In some embodiments, an operator may deposit source blisters into the machine according to the generated fill order.
In other embodiments, the method includes automatically placing the pills into containers according to the fill pattern and to the result of sorting. In particular, the method may employ an automated filling unit including a robotic arm working in co-operation with a conveyor belt. An intelligent host such as a computer may generate an order of fill based on the fill pattern and on the sizes of pills included in the fill pattern and communicate the order to the filling unit. Alternatively, the automated filling unit may include a processor, a memory, and a communications unit for retrieving fill patterns and/or pill size information from a database. Of course, these embodiments may not be advantageous in all situations because of a relatively high cost of robotic or otherwise fully automated approach.
In another aspect, the generated order of fill may correspond to a set of medication pills mapped to multiple multi-dose blister packs. In some embodiments, a separate order of fill is generated for each multi-dose blister pack to reduce a number of times a multi-dose blister pack is switched during a filling operation. In some embodiments particularly applicable to “time-of-day” blister packs (i.e., a blister pack corresponding to one particular time of day such as morning, with each cell corresponding to an individual day, week, etc.), the method includes iteratively stepping through each time of day, calculating a number of blister packs required, and sorting the pills associated with the time of day based on the cubic volume of each pill. In those embodiments that additionally include an act of placing the pills, the method includes, for each sorted list, iteratively stepping through the list and distributing one pill at a time to an appropriate blister cell of an appropriate blister card.
In another aspect, a method for determining an order of fill system may additionally generate an order of fill for an intermediate filling unit. In some embodiments, a storage unit such as a tote may include one or more of the intermediate filling units. In particular, the method may specify the order of filling an intermediate filling unit as a reverse order of filling the medicament containers. A filling unit or an operator may initially fill the intermediate filling unit according to the reverse order of fill and subsequently retrieve the pills from the intermediate filling unit in an opposite order. Thus, in one embodiment, the pills may be deposited into the intermediate filling unit in the descending order of cubic volume. In an alternative embodiment, the pills are deposited into the intermediate filling unit in the direct, or ascending, order of cubic volume. In some embodiments, the pills are deposited into and retrieved from the intermediate filling unit in single-medication blister packs.
Although the following text sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legal scope of the description is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent and equivalents. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment since describing every possible embodiment would be impractical. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.
It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined in this patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘—————_’ is hereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intent to limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication, beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not be interpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in any section of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To the extent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent is referred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning, that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader, and it is not intended that such claim term be limited, by implication or otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element is defined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recital of any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim element be interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph.
Multi-dose medicament containers may be available in different types. For instance, a multi-dose blister pack may be one type of multi-dose medicament container used to fill a plurality of prescriptions or non-prescription pills for a patient. Examples of multi-dose blister packs may be found, for instance, in aforementioned U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/947,169 entitled “Nested Multi-Dose Blister Pack.” A medicament packet or pouch may be another type of multi-dose medicament container used to hold the set of pills to be ingested at a same time as prescribed by the patient's multiple prescriptions. Examples of individual packets/pouches may be found, for instance, in aforementioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/741,539 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/741,542. The disclosure of the present application may operate in accordance with these and other types of multi-dose medicament containers.
In the disclosed embodiment, the cover 14 includes an inside surface 18 carrying a prescription label 20 and a product information/storage device 22. The prescription label 20 may include, for example, patient and/or prescription information, card number, order number. In an embodiment, this information may be related to the patient's course of treatment, a dosage amount, a frequency of dosage, side effect and overdose warnings, drug indications and interactions, benefits, and other information related to the drug and/or the course of treatment. Meanwhile, the product information identification/storage device 22 may include a product identification number, serial number, order number, etc. The product information identification or storage device 22 may include, for example, a bar code, a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, or any other type of an electronic or textual identification. In general, the product information identification 22 may store a product number, a serial number, a store number, or information related to the course of treatment. It will be further appreciated that relevant information may be distributed between the prescription label 20 and the product information identification 22 in any desired manner, possibly including redundancy (i.e., duplication). Moreover, if desired, all of the relevant information may be stored in the product information identification 22, for example. Additionally, the depicted embodiment of the package 10 may include a timer 24 such as an electronic timer for signaling to a patient, for example, when to take his/her medication. In an embodiment, the timer 24 may shut off automatically to indicate compliance with the corresponding dosage regime. The timer 24 is depicted in phantom in
The multi-dose blister pack 12 of the package 10 depicted in
Accordingly, the multi-dose blister pack 12 of
Additionally, in the embodiment depicted in
With continued reference to
Additionally, as depicted in
However, an alternative embodiment of the package 10 may include a customized multi-dose blister pack 12 for each patient. For example, for a patient receiving a 7-day prescription that begins on Tuesday, for example, the indicia 42 on the multi-dose blister pack 12 may be printed specifically for that prescription. Thus, each cell 38 in the first row, which is identified by reference numeral 30a in
Methods and systems for filling multi-dose medicament containers are also known in the art. Aforementioned U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/940,790 entitled “Multi-Dose Filling Machine and Process” discloses a system, or filling entity, for filling a multi-dose blister pack by using a press and one or more transfer fixtures. Said system uses intermediate cards containing single doses of prescribed medications to transfer pills into multi-dose blister packs. Other filling entities and methods for medicament pouches and other types of multi-dose medicament containers are also known in the art. A filling entity may be a mechanical system that is entirely automated by a computer network, it may be an entirely manual system with one or more human beings performing the filling of the prescriptions, or it may be some combination of automated and manual. The disclosure of the present application may also operate in accordance with these and other systems, entities, and methods for filling multi-dose medicament containers.
Pill data 115 may contain facts about pills that are available to be prescribed. The pill data 115 may include pill identification information, such as trade name, generic name, chemical composition, dosage units, and the like. The pill data 115 may also contain physical attributes, such as length, width, height, diameter, weight, form (such as tablet, gel, chewable) and the like. Container data 120 may contain facts about the containers, such as but not limited to: type, dimensions, volume, material from which it is made, whether or not there are multiple receptacles in the container and if so, how many and what size, etc. Pill data 115 and container data 120 may be obtained by the computer 102 through a download, data transfer, or other such mechanism. Alternatively, the computer 102 may request or read the storage device 110 to obtain only the specific pill data 115 and container data 120 that it needs to fill a specific set of prescriptions.
Additionally, pill data 115 may include derived attributes such as a cubic volume of some or all available pills. In one contemplated embodiment, the computer 102 or another component of the system 100 may calculate the cubic volume of a particular pill by multiplying the length, width, and height attributes of the pill. This method of calculating volume may apply to a pill shaped substantially like an ellipsoid, sphere, elongated cylinder, etc. It will be appreciated that the system 100 may also selectively use other methods of approximating the cubic volume of a pill. For example, the system 100 may check the one or more attributes indicative of the shape of the pill and, if the pill is a cylinder or a cylinder having rounded ends, calculate the cubic volume by multiplying the height of the cylinder by the cross-sectional circular or elliptical area. One of ordinary skill in the art will further appreciate that other methods of estimating the volume are also possible, including those yielding the relatively precise volume of each pill by applying relatively complex formulas or algorithms. Moreover, the system 102 may receive the derived attributes included in the pill data 115 from a pharmacist or pharmacy technician via a pharmacy computer, for example. In yet another contemplated embodiment, an automated Vision system (e.g., a robotic system capable of recognizing shapes, reading barcodes, or both) may supply some or all of the pill attributes to populate or supplement the pill data 115.
The computer 102 may include a processor 105 (may be called a microcontroller or a microprocessor) for executing computer executable instructions, a program memory 122 for permanently storing data related to the computer executable instructions, a random-access memory (RAM) 125 for temporarily storing data related to the computer executable instructions, and an input/output (I/O) circuit 130, all of which may be interconnected via an address/data bus 132. It should be appreciated that although only one processor 105 is shown, the computer 102 may include multiple processors 105. Similarly, the memory of the computer 102 may include multiple RAMs 125 and multiple program memories 122. Although the I/O circuit 130 is shown as a single block, it should be appreciated that the I/O circuit 130 may include a number of different types of I/O circuits. The RAM(s) 125 and program memories 122 may be implemented as semiconductor memories, magnetically readable memories, and/or optically readable memories, for example. The computer 102 may also be operatively connected to a network 135 via a link 140. Similar to link 112, the form of link 140 may take any form known in the art of networking.
As indicated above, pill data 115 may include derived attributes such as a cubic volume of some or all available pill types and, in at least one contemplated embodiment, the computer 102 or another component of the system 100 may calculate the cubic volume and/or other attributes of a particular pill. Alternatively, an operator may manually populate some or all of the derived attributes.
The computer 102 may receive prescription information 142 over a link 145. Link 145 may be the same entity as network link 140 or database link 112, or it may be a separate entity. Link 145 may be an operator/user interface, or it may be a local or remote network connection to a server, website, other computer, or a different database. The computer 102 may receive prescription information 142 from a plurality of sources, for example, when a single computer 102 receives prescription information 142 from multiple medical entities such as doctors' offices, hospitals, and the like. In this case, multiple links 145 are possible.
The computer 102 may also be operatively connected to a filling entity 150 via a link 152 for communicating fill patterns. Filling entity 150 may dispense medications according to the fill pattern received from computer 102 so that the prescription(s) are filled into one or more multi-dose medicament containers. As discussed in greater detail below, a fill pattern may specify, for example, pill-to-cell mapping (i.e., a mapping between each pill and a particular cell or blister of a multi-dose blister pack 12). In other embodiments, the fill pattern may only specify pill-to-blister-pack mapping. Filling entities 150 may be automatic processes or systems, they may be manual, or some combination of the two. Multiple links 152 to multiple filling entities 150 may be possible, for instance, if separate filling entities exist for different types of medicament containers, or if a single computer 102 determines fill patterns for multiple pharmacy storefronts, each with its own filling entity 150. Link 152 may be the same link as links 112, 140 or 145, or it may be a separate link. Link 152 may also be a local connection or a remote connection through network 135.
In an embodiment, the computer 102 may take the form of a server computer, as commonly known in the networking art. For instance, if computer 102 is a website server, a medical professional may access the website hosted by computer 102 from their own local office computer 205 in order to enter a patient's prescription information for filling.
The computer 102 may communicate via network 202 to other entities. The computer 102 may receive prescription information via network 202 from an office computer 205 or pharmacy computers 207. Office computers may be located in doctors' offices, hospitals, or other medical facilities. Pharmacy computers may be located in a pharmacy storefront, hospitals, a distribution center such as for a mail-order pharmacy or other facilities that dispense medication. The computer 102 may access a database or storage entity 110 via network 202 to obtain pill data and container information, and communicate desired fill patterns to filling entity 150 via network 202.
Although only one computer 102, office computer 205, pharmacy computer 207, storage entity 110 and filling entity 150 are illustrated in
In operation, the system 100 may determine or receive a fill pattern for a multi-dose medicament container such as a multi-dose blister pack. In particular, the system 100 may refer to prescription information 142, pill data 115, container data 120, etc. to generate a mapping of prescribed pills to the individual cells of one or more multi-dose blister packs. The computer 102 may store the generated fill pattern in a temporary memory location in the RAM 125 or in the storage entity 110. Although the system 100 may also communicate the fill pattern to a pharmacist via the office computer 205 without storing the fill data within the system 100, the computer 102 preferably retains the generated fill pattern in the RAM 125 for at least the duration of a procedure generating the order of fill. Alternatively, the system 100 may receive a fill pattern from a pharmacist using the pharmacy computer 207 or from another system or entity via the network 202. With respect to the procedure responsible for generating the order of fill, it will be noted that this procedure may apply one or more rules based on, for example, pill size, pill shape, pill compatibility (i.e., potential interaction if placed in the same container), etc. Further, the rules may be based on a single attribute or may include compound conditions based on several attributes (e.g., size and shape). Although the examples below illustrate the techniques for generating an order of fill based on pill size and, more specifically, on pill cubic volume, the system 100 may similarly apply other rules based on other attributes. Of course, these rules may apply to generating a fill pattern, generating an order of fill, or both.
As discussed above, a fill pattern for a certain patient may specify a mapping of medication pills to cells of one or more multi-cell blister packs. In some embodiments, a fill pattern may include precise mapping of each pill to a particular cell of a particular multi-cell blister pack. In other embodiments, a fill pattern may include only pill-to-cell mapping but not pill-to-pack mapping. For example, a patient may have a long-term prescription for two daily dosages of each of the medications A, B, and C, and for a single daily dosage of each of the medications D and E. A precise fill pattern associated with pill-to-cell mapping of a multi-pill prescription to several time-of-day multi-dose blister packs may include the following information:
Of course, a fill pattern could similarly specify mapping to another type of a blister pack such as one or several weekly multi-dose blister packs 12 illustrated in
Alternatively, an optimized fill pattern corresponding to the same set of prescriptions may map the five prescribed medications in such a way as to reduce the number of required multi-dose blister packs:
In this example, the system 100 or an external device or operator generating the fill pattern may place the pill corresponding to the medication E into the night pack instead of the default morning pack as long as ingesting the medication E at night is in compliance with the corresponding prescription directions. As in the example utilizing two morning packs and one night pack, each cell may hold one pill of each of the types A-D, and a cell of a similar night-time pack may hold one pill of each of the types A-C and E.
In another embodiment, the fill pattern may indicate only the mapping of the pills to the blister packs without specifying the individual cells or the number of required blister packs:
In this sense, this type of fill pattern may correspond to a higher level of logic, i.e., to pill-to-card mapping rather than to pill-to-cell mapping. To fill the prescriptions A-E in accordance with this pattern, the filling entity 150 may determine the number of required blister packs in the course of placing pills into the blister pack cells. In other words, the fill pattern need not necessarily specify the precise pill mapping and, more generally, may contain a higher or lower level of detail depending on the embodiment.
Referring to
In the example illustrated in
With continued reference to
In this example arrangement, the filling entity 150 first deposits the largest pill 305 into the initially empty container 302. In other words, the filling entity 150 may execute a rule which requires, subject to one or more possible exceptions, placing larger pills into a container prior to placing smaller pills into the container. As discussed in a cited related application, the filling entity 150 may optionally shake or tilt the container 302 to ensure that the pill 305 resides in the container 302 in an optimal manner. In particular, a shaking motion may ensure (or, at least, increase the probability) that the largest dimension 322 of the pill 305 is aligned with the floor of the container 302. Of course, the floor of the container 302 may also be concave or otherwise non-linear, in which case the filling entity 150 may shake the container 302 to ensure that the pill 305 resides in a most stable configuration. Next, the filling entity 150 may deposit the second largest pill 310 into the container 302. The filling entity 150 may similarly shake or tilt the container 302 to minimize the space occupied by the pills 305 and 310 and to achieve the most stable configuration of the pills 305 and 310 prior to adding the final pill 315 to the container 302. Finally, the filling entity 150 places the pill 315 into the container 302 and, optionally, shakes the container 302.
Thus, as illustrated in
Generally in regard to a set of pills mapped to a container, the computer 102 or another component of the system 100 may sort the set of pills according to the cubic volume of each pill to obtain an ordered list. The computer 102 may receive a fill pattern for a certain patient, retrieve all or relevant parts of the pill data 115 from the storage entity 110 to obtain a cubic volume for each of the relevant pill types, and organize the cubic volumes values in an ascending or descending order. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the computer 102 may apply any of the well known sorting techniques to efficiently arrive at an organized list. Further, it will be appreciated that the organized list may be stored as an array, linked list, or any other suitable data structure. In accordance with one possible embodiment, each element of the list may be a substantially unique identifier of each pill type. The identifiers may be efficiently stored in the RAM 125 as small integers, for example. In another embodiment, the system 100 may physically sort the set of pills using a robotic arm or other automation means.
It is additionally contemplated that a single fill pattern may correspond to multiple sorted lists, especially if the fill pattern is complex and involves multiple cards. Referring to an example configuration 350 illustrated in
To this end, the computer 102 may generate separate fill orders for the container 352 and 354. In particular, the fill order may specify that the container 352 of the blister pack 360 must receive the pill 305 followed by the pill 310 (i.e., in a descending order of cubic volume of the pills 305 and 310). Another fill order may specify that the container 354 must receive the pill 305 followed by the pill 310 followed by the pill 315. The filling entity 150 or an operator may completely fill the cell 352 prior to filling the cell 354. Alternatively, the filling entity 150 may deposit each of the two pills 305 into the cells 352 and 354, then deposit each of the two pills 310 into the cells 352 and 354, and finally deposit the pill 315 into the cell 354. Thus, in the example configuration 350, the fill order may include either two lists, each organized in the ascending order by cubic volume, or a single list for both cells 352 and 354. Of course, the filling entity 150 may need to switch the target blister packs 360 and 362 several times when filling the prescriptions according to a single fill order.
To further illustrate the concepts discussed above,
In the case illustrated in
Referring back to
Generally with respect to
The procedure 500 may begin to loop through the fill pattern or the set of medication pills for a specific time of day (block 504). Of course, the procedure 500 may alternatively loop through the fill pattern for a particular week, month, or other parameter. Next, the procedure 500 may sort the prescriptions associated with the particular time of day (block 506) upon obtaining the cubic volume for each relevant pill (block 508). In some embodiments, the procedure 500 may retrieve the cubic volume information from storage 110. In other embodiments, the procedure 500 may derive the cubic volume for each pill from other attributes stored as part of pill data 115.
Specifically with respect to the block 506, the procedure 500 may apply a number of known algorithms to the cubic volume information of a set of pills. For example, the procedure 500 may store each cubic volume value, along with a pill type identifier, as an element in a linked list. The procedure 500 may then re-arrange the linked list as a binary tree, for example, to efficiently arrive at an ordered list. The ordered list may have an ascending or descending order. As discussed above with respect to
Next, the procedure may begin stepping through the sorted list and iteratively depositing the pills into the appropriate containers (block 510). In some contemplated embodiments, the computer 102 may execute the blocks 502-508 of the procedure 500 and communicate the generated list to a human operator or to the filling entity 150, which may be fully automated, partially automated, or manually operated. In another possible embodiment, the computer 102 may execute the blocks 502-508, remotely control the filling entity 150 which may execute the blocks 510-514, and return to the block 504 for another one or more iterations through the blocks 504-508. It will be appreciated that the computer 102 may execute only part of the procedure 500 to produce one or more lists corresponding to efficient orders of fill. The procedure 500 may then communicate the one or more generated lists to the operator or to another entity.
The filling entity 150 may place the pills directly into the containers or into an intermediate filling unit according to the list obtained in the block 506. More specifically, the filling entity 150 may retrieve an individual pill in the order specified by the sorted list (block 510). Next, the procedure 500 may check whether all pills have been distributed (block 512) and, if the list is not empty, place the individual pill into the appropriate cell of the appropriate card. In particular, the procedure 500 may refer to the fill pattern specifying the mapping of the pills to the cells of one or more blister packs. In some embodiments, the filling entity 150 may deposit pills in parallel into several blister packs associated with several patients. In other words, the filling entity 150 may not always complete filling a certain blister pack prior to switching to another blister pack. If a certain pill is associated with several prescriptions, for example, the filling entity 150 may place the pill into each corresponding blister pack prior to handling another type or size of a pill.
Finally, the procedure 500 may return to the block 510 for the next iteration through the sorted list. If, however, the procedure 500 determines in the block 512 that all pills have been distributed, the control may return to the block 504, where the procedure 500 may transition to the next time of day associated with the prescription or, in other embodiments, to the next prescription associated with the time of day, for example. For example, the procedure 500 may transition to daytime medications after completing the ordering and/or distribution of pills associated with the morning or breakfast time.
It will be noted that while
Although the forgoing text sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the scope of the patent is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment because describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.
Thus, many modifications and variations may be made in the techniques and structures described and illustrated herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present claims. Accordingly, it should be understood that the methods and apparatus described herein are illustrative only and are not limiting upon the scope of the claims.
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