The MedDispenser
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Transcript The MedDispenser
The MedDispenser
Improving Medication Compliance for the
Elderly
Group:
Ashley Hammann
Darnita Mims
Connie Saelzler
Annie Suarez
Advisor:
Richard Fries, Datex Ohmeda
The Elderly and Medication
Regime Adherence
When a patient is asked to take a
medication 3 or more times a day, less
than 50% of patients can comply with
those instructions.
The more medications added to a patient’s
therapy, the lower the chance of a patient
taking all the medications correctly.
Need for a Device
In order to improve the efficacy of
medication regimes, medication must be
taken:
At the correct times
In the correct dosages
According to pharmacist advice
Therefore, a medication dispenser with the
ability to ensure medication is taken
correctly is needed.
Purpose
The MedDispenser will:
Dispense the correct
medications at the
correct time in the
correct dosages
In order to avoid overdosages, forgetfulness,
and drug side effects
from incorrectly following
pharmacist’s and
doctor’s directions
Proposed Design
Each medication will be distributed into
separate slots of a container
The prescription definition will be saved
in the device’s memory
The correct medication and dosage will
be dispensed at the correct time
Each prescription type will be allotted a
separate level in the tower
E-Pill Med-Time Dispencer
Dispenses
medication up to 4
times per day
Lockable and
tamperproof
Expensive: $249.00
E-Pill MD.2
Dispenses medicine
up to 6 times per day
Calls the caregiver
automatically if meds
are low or not taken
Not Portable
Expensive: $799.00
+ $29.95/month
E-Pill CompuMed
Automatically
dispenses up to 4
times / day
Skipped doses
accumulate
Expensive: $895.00
Automatic Vitamin & Pill
Organizer
Holds up to 28 doses
$69.95
Comes with Alarm
and the ability to
schedule the time
By Sharper Image
Pros & Cons Table
Disadvantages of Present
Medicine Dispensers
Expensive
Not able to accommodate a month’s
worth of multiple daily doses
Some not portable
Skipped doses accumulate
Have to be refilled daily, weekly or biweekly
Current Patents
Currently there are many patents out for
an automatic medicine dispenser dating
as far as back as 1977
Our design would be different enough
not to infringe on an existing patents
Examples
QFD Diagram
Past Work
Creation and distribution of a Potential Customer
Survey
Creation and distribution of a Health Care
Provider Survey
Meeting with Philip E. Johnston, Pharm. D. at
the Department of Pharmaceutical Services at
VUH
Collection of both surveys
QFD Diagram
Compilation of health care and patient survey
Innovation workbench
Current Work
Further research into more concrete design
specifications
Researching patents
Researching competitors
Design specifications defined
Build/Draw MedDispenser
Designsafe
Keep trying to get in contact with Mr. Fries
Future Work
Computer model including user interface
A critique by healthcare providers
An actual prototype of the device
Figure cost for producing the machine
The cost for each individual machine