Boots – shoes – and leggings
Patent
1996-05-06
1998-02-17
Elmore, Reba I.
Boots, shoes, and leggings
364188, 36447902, G06F 1700, G06G 748
Patent
active
057197806
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improved medication timing system to assist in the correct administration of medication to a patient, and an overall medication dispensing system incorporating such device.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
Patient compliance with medication prescribed by physicians is a major problem, with widespread incidence of omission of doses or taking of wrong dosage or taking the dosage at the wrong time. This lack of compliance can lead to serious medical consequences.
There has previously been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,572 a medicament regimen control device which prompts a patient to take the correct medication to a predetermined regimen. A liquid crystal display is used to display the number of doses of up to four medicaments. The medicaments are identified by colour and alphabet indicia provided permanently affixed to the device adjacent the liquid crystal display and which are keyed to specific containers of medication, similarly identified.
As described therein, at every dosage period at which the patient is required to take medication, a harmonious tone or beep is emitted by the device and flashing numbers appear in the LCD screen, corresponding to the number and identity of the medication required to be taken at that time. The numbers continue to flash until turned off by the patient pressing a button on the device or the lapse of a predetermined period, for example, 10 to 15 minutes. There is also described the flashing of the letter "R" at a predetermined interval to warn of the necessity to refill one or more of the prescriptions for the identified drug. To enforce this and other messages (12 or more), the word "REFILL" appears on a rectangular message board at the bottom of the medication display.
This prior art medicament regime control device is somewhat limited in its application to the problem of ensuring patient compliance with a predetermined regimen of medication. The LCD display is capable of providing information relating to four medicaments only, whereas many patients, particularly the elderly, require greater numbers of medications. In addition, the only other function described for the LCD screen in this prior patent is to display the necessity to refill a prescription for a specific medicament. Further, the identification of the individual medicament is by colour-coded alpha characters which are permanently displayed by attachment to a structural element of the device. There remains a need for a more sophisticated medicament regime control device and overall system to ensure patient compliance with a medicament regimen.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the LCD display or other display means mounted with the upper face of a housing is arranged as a plurality of individual displays arranged in a first row of side-by-side displays each adapted to selectively display individual and different alphabetic letters and a second row of side-by-side displays aligned with the individual displays of the first row and each adapted to selectively display individual numerals therein. An electronic circuit means is located within the housing and is operatively connected to the display means for controlling interchangeable and selected messages conveyed by at least one combination of an alphabetic letter in a display in the first row and a numeral in an aligned display in the second row, including a message corresponding to the number of units of medication of selected ones of different medicaments.
In this aspect of the present invention, therefore, both the identity and dosage of the medication are selectively displayed in the LCDs, thereby avoiding any misreading of the identity of the medicament, which may be the case with the permanently-displayed indicia identifying the medicaments in the prior art device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,572.
In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, the LCD display or other display means associated with the upper face of a housing has a plurality of individ
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Holmes Gordon W.
Moe Orville D.
Elmore Reba I.
Marc McDieunel
Medi Innovations Inc.
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