This invention relates to pill dispensers.
The usage of pills to regain and maintain health has increased with the advancement of medical science. It is not unusual for a person to take more than one type of pill, each type in a different amount, at regular times each day. The task of correctly taking several different types of pills pose a challenge to many individuals, especially the elderly, the mentally infirm, and the obtunded who are more susceptible to memory problems. The improper taking of pills may be detrimental to health, and many emergency hospital admissions are attributable to improper observance of pill prescriptions.
The need for a device that will automatically dispense the proper pill(s) in the proper amount(s) at the proper time(s) each day and alert the user of the device to take the dispensed pill(s) is evident by the numerous devices described in the prior art. However, there are problems with the devices described in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,606 to Lewis et al. (1986), U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,651 to Scidmore et al. (1987), U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,453 to Luckstead (1989), and 5,044,516 to Hoar (1991) describe automatic pill dispensers which have pill-storage wheels that are rotated constantly by electric clock motors. The constantly rotating pill-storage wheels of these devices successively move each pill-storage compartment of the wheel into a temporary alignment with a pill discharge outlet at a cyclical and fixed time interval. When a pill-storage compartment is in alignment with the pill discharge outlet, any pill stored in the compartment will fall by gravity through the outlet into a pill receptacle. The length of the fixed time interval of these devices cannot be changed without changing the gear drive ratio of the gear system driving the pill-storage wheel. Discharging pills at fixed time intervals makes these devices inefficient and difficult to use. For example, if one of these devices constantly rotates three pill-storage compartments past its pill discharge outlet in a 24-hour period, but only one pill is needed each day, then only one pill-storage compartment is used and two are kept empty each 24-hour day. In this case, two out of three pill-storage compartments have no use. In addition, during the process of loading pills into the pill storage wheel, specific compartments must be kept empty; this makes the loading procedure more complicated and susceptible to error.
Another problem with all of these devices is the possibility of an overdose of dispensed pills. This may result when a device dispenses pills into the pill receptacle, but the person taking the dispensed pills for some reason did not respond to the alert signal or just turned off the alert signal without taking the pills. If the dispensed pills are not removed from the pill receptacle and more pills are discharged into the receptacle, overdosing with harmful consequences may occur if the pill taker consumes all of the pills accumulated in the pill receptacle all at once.
Benaroya in U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,403 (1983), and Shaw in U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,285 (1993) attempt to overcome these deficiencies. The devices of Benaroya and Shaw include pill-storage wheels which rotate into position for discharging pills only when the pills are to be dispensed. A pill is not released from Shaw's pill-storage wheel unless a motorized mechanism is actuated to remove the pill, making an accumulation of discharged pills less likely. However, Shaw's device is complicated, difficult to load with pills and use, and uses motors and controls which are neither simple nor economical. Pills to be dispensed by Benoroya's device are not automatically discharged by gravity into a fixed or removable pill receptacle. The pills stay in the pill-storage wheel until the user tilts or turns the device upside down to dump out the pills. While this feature makes overdosing from an accumulation of discharged pills unlikely, the need to manipulate the device by tilting or turning it upside down and catching the pills before they fall on the floor makes its operation ackward and clumsy.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,962 describes a device that can be loaded with appropriate pills and programmed to automatically dispense the proper amount(s) and proper type(s) of pill(s) at the proper time(s) each day. The device includes a system for alerting the pill taker that pills have been dispensed, a system for providing voice messages to coach the pill taker to use the device and consume the pills, and a system for alerting an off-site caregiver when the pill taker has not responded as required or when there is a problem with the operation of the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,449,218 describes an electronic device for holding medicines, typically pills, to be taken at different times and to remind the user to take particular pills at specific times. A first container has a plurality of pill holding compartments, with a hinged lid closing each compartment. A second container, which is releasably fastenable to the first compartment, contains a microprocessor, an alarm, a display and buttons for controlling the microprocessor to display different information. The display can be set to show the time, times for taking pills from different compartments, whether pills have been taken on time, if a pill has been missed or skipped, when the last pill has been taken, etc. When a time set for taking a pill arrives, an alarm, typically a light and/or sound alarm, alerts the user as to the compartment holding the pill to be taken. A pill splitter is further provided that can be releasably fastened to one of the compartments and provides quick, accurate and safe splitting of pills so that halves may be placed in the compartments to be taken as indicated by the alarm system.