A device for dispensing active ingredient-containing or active ingredient-carrying strips, including a housing in which a coil chamber for receiving an active ingredient-containing or active ingredient-carrying band is arranged, in which a gear transmission with a driven roller for conveying the band is mounted, and in which a separating device for separating the strips from the band is arranged. A method for dispensing active ingredient-containing or active ingredient carrying strips using such a device is also disclosed. An active ingredient-containing or active ingredient-carrying band is arranged between the driven roller and the pressure roller. A shift clutch transmission having a manually actuatable trigger element is arranged upstream of the gear transmission. The driven roller can be driven in incremental strips by the shift clutch transmission. A device and method is disclosed for dispensing active ingredient-containing or active ingredient-carrying strips with a largely equal dosage are developed.

A medication dispensing system includes an automated dispensing device that includes cells with electronically activated locks. The device is configured to detect when medication counts in the cells fall below predetermined thresholds. The system further includes a plurality of first electronic devices that are associated with some of the cells and that have imagers. In response to any of the medication counts in the cells being below the predetermined threshold, the automated dispensing device is configured to automatically send a replenishment needed notification to the first electronic device associated with the cell. That first electronic device is configured to transmit a picture of a medication to a second electronic device. In response to a positive verification by a user of the second electronic device that the medication in the picture is the correct medication, the second electronic device is configured to transmit an unlock signal to the automated dispensing device.

A granulated nutritional supplement dispensing machine extracts single-serving doses from a multi-serving supplements cartridge for delivery as a drinkable solution. A lead serving chamber is pierced so that its powered contents drain into a mixing cup together with a metered quantity of water from an integrated water tank. A vibrator unit assists drainage of the granulated materials from the lead serving chamber. The mixing cup is rotated at high speed to blend the water and supplements into a slurry. The supplements cartridge is indexed after (or before) use so that an unopened serving chamber is presented each time for extracting its supplements. This enables partially-used supplements cartridges to be used in the machine, as is conducive in multiple-user households. The supplements cartridge is configured with read-write data capability to indicate whether or not the contents of each serving chamber have been emptied.

Described is a multi-dosage array of tablets comprising one or more active substances, the tablets being coated and void of tablet portioning means so as to avoid contact of the tablet constituents upon handling by a user for the provision of a plurality of different dosages of the one or more active substances to a plurality of patients of different weight who are in need of the said one or more active substances, the dosage being dependent on the weight of the respective patient, the array of tablets comprising three or more tablet groups, each tablet group consisting of identical tablets having unique identification means and a unique dosage of the one or more active substances, the said tablets differing from tablets of another group of the array in at least the dosage of the said two or more active substances and in the identification means. Further described are a multi-dosage tablet array system, a medicament dosage comprising a plurality of the tablets of the multi-dosage array of tablets, a dosage comprising a plurality of the tablets of the multi-dosage tablet array, a method of providing a dosage of one or more active substances tailored to the body weight of a patient and a method of providing a tailored dosage of one or more active substances to the body weight of a patient.

A drug scanning and identification system including a spectrometer, a drug holder, a mobile device and a drug identification model is provided. The spectrometer includes a light source, a diffraction grating, a light-absorption element, a wavelength selector, and a single-point photodetector. The drug holder includes a transparent area and a light-absorption area. The drug is disposed on the transparent area. The light-absorption area surrounds the transparent area. The mobile device is adapted to send a control command to trigger the spectrometer scanning the drug so as to obtain spectrum data of the drug. The spectrometer is adapted to transmit the spectrum data of the drug to the drug identification model. The drug identification model is adapted to identify the spectrum data of the drug such that the drug identification model generates an identification result. The identification result is displayed by the mobile device.

A pill bottle top includes a top and a base engaged with the top and having first ratchet teeth. An indicator slide has a finger pad formed with an inwardly protruding indicator nose and leaf spring arms coupled to the finger pad and disposed intermediate the top and base. The leaf spring arms are formed with second ratchet teeth configured to engage first ratchet teeth on the base. The finger pad can be pressed against the leaf spring arms to disengage the second ratchet teeth from the first ratchet teeth and allow the indicator slide to slide relative to the top with the indicator nose higher than and alignable with time indicia on the top. The finger pad can be released to allow the second ratchet teeth to engage first ratchet teeth under material bias of the leaf spring arms and prevent the indicator slide from sliding.

A storage container for a storage and dispensing station for drugs is provided. The storage container includes a housing surrounding a holding space which housing has a guide section and a bottom surface, the guide section defining a guide space and having a vertical guide recess, which does not penetrate the housing, and the bottom surface having a dispensing opening. The storage container includes a separating device having at least one channel for holding at least one drug portion and comprises a retaining element having a retaining section and having a guide element, which is arranged in the guide recess, the vertical guide recess and the guide element interacting in such a way that the retaining element is arranged for height adjustment in the guide recess by means of the guide element and rotational motion of the retaining means is prevented.

Use of improved image acquisition for a medical dose preparation system. The medical dose preparation system may include a work station for capturing medical dose preparation images (e.g., to document preparation of a mediation dose). The medical dose preparation image may be captured by a video data stream processor capable of performing an auto cropping technique on a video data stream received from an image device.

The present disclosure enables apparatus and methods for tracking medications and/or product units via smart-packaging concepts. Embodiments include sensors that monitor the state of a blister-card package having an unpatterned lidding film by measuring the impedance of each dispensing region of the lidding film that defines a portion of a blister. In some embodiments, the impedance is measured via a plurality of contact points arranged on opposite sides of each dispensing region, where the contact points are resistively or capacitively coupled with the lidding film. In some embodiments, the impedance map of a measurement region on the blister card is derived via electrical impedance tomography or electrical resistance tomography, where the measurement region includes a plurality of dispensing regions.

A point of care device for securely dispensing medication includes an enclosure sized to contain medication containers, a holding element accessible from outside the enclosure to receive medication containers from the enclosure, a dispenser to dispense medication from the enclosure to the holding element, and a securable panel configured to provide access to the enclosure for retrieval or replenishment of the medication containers within the enclosure, and a computing device operable to control the dispenser to dispense medication to the holding element based on various conditions. Specifically, the point of care device can be configured to dispense medication based on detecting that an authorized user is accessing the device, based on a timer in conjunction with known medication regimen, or based on patient or physician demand, or based on biometric information concerning the user.