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You know I'll be actually surprised if that isn't a product, because that seems "As seen on TV" level amount of effort. Have some hopper with 7 compartments, pu
by tomatotomato37 6y ago
You know I'll be actually surprised if that isn't a product, because that seems "As seen on TV" level amount of effort. Have some hopper with 7 compartments, put a disk with a hole underneath it, and hook it to some 3 cent digital clock module such that spins it around 50 degrees or so everytime it rolls over. Build the whole thing out of plastic, throw it at some factory in China, and before you know it you'll be selling in every walmart in middle America.
- Retric 6y agoPlenty of devices have little bins you fill, some then automatically open those bins on the correct days. However, pills are of wildly different shapes and sizes, which invalidates most of the seemingly obvious sorting solutions. Prescriptions can also call for multiple pills in the same day.
- tfigment 6y agoVery much this. Last time my dad visited he had 4 pill boxes: 7am,10am,2pm,6pm. We had to color code so he knew which ones at which hour. They had to be portable, at least 10 and 2 did. He had slight dementia so he would get confused about colors and sometimes the day. Even worse was trying to decipher the instructions for each medicine to refill the boxes especially after some would change doses after initial couple of weeks. Really hard to automate that correctly even if you had a sorting machine.
- mjevans 6y agoIt's really sad, but the automation for this is a pharmacy that creates custom plastic sealed single-dosing packets. Some people, most older people, are on THAT many meds and just need to take the next one off the roll.
- Broken_Hippo 6y agoI've seen this for a nursing home in Norway. I'm not sure if folks get this at home or not. I'd guess that some that get a home nurse at least once a day gets them. And honestly, they would usually seem to be a good solution. I think the main weakness is that for a few folks, medicine changes would be difficult because they often are mid-week or mid-month and for some, they would really need their medicines re-packaged. I'm not sure this is as big of a problem in nursing homes and whatnot because the nurse is dispensing the meds, while some folks at home have bad memories or the beginnings of undiagnosed dementia and just won't remember.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Simon_says 6y agoThat's what all pharmacies in South Korea do.
- WWWWH 6y agoThis and how stable are the active ingredients to oxygen? Are they stored under inert gas in the blister pack?
- taneq 6y agoSounds great until someone loads it wrong it doesn’t set the date correctly or something, gets the wrong dosage, and dies. The risk seems too high for the potential reward.
- distances 6y agoI'm no market expert, but wouldn't a pill dispenser be a very niche product? Most people aren't on any medication and thus won't need one, at least until reaching old age. Though the number of old folks is getting larger, so maybe that's a market by itself.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoBasically every person over 70 takes some pills in the West. I know for a fact that my parents and my wife's parents would all love this. My mother was a nurse, so she handles it better than most, but she still spends an hour a week on it.