1. The MedDispenser Improving Medication Compliance for the Elderly
Group:
Ashley Hammann
Darnita Mims
Connie Saelzler
Annie Suarez
Advisor:
Richard Fries, Datex Ohmeda

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Purpose The MedDispenser will:
Dispense the correct medications at the correct time in the correct dosages
In order to avoid over- dosages, forgetfulness, and drug side effects from incorrectly following pharmacist’s and doctor’s directions

5. E-Pill Med-Time Dispencer
Dispenses medication up to 4 times per day
Lockable and tamperproof
Expensive: $249.00

6. 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: $ $29.95/month

7. E-Pill CompuMed Automatically dispenses up to 4 times / day
Skipped doses accumulate
Expensive: $895.00

8. Automatic Vitamin & Pill Organizer
Holds up to 28 doses
$69.95
Comes with Alarm and the ability to schedule the time
By Sharper Image

9. Pros & Cons Table

10. 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 bi-weekly

11. 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

12. 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

13. Picture of One Level for One Medication

14. QFD Diagram From Customer Surveys

15. QFD Diagram From Health Care Provider Surveys

16. 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 Diagrams for both surveys
Researching patents
Researching competitors

17. Current Work Further research into more concrete design specifications
Build/Draw MedDispenser
Designsafe
Keep trying to get in contact with Mr. Fries

18. Future Work A critique by healthcare providers
An computer prototype of the device
Figure cost for producing the machine
The cost for each individual machine
Flash Presentation of working design

19. Conclusions & Recommendations
Pharmacists would need compensation in order to fill a medicine dispenser
May increase cost of product
Cost of dispenser should be $15 - $20 for consumer
Improvements to be made on design:
Addition of compartments for liquid medications or any other medication not available in a pill form