School Project- Pill dispenser

Replies

By Greebo

Re: School Project- Pill dispenser
Wed 17 Sep 2008 04:43

Hello Lisa,
You need to think about what sort of person is using it.

A blind person who just needs a childproof reminder to take antibiotics 3 times a day for a week (once or twice a year) is going to need a much less complex system than somebody who takes 4 x 2 effervescent painkillers in 24 hours, plus 2 doses of anti-inflammatories (with food), 1 twice for type 2 diabetes(with food), 3 for high bloodpressure (once a day), 1 twice to protect the stomach, and an optional muscle relaxant for really bad days!

The bits which will come into direct contact with the pills need to be made of something smooth (so you can be sure that it's clean and hasn't got powder from older tablets on it), non porous and non reactive.

It also needs to be droppable (from ordinary table height) without flying open or breaking - people with bad hands tend to drop things.

You probably need to allow for the user having weaker grip than you, and maybe less mobile & strong fingers too. The dispenser needs to be easy to open, secure when shut, but not need a lot of hard squeezing while twisting & pressing just to get the wretched thing open

Most have to be kept v dry, and some have coatings which become damaged if they touch a different tablet or capsule for more than a few hours.

There's also variation in size. Antihistamines and a lot of the medication to reduce blood pressure are barely the size of small earstuds, while some of the stuff for arthritis, pain, or type 2 diabetes is nearer the size of a watch battery, and one effervescent tablet (cocodamol 30/500) is approx the size of a £2 coin.

If this is all getting far too easy.....You also might want to allow for some types of tablet having to be kept sealed inside their blister pack until the exact moment they're taken or the tablet/capsule becomes useless.

By glynne

Re: School Project- Pill dispenser
Wed 17 Sep 2008 17:36

Wow!

I think I’d go back and try dehydrating water!

By Llamasrule22

Re: School Project- Pill dispenser
Wed 17 Sep 2008 18:44

Dear Greebo,

Thanks- there's alot of useful information there. I definately want to make it as simple to use as possible- as much as anything else, there's no use making something which makes life harder. With regards to keeping different pills seperate, this can be done by keeping individual types of pills in individually programmed compartments, so that you can also have different doses of different (and different sizes) pills.
The Pills which you say cannot touch others- are they alright if they touch their own kind?
As I get further on into the project, I'll look more into the specifics of sizes and so on. I would make the container airtight (I hope!) regardless of whether blister packaging is required as I imagine air can only have a negative effect on most medicines.
Do you think that this is something worth doing? If designed carefully, taking into account advice (such as yours) do you think that it would be useful?
Thanks,
Lisa