KR20160057179A - Drug packing appearatus and method for managing drug - Google Patents

Abstract

A pharmaceutical packaging apparatus is disclosed. The medicine packing apparatus includes a plurality of cassette sections for storing medicines and individually storing medication information for the medicines, a supply section for supplying medicines from the outside, and a medicine dispensing section for dispensing medicines injected from the dispensing section into at least one cassette section And a control unit for updating the medicine information of the cassette unit into which the medicine is introduced.

Description

[0001] DRUG PACKING APPEARATUS AND METHOD FOR MANAGING DRUG [0002]

The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical packaging apparatus and a medicament management method, and more particularly, to a medicament packing apparatus and a medicament management method capable of filling medicines in a cassette corresponding to a medicament to be injected among a plurality of cassettes without moving the cassette.

As hospitals and pharmacies have become larger in recent years, preparations may be carried out using a pharmaceutical packaging apparatus. Such a medicine packing apparatus is also called a medicine automatic packing apparatus or a medicine automatic dispenser.

Specifically, the medicine packaging apparatus has a plurality of cassettes capable of storing each of a plurality of medicines, and automatically packs and discharges a plurality of medicines one time in accordance with information transmitted from the outside.

However, in the conventional pharmaceutical packaging apparatus, it was not possible to grasp the presence of several medicines in each cassette. Therefore, the user visually checked how many medicines were present in each cassette and filled the medicines according to the visual confirmation result.

However, if the user does not carry out the checking operation continuously, the medicine may be dropped during the medicine packaging process. In this case, the operation of the medicine packing apparatus must be stopped for refilling the medicine in the middle of the medicine packing.

In addition, since it is impossible to know how many medicines exist in each cassette, there is a problem that it is difficult to precisely manage the medicines whether the medicines in the cassette are caused by the medicament packaging being lost or lost.

In addition, in the conventional pharmaceutical packaging apparatus, there is an inconvenience that the cassette containing the medicine to be filled by the user must be found and supplemented in the medicine refilling process. Also, during this refill process, it was not possible to confirm that the cassette selected by the user and the filling agent were in agreement. Therefore, there was room for refilling the wrong medicine in the wrong cassette during the refilling process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a pharmaceutical packaging apparatus and a medicament management method capable of filling medicines in cassettes corresponding to medicines to be injected among a plurality of cassettes without moving the cassettes have.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a medicine packing apparatus comprising: a plurality of cassettes for storing medicines and storing medicament information for each medicament; a supply unit for supplying medicines from outside; A transfer unit for transferring medicines injected from the supply unit to at least one of the plurality of cassette mounting units, and a control unit for updating medicament information of the cassette unit into which the medicines are introduced.

In this case, the plurality of cassette portions may be arranged in a plurality of layers, and the supply portion may be arranged above the plurality of cassette portions.

In this case, the conveying portion may include a passage portion arranged in a vertical direction, and a plurality of direction changing guide members for injecting the medicine dropped from the upper portion into each of the plurality of cassette portions.

In this case, each of the plurality of cassette portions may include an input portion into which the medicine transferred through the direction change guide member disposed adjacent to the cassette portion is input.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a medicine packing apparatus comprising: an input unit for inputting information of an external medicine; and the control unit includes a direction changing guide member It is possible to control the transporting unit to operate the transporting unit.

Each of the plurality of direction change guide members may be a movable member that opens or blocks a predetermined area of the passage portion.

Meanwhile, the input unit may receive information on the type and number of injected medicines, and the controller may reflect the information on the inputted medicines in the medicament information of the cassette unit corresponding to the input medicament type .

Meanwhile, the supply unit counts medicines provided from the outside, and the control unit may reflect the information counted by the supply unit in drug information of the cassette unit filled with the medicament.

Meanwhile, the conveying unit may include a plurality of cassette mounting portions capable of accommodating the plurality of cassette mounting portions, and the plurality of cassette mounting portions may be arranged in a plurality of rows.

In this case, the supply portion may be removably mounted to the cassette mounting portion.

On the other hand, a plurality of supply portions may be disposed in each of the plurality of cassette mounting portions disposed on the uppermost side.

In this case, the present drug packaging apparatus may further include an input unit for receiving information of the drug provided from the outside, and the control unit may display a supply unit corresponding to the inputted drug information among the plurality of supply units.

On the other hand, a cassette portion disposed in the cassette mounting portion disposed at the top of the plurality of cassette portions can function as the supply portion.

The medicament packaging apparatus may further include a packaging section for receiving medicines from at least one cassette section of the plurality of cassette sections and packaging the medicines, and the transfer section may be provided on at least one of the cassette sections The stored medicament can be provided to the packaging portion.

In this case, when at least one cassette part among the plurality of cassette parts provides the medicine to the packaging part, the control part can update the medicine information of the cassette part providing the medicine.

The medicament packaging apparatus may further include an input unit for inputting a packaging command for packaging the medicament. The control unit may further include a cassette unit for storing medicines corresponding to the received packaging command, It is possible to output an alarm.

On the other hand, the control unit can display a medicine shortage with respect to a predetermined number or less of medicines using the medicament information of each of the plurality of cassette units.

Meanwhile, the drug information may include information on the type of drug and the number of drugs in the cassette.

Each of the cassette units may include a drug delivery unit for storing a medicine, a memory for storing the medicine information, and a data transmission / reception unit for performing communication with the control unit.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a medicine packing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a view showing a medicine packaging apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention,
3 is a view showing the connection relationship between the cassette part and the cassette mounting part,
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the cassette unit of FIG. 1;
5 is a view for explaining a supply unit according to the first embodiment,
6 is a schematic view for explaining a supply unit according to the second embodiment,
7 is a view showing a form of a medicine packing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention,
8 to 10 are views showing various user interface windows that can be displayed on the display unit of FIG. 1, and FIG.
11 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a drug according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a medicine packing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1, a drug packaging apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment includes a communication interface unit 110, a display unit 120, an operation input unit 130, a transfer unit 140, a packaging unit 150, 160, a control unit 170, and a plurality of cassette units 200.

The communication interface unit 110 is provided for connecting the pharmaceutical packaging apparatus 100 to an external device (for example, a server), and is connected to an external device via a local area network (LAN) In addition, it can be connected by wireless communication (for example, wireless communication such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, GSM, UMTS, LTE, WiBRO, etc.).

The communication interface unit 110 can receive a packaging command from an external device. Here, the packaging order may include the type and number of medicines (or tablets) to be contained in one package and the total number of packages.

The communication interface unit 110 may receive information on the medicine provided to the supply unit. Here, the information of the medicine may include the name of the medicine, the drug code, the information of the pharmaceutical company, the medication information, and the like. The information on the medicines to be input may also include information on the number of medicines provided to the supply unit.

The communication interface unit 110 can transmit various information of the drug packaging apparatus 100 to an external apparatus. Here, the various types of information may include status information (for example, whether or not the medicine is being packaged, whether or not an error has occurred, etc.) of the medicine packing apparatus 100 and information of the medicine being stored (for example, Etc.) and the like.

The communication interface unit 110 may transmit various messages to the external device. Here, the message may include a notification message (an error message or a warning message) generated in the drug packaging apparatus 100. Here, the notification message is a message indicating that the packaging operation can not be performed because the number of medicines corresponding to the package command is insufficient, or when a medicament to be filled is not identical to the cassette unit 200, The message or the medication stored in the cassette section may be a message indicating that refill is necessary because the number of medicines is less than a predetermined number.

The display unit 120 may display various kinds of information supported by the drug packaging apparatus 100. The display unit 120 may be a monitor such as an LCD, a CRT, or the like, and may be implemented as a touch screen capable of simultaneously performing a function of an operation input unit 130, which will be described later.

The display unit 120 may display an operation state of the drug packaging apparatus 100. [ The display unit 120 may display various messages. Here, the notification message may include a message indicating that the inputted package command can not be executed because the number of medicines corresponding to the package command is insufficient, a message indicating that a cassette section not corresponding to the medicament to be filled is arranged, A message indicating that refill is necessary and the like may be a predetermined number or less. In this embodiment, various messages are displayed through the display unit 120. However, in implementation, the messages may be output through sound.

The operation input unit 130 includes a plurality of function keys that the user can set or select various functions supported by the drug packaging apparatus 100. The drug packaging apparatus 100 may be implemented as a device such as a mouse, a keyboard, or the like, and may be implemented as a touch screen capable of simultaneously performing the functions of the display unit 120 described above.

The operation input unit 130 can receive a package command or pharmaceutical information to be filled. On the other hand, the package command and the filled medicine information can be input through the operation input unit 130 provided in the medicine packaging apparatus 100, but can be input from the external apparatus through the communication interface unit 110. Accordingly, the operation input unit 130 and the communication interface unit 110 can operate as an input unit for performing an operation of receiving a package command or drug information to be filled. On the other hand, when the number of medicines to be filled is not counted in the medicament packing apparatus 100 but is performed in a separate external apparatus, the operation input unit 120 may receive information on the number of medicines inputted.

The transfer unit 140 has a plurality of cassette mounting portions capable of accommodating each of the plurality of cassette units 200 and provides a medicine stored in at least one cassette unit of the plurality of cassette units 200 to the package 150 .

The transfer unit 140 transfers the medicines counted by the supply unit 160 to at least one of the plurality of cassette units. Specifically, the conveying unit 140 includes a passage portion 147 for conveying the medicine during the packaging of medicines, and a direction changing guide member for connecting the passage portion 147 and the cassette portion 200 to a specific cassette portion . The construction and operation of the concrete transfer unit 140 will be described later with reference to Figs. 2 and 5. Fig.

The packaging unit 150 receives medicines from at least one of the plurality of cassette units 200 and packages the medicines one time. The specific configuration and operation of the packaging unit 150 will be described later with reference to Fig.

The supply unit 160 receives the medicine from the outside. Specifically, the supply unit 160 can deliver the medicines provided from the outside to the transfer unit 140. At this time, the supply unit 160 may count the medicine provided from the outside. Specifically, the supply unit 160 may count the number of medicines passing through the discharge passage by using a physical sensor or a photosensor while allowing externally provided medicines to move to the discharge passage one by one. In this case, the supplying unit 160 is disposed on the upper side of the packing unit 150, and can be supplied in such a manner that the medicine is vertically dropped by the weight of the medicine when the medicine is supplied to the packing unit 150.

The control unit 170 controls each configuration in the drug packaging apparatus 100. [ Specifically, when the information on the medicine to be refilled is inputted, the controller 170 can control the display unit 120 to provide the information of the supplying unit to which the medicine is to be supplied. For example, a pharmaceutical packaging apparatus having a cassette section in which a pharmaceutical packaging apparatus is arranged in a plurality of rows can be arranged in two forms. First, as shown in FIG. 2, when a plurality of supply units 160-1, 160-2, ..., and 160-6 are disposed in all the columns, the controller 170 corresponds to the position of the cassette corresponding to information of the filled medicine (E.g., position) of the supply portion (e. G., 160-2) being dispensed. At this time, the supplying unit 160-2 may indicate that the device is a device to which the medicine is input by using the light emitting device.

7, the control unit 170 can provide information on the position at which the supply unit should be located. At this time, the column in which the supply part is to be positioned may indicate using the light emitting element that the column itself is the column in which the supply part is to be arranged.

The control unit 170 determines whether the medicine is input to the proper supply unit and whether the supply unit is disposed in the proper column. If it is determined that the medication is not input to the proper supply unit or the supply unit is not disposed in the proper column, the controller 170 controls the display unit 120 to display the notification information or notify the external apparatus of the notification information The communication interface unit 110 can be controlled.

When the medicine is supplied to the appropriate supply unit 160, the control unit 170 may control the supply unit 160 so that the medicine provided from the outside is counted. The control unit 170 may control the transfer unit 140 so that the counted medicines are filled in the cassette unit 200 corresponding to the medicine. Specifically, the control unit 170 controls the direction switching guide member disposed to correspond to the cassette unit corresponding to medicinal drug information from the outside (i.e., adjusts the path passage so that the vertically falling medicine is put into the specific cassette unit) The transfer unit 140 can be controlled.

The control unit 170 reflects the counted information in the supply unit 160 to the drug information of the cassette unit filled with the medicine. Specifically, the controller 170 may add the counted number of medicines in the cassette unit filled in by the supply unit 160 to update the medicament count information of the cassette unit filled with medicines. On the other hand, when the supply unit 160 does not perform the counting of the loaded medicine, the control unit 170 may update the medicine information of the cassette unit according to the medicine quantity information inputted through the external device or the operation input unit 130 have.

When the package command is input, the controller 170 determines whether the cassette unit 200 storing the medicine corresponding to the entered packaging command holds the number of medicines for packaging the medicine, If the medicine is not sufficiently stored, the display unit 120 is controlled to display a message indicating that the packaging corresponding to the packaging instruction can not be performed, or the communication interface unit 110 is controlled so that the above- Can be controlled.

The control unit 170 can control the transfer unit 140 and the cassette unit 200 so that the cassette unit 200 corresponding to the package instruction provides the medicine to the packaging unit 150. [ The control unit 170 may control the packaging unit 150 to package the provided medicines one time. At this time, when at least one cassette part among the plurality of cassette parts 200 provides medicine to the packing part 150, the control part 170 can update the medicine information of the cassette part 200 providing the medicine.

The control unit 170 checks whether each of the plurality of cassette units includes a predetermined number of medicines or less and displays a message indicating that a medicament containing a predetermined number or less of medicines is required to be refilled, (120), or to control the communication interface unit (110) so that the aforementioned message is notified to the external apparatus.

The control unit 170 may store history information for a plurality of cassette units. Here, the history information may include information such as whether or not the transport unit and the cassette unit are separated, the time point of the separation, the manager performing the separation, and the emission information corresponding to the packaging command.

The control unit 170 may store information on whether or not each of the plurality of cassette units is separated. At this time, the controller 170 can receive the manager information from which the cassette unit is detached. The information on the separation and the manager information may be stored in a storage medium in the packaging apparatus 100 or may be transmitted to an external device.

Each of the plurality of cassette units 200 stores medicines and stores medicament information on the medicines. Here, the medicament information on the medicines may include information on the type of medicines stored in the cassette unit 200 and the number of medicines in the cassette unit. The specific configuration and configuration of the cassette unit 200 will be described later with reference to Figs. 3 and 4. Fig.

As described above, when the medicine packing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment inserts medicine into the supply unit from the outside, the medicine is automatically refilled in the cassette unit corresponding to the medicine, so that the user convenience is improved. Thereby, it is not necessary to separately perform a work for confirming whether the cassette to be refilled matches the medicine as a refill object, and it is possible to prevent the wrong medicine from being refilled in the medicine refilling process.

The medicine packing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment refills the medicine cassette unit by counting when the medicine is refilled and reflects the counted number in the medicine information of the cassette unit automatically. The number of medicines can be accurately managed. Since the number of medicines held by each cassette unit is accurately managed, various management services can be provided to an administrator or a user. In particular, this enables the tracing of the exact route of the drug.

In the description of FIG. 1, the medicines supplied from the supply unit are described as refilling the cassette unit, but it is obvious that the present invention can also be applied to the case where the cassette unit is filled with the first medicament.

In the description of FIG. 1, it is explained that the packaging operation of the medicine and the operation of filling the medicine into the cassette are separated. However, the packaging operation of the medicine and the operation of filling the medicine can be performed at the same time. For example, if drug A falls below a predetermined number by the first wrapping operation and drug A is not used during the second wrapping operation, The drug A can be filled in.

2 is a view showing a form of a medicine packaging apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, a transfer unit 140 is disposed at an upper portion of the drug packaging apparatus 100, and a transfer unit 140 includes a plurality of cassette mounting portions capable of accommodating a plurality of cassette units 200, respectively. The connection form of the cassette part and the cassette mounting part will be described later with reference to Fig.

In the illustrated example, a plurality of cassette mounts are arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of rows like a matrix. Accordingly, the plurality of cassette units 200 can also be arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of rows. Here, the cassette part in the same row receives or discharges the medicine using the same passage part. Therefore, if the plurality of cassette sections 200 are arranged in a plurality of rows, the transfer section 140 can have a plurality of passage sections.

In the illustrated example, a plurality of cassette mounting portions 141 are formed of a plurality of rows. However, in the implementation, a plurality of cassette mounting portions may be disposed with only one row. That is, a plurality of cassette mounting portions may be arranged with only one passage portion.

At this time, a plurality of supply units 160-1, 160-2, 160-3, 160-4, 160-5, and 160-6 are disposed on the uppermost row among the plurality of cassette mounting units 141. [ The feeding unit 160 is preferably disposed at the top of the plurality of cassette loading units 151 in that the feeding unit 140 according to the present embodiment feeds the medicines from the feeding unit 160 to the cassette unit using gravity Do. In this case, the operation of transferring the medicines counted by the supply unit 160 to a specific cassette unit will be described later with reference to Fig.

The transfer unit 140 can transfer medicines stored in the respective cassette units 200 to the lower packaging unit 150.

A packaging unit 150 is disposed below the drug packaging apparatus 100. Here, the packaging unit 150 continuously packs the medicines one time every minute using the medicines provided in the at least one cassette unit 200. [ The packaging unit 150 may include a transfer tray 151, a hopper 152, a printing unit 153, and a heater 154.

The transfer tray 151 transfers the medicine provided by each cassette unit 200 to the hopper 152 disposed below the transfer tray 151. Specifically, the transfer tray 151 can transfer the medicine dropped from a plurality of rows to the hopper 152 using a conveyor belt or the like.

The hopper 152 collects the medicines moved through the transfer tray 151 and puts them into the wrapping paper in a dropping manner.

The printing unit 153 prints a predetermined phrase on the wrapping paper into which the medicine supplied through the hopper 152 will be put.

The heater 154 is disposed adjacent to the hopper 152 and seals the wrapping paper conveyed while the medicine is put in. In this case, the portion sealed by the heater 154 may be the leading end and the trailing end of the wrapping paper. It is also possible to provide a predetermined perforated line forming portion (not shown) so as to form a perforated line at the front end and the rear end of the wrapper sealed by the heater 154.

The packaging unit 150 having the above-described structure prints a predetermined phrase on the wrapping paper using the printing unit 153 and supplies the provided medicine to the transfer tray (not shown) 151 to the hopper 152. The medicine dropped by the hopper 152 is put into the printed wrapping paper, and the wrapping part 150 can seal the wrapping paper into which the medicine is put by using the heater 154. [

2, a plurality of cassette units 200 are shown disposed only on the front surface of the pharmaceutical packaging apparatus 100, but a plurality of cassette units similar to those shown in the inside of the pharmaceutical packaging apparatus 100 are provided May be further included. Also, in implementation, a plurality of cassette portions may be arranged in a "C" form when viewed from the top downward.

In the description of FIG. 2, it is described that the supply unit 160 is disposed in each of the plurality of columns. However, when the supply unit 160 is separable, one supply unit 160 may be used as shown in FIG.

Fig. 3 is a view showing the connection relationship between the cassette section and the cassette mounting section, and Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the electrical configuration of the cassette section of Fig.

3 and 4, the cassette unit 200 can be mounted on the cassette mounting unit 141, and the cassette unit 200 mounted on the cassette mounting unit 141 is detachable from the cassette mounting unit 141. The cassette unit 200 includes a rotary member 201, a storage member 210, a memory 220, a data transmission / reception unit 230, and a loading unit 240.

The rotary member 201 is configured to discharge the medicines stored in the transfer unit 210 one by one.

The storage member 210 is a space for storing the medicine. The loading unit 240 is disposed on one side of the upper portion of the storage member 210. The input unit 240 is configured to receive the medicines transferred through the direction change guide member disposed at one side of the passage portion 147 by the medicine injected from the supply unit 160 and dropped. An opening / closing part, which serves to close the inlet, may be attached to one side of the charging part 240 in a state where no medicine is injected. Such an opening / closing part may be realized to be opened only when the medicine is injected electrically, Or may be realized in a form that is opened by a mechanism such as a spring through a kinetic force.

The memory 220 stores information on medicines stored in the cassette unit 200. Here, the medicine information is information on the type of medicines stored in the cassette unit 200 and the number of medicines stored in the cassette unit 200. The memory 220 may be embodied as various storage devices such as a flash memory, an EEPROM, and a ROM.

The data transmission and reception unit 230 is disposed in an area where the cassette unit 200 can be connected to the connector 142 of the cassette mounting unit 141. When the cassette unit 200 is mounted on the cassette mounting unit 141, 170 and the memory 220 can be electrically connected to each other. The data transmitting and receiving unit 230 can connect the control unit and the memory by the I2C method.

When the cassette unit 200 is mounted, the memory of the cassette unit 200 is electrically connected to the control unit 170, and the cassette unit 200 And a motor 144 capable of rotating the rotary member 201 of the cassette unit 200 so that the medicine in the cassette unit 200 can be supplied to the packaging unit 150. [ In this case, the motor 144 may be composed of a servomotor capable of forward / reverse rotation. The cassette mounting part 141 includes a sensor 145 for detecting whether the medicine is discharged from the cassette part 200. [ The sensor 145 may include a light emitting portion 145a that emits light having a predetermined wavelength and a light receiving portion 145b that can receive light emitted from the light emitting portion.

The medicine stored in the transfer unit 210 of the cassette unit 200 is discharged from the packaging unit 150 to the cassette unit 200. [ The rotation of the rotary member 201 is controlled by driving the motor 144 to be discharged to the passage portion 147 through the discharge port 146 provided for the rotation of the rotary member 201, The rotation of the rotary member 201 can be stopped.

5 is a view for explaining a supply unit according to the first embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 5, the supply unit 160 is disposed on the cassette unit 200-2. Therefore, the medicines counted by the supply unit 160 are introduced into the passage part 147 through the discharge port 161 of the supply unit 160. Here, the passage portion 147 is a profile arranged in a vertical direction, and a plurality of cassette portions 200-1, 200-2, ..., 200-n are arranged in the vertical direction adjacent to the profile. The passage portion 147 includes a supply portion and a discharge port for receiving the medicine discharged from the plurality of cassette portions 200. The passage portion 147 is provided with a direction change guide member (148-1, 148-2, ... 148-n). Here, the direction change guide members 148-1, 148-2, ... 148-n are direction switching members that open or shut off a predetermined area of the passage portion and apply the medicine falling from the upper portion to a specific cassette portion. The directional guide members 148-1, 148-2,... 148-n are provided at positions opposite to the insertion portions of the cassette unit 200. [

In this case, if the introduced medicine 10 is a medicine to be filled in the first cassette unit 200-1, the control unit 170 operates only the first direction change guide member 148-1 to block the passage unit , And then the medicines can be introduced into the passage portion through the supply portion 160. Accordingly, the medicine dropped from the supply unit 160 is introduced into the first cassette unit 200-1 by the first direction change guide member 148-1.

On the other hand, if the introduced medicine 10 is a medicine to be filled in the second cassette part 200-1, the control part 170 operates the first direction change guide member 148-1 so as not to obstruct the passage part, The two-way switching guide member 148-2 can be operated so as to block the passage portion. And then the medicines can be introduced into the passage portion through the supply portion 160. The medicine dropped from the supply unit 160 is excessively passed through the first direction change guide member 148-1 and is introduced into the second cassette unit 200-2 by the second direction change guide member 148-2 do.

In the illustrated example, only three direction change guide members 148 are disposed in the passage portion 147, but this is for the sake of easy explanation. In the embodiment, four or more direction change guide members are disposed .

Although the above description has been made on counting medicines using a counting configuration different from that of the cassette unit, the conventional cassette unit and cassette loading unit can be implemented to perform the function of the supply unit. This will be described with reference to FIG.

6 is a view for explaining a supply unit according to the second embodiment. Specifically, the cassette unit and the cassette mounting unit are used as the supply unit 160 '.

Specifically, at the time of packaging the medicines, the cassette mounting portion 149 can discharge the required number of medicines for packaging the medicines. That is, the cassette mounting portion 149 is provided with all the mechanisms capable of outputting the required number of medicines loaded on the cassette portion. Therefore, the uppermost cassette and the corresponding cassette mounting portion among a plurality of cassettes constituted by a plurality of rows can be implemented to operate as the above-described supply portion 160 '.

Therefore, when the administrator intends to refill the medicine, the medicine to be refilled can be injected into the cassette section at the top of the row in which the cassette section corresponding to the specific medicine is arranged. When the medicine is introduced into the uppermost cassette unit, the medicine packing apparatus 100 can discharge the medicine to the transfer unit and ascertain the number of medicines to be discharged as the cassette unit to which the medicines are injected, as in the operation for the usual medicament packaging.

At this time, as described with reference to FIG. 5, the medicine packing apparatus 100 turns on the direction change guide member disposed to face the cassette unit to be filled with medicines, so that the medicine dropped from the supply unit 160 ' It can be refilled. The drug packing apparatus 100 can reflect the dropped number of medicines in the medicament information.

In the case of the second embodiment, it is possible to implement the supply unit using the conventional cassette unit and cassette mounting unit without using a separate count configuration, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost.

7 is a view showing a form of a medicine packing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, the supply unit 160-1 of the medicine packing apparatus 100 'according to the second embodiment can be realized by coupling with the cassette mounting unit 149 as shown in FIG. Therefore, the supply unit 160-1 is not disposed at a specific fixed place, but can be moved to various positions as needed. For example, in a state in which the supply unit 160-1 is disposed in the first column, when the medicine refill of the cassette unit disposed in the second column is required, the corresponding supply unit 160-1 is moved to the second column and the medicine refilling process is performed can do.

7, it is described that the supply unit 160-1 is thermally moved by the user's operation. However, at the time of implementation, the transfer unit 140 transfers the medicines counted by the supply unit to one of the plurality of passage units A conveyor belt can be provided.

8 to 10 are views showing various user interface windows that can be displayed on the display unit of FIG.

Specifically, FIG. 8 is an example of a user interface window that can be displayed when the medicine of a specific cassette unit becomes a predetermined number or less.

Referring to FIG. 8, the user interface window 700 displays a message indicating that the specific medicine is insufficient. Therefore, even if the user or the administrator does not individually check the amount of medicine in each cassette part in the medicine packing apparatus, it is possible to refill the medicine at an appropriate time based on the message provided by the medicine packing apparatus.

FIG. 9 is an example of a user interface window that can be displayed when the supply portion is disposed in the wrong column in the embodiment of FIG. 7;

Referring to FIG. 9, the user interface window 900 displays a message indicating that a supply unit is disposed in a wrong column when a supply unit is not disposed in a row in which a cassette corresponding to a medicine to be refilled is disposed. By such a display operation, it is possible to prevent the medicine from being refilled in the wrong cassette portion.

10 is an example of a user interface window that can be displayed when a medicine corresponding to a packaging instruction is insufficient.

Referring to FIG. 10, the user interface window 1000 displays a message indicating that a sufficient amount of medicines corresponding to the packaging instruction is not stored in the cassette. Such a message can be displayed before carrying out the packaging, and it is possible to prevent the automatic packaging apparatus from stopping the packaging operation to refill the medicine during the packaging operation.

11 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a drug according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 11, first, an external medicine is supplied (S1110). At this time, the supply unit can count the injected drug. In addition, drug information may be input from a user in advance and information on a supply unit corresponding to drug information may be provided to the user.

Then, the counted medicines are transferred to at least one of 'a plurality of cassettes for storing medicines and storing drug information for medicines individually' (S1120). Specifically, the medicine counted by the supply unit can be transferred to the cassette unit corresponding to the medicine. For example, the medicines counted by the supply unit fall freely through the passage portion arranged in the vertical direction, and can be introduced into the cassette portion through the direction change guide member disposed opposite to the cassette portion corresponding to the medicine.

Then, the counted information is reflected in the medicine information of the cassette part refilled with medicine (S1130). Specifically, it is possible to update information on the number of medicines remaining in the cassette section stored as the number of medicines refilled in the cassette section disposed in the refill cassette mounting section.

Such reflection of drug information can be performed not only in the counting process, but also in the packaging process of medicines. Specifically, when the medicine stored in the cassette unit is provided to the packaging unit in response to the packaging instruction for packaging the medicine, the medicine information of the cassette unit providing the medicine to the packaging unit can be reflected by the number of discharged medicines .

By this process, when the number of medicines in a plurality of cassette units can be grasped by the medicinal-packaging apparatus, the medicinal-packaging apparatus can manage variously by using the number of medicines in the plurality of cassette units. For example, when a packing instruction for packing 50 specific medicines A and B is inputted, the medicament packing device reads the medication information of each of the cassette A and the cassette B for storing the medicines A and B, It is possible to grasp whether or not a sufficient medicine is stored to carry out the packing order and to carry out packaging only when sufficient medicine is stored. On the other hand, if there is not enough medicine stored, it can be output as a notification message that the corresponding packaging command can not be executed. The output of such an error message can be performed on the display, can be performed through a voice alarm or a specific sound output through a speaker, and can also be performed by outputting an error message to another connected device.

It is also possible to check the number of medicines in a plurality of cassette units at a preset time, and to output to the user a message to refill the medicines for a predetermined number of medicines or less.

As described above, when the medicine is refilled in the cassette unit, the counting is performed and the counted number is automatically reflected in the medicine information of the cassette unit. The number of medicines stored in each cassette unit Can be accurately managed. Then, the medicine to be supplied to the supply part is automatically transferred to the corresponding cassette part, which improves user convenience. In addition, it is not necessary to separately perform a work for confirming whether the cassette to be refilled matches the medicine as a refill object, and it is possible to prevent the wrong medicine from being refilled in the medicine refilling process. Furthermore, since the number of medicines stored in each cassette section is accurately managed, various management services can be provided to an administrator or a user. The drug management method as shown in Fig. 11 can be executed on the drug packaging apparatus having the configuration of Fig. 1, and also on the drug packaging apparatus having other configurations.

In addition, the drug management method as described above can be implemented as a program including an executable algorithm that can be executed in a computer, and the program can be stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium have.

A non-transitory readable medium is a medium that stores data for a short period of time, such as a register, cache, memory, etc., but semi-permanently stores data and is readable by the apparatus. In particular, the various applications or programs described above may be stored and provided on non-volatile readable media such as CD, DVD, hard disk, Blu-ray disk, USB, memory card, ROM,

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

100: medicine packing apparatus 110: communication interface unit
120: display unit 130: operation input unit
140: transfer part 150: packing part
160: supply unit 170:
200: cassette part

Claims (19)

In a pharmaceutical packaging apparatus,
A plurality of cassettes for storing medicines and individually storing medicament information on the medicines;
A supply part for supplying the medicine from the outside;
A transfer unit for transferring the medicines injected from the supply unit to at least one of the plurality of cassette mounting units; And
And a controller for updating the medicine information of the cassette unit into which the medicine is dispensed. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the plurality of cassette portions are arranged in a plurality of layers,
Wherein the supply unit is disposed above the plurality of cassette units. 3. The method of claim 2,
The transfer unit
A passage portion arranged in a vertical direction; And
And a plurality of direction changing guide members for putting the medicine falling from the top into each of the plurality of cassette parts. The method of claim 3,
Wherein each of the plurality of cassette portions includes:
And a charging unit for charging a medicine to be transferred through a direction change guide member disposed adjacent to the cassette unit. The method of claim 3,
And an input unit for inputting information of the external medicine,
Wherein,
And controls the conveyance unit so that a direction change guide member corresponding to information of the inputted medicine among the plurality of direction change guide members operates. The method of claim 3,
Wherein each of the plurality of direction change guide members comprises:
And a movable member which opens or blocks a predetermined area of the passage portion. 6. The method of claim 5,
Wherein the input unit comprises:
Information on the type and the number of injected medicines,
Wherein,
Wherein the information on the number of sheets is reflected in drug information of the cassette unit corresponding to the kind of the inputted medicine. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the supply unit includes:
Counting medicines provided from outside,
Wherein,
And the information counted by the supply unit is reflected in the medicine information of the cassette part filled with the medicine. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the conveying portion includes a plurality of cassette mounting portions capable of accommodating each of the plurality of cassette portions,
Wherein the plurality of cassette mounting portions are arranged in a plurality of rows. 10. The method of claim 9,
Wherein the supply portion is detachably mountable to the cassette mounting portion. 10. The method of claim 9,
And a plurality of supply portions are disposed in each of the plurality of cassette mounting portions disposed on the uppermost side. 12. The method of claim 11,
And an input unit for inputting information of the external medicine,
Wherein,
And displays a supply unit corresponding to the input drug information among the plurality of supply units. 10. The method of claim 9,
And a cassette portion disposed in a cassette mounting portion disposed at an uppermost portion of the plurality of cassette portions functions as the supply portion. The method according to claim 1,
And a packaging unit that receives the medicine from at least one of the cassettes and packages the medicine,
The transfer unit
And the medicines stored in at least one of the plurality of cassette units are provided to the packaging unit. 15. The method of claim 14,
Wherein,
Wherein at least one cassette portion of the plurality of cassette portions provides medicine to the packaging portion, and updates the medicine information of the cassette portion provided with the medicine. The method according to claim 1,
And an input unit for receiving a packaging command for pharmaceutical packaging,
Wherein,
And when the cassette unit for storing medicines corresponding to the received packing instruction does not store the medicines for the medicament packaging, an alarm is output. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein,
And a medicine insufficient for a predetermined number of drugs or less is displayed by using drug information of each of the plurality of cassette portions. The method according to claim 1,
The medicament information includes,
And information on the type of medicament and the number of medicines in the cassette section. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein each of the cassette portions includes:
A drug delivery portion for storing the drug;
A memory for storing the medicine information; And
And a data transmission / reception unit for performing communication with the control unit.

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