TW202333641A - Smart medicine cup system capable of automatically analyzing and recognizing whether the medicine put into the cup body mechanism is correct so as to greatly improve the safety of medicine usage - Google Patents

Abstract

A smart medicine cup system includes a cup body mechanism, an electronic valve mechanism, an image capture module and a control module. The electronic valve mechanism can be controlled to open, so that the medicine carried by the electronic valve mechanism falls into the accommodating space of the cup body mechanism. The image capture module can be used to capture the image of the medicine carried by the electronic valve mechanism to obtain the image to be analyzed. The control module will analyze the image to be analyzed according to the built-in medicine feature template so as to recognize the product name of the medicine, and will control the electronic valve mechanism to open and then close when it is determined that the recognized product name of the medicine is consistent with a medicine in the medicine administration information. Through the design of the smart medicine cup system, when dispensing medicine, it is able to automatically analyze and recognize whether the medicine put into the cup body mechanism is correct, so as to greatly improve the safety of medicine usage.

Description

Smart medicine cup system

The present invention relates to a medical device, and in particular, to a smart medicine cup system for taking medicine.

Medication safety is the most important issue in medical care, and the most common care measure performed by nursing staff is medication administration. In addition to causing harm to patients, medication errors can also cause a huge economic burden on the health care system. According to statistics from the 2019 annual report of Taiwan Patient Safety Reporting System, for hospitals, drug incidents accounted for the highest proportion of 39% of all incidents, and most of them occurred in wards. According to research, events that cause harm to patients' health most often occur during the drug administration stage. Among drug administration errors, dosage errors are the most common, followed by drug name errors. Nursing staff are the last line of defense in administering medication. If they fail to detect errors in time, they will not only harm the patient, but also cause themselves frustration. Therefore, how to improve the accuracy of drug administration and provide a safer medical care environment is one of the current issues that the entire medical system needs to solve urgently.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a smart medicine cup system that can improve at least one shortcoming of the prior art.

Therefore, the smart medicine cup system of the present invention is suitable for signal connection with a hospital server to receive medication information. The smart medicine cup system includes a cup body mechanism, an electronic valve mechanism, an image capture module and a control module installed on the cup body mechanism.

The cup mechanism has a medicine preparation space with an opening facing upward, an accommodation space located below the medicine preparation space, and a communication port connecting the medicine preparation space and the accommodation space up and down. The electronic valve mechanism closes the communication port and can be used to carry a medicine placed in the medicine preparation space, and can be controlled to open so that the medicine carried falls into the accommodation space. The image capture module can be used to capture images of the drug in the drug preparation space to obtain an image to be analyzed with a drug image.

The control module signals the electronic valve mechanism and the image capture module, and includes a communication unit for signal connection with the hospital server to receive the medication information, a drug identification unit and a control unit. The drug identification unit has built-in drug feature templates for multiple drugs. It will analyze the image features of the drug image in the image to be analyzed based on the drug feature templates to identify the product name of the drug. The control unit will determine the drug name. When the product name of the drug identified by the drug identification unit matches a drug in the drug administration information, the electronic valve mechanism is controlled to open and then close.

The effect of the present invention is that through the design of the smart medicine cup system, when dispensing medicine, it can automatically analyze and identify whether the medicine placed in the medicine preparation space is correct based on the obtained medicine administration information, so the safety of medicine can be greatly improved.

Referring to Figures 1 and 5, one embodiment of the smart medicine cup system 100 of the present invention can be used to scan the patient identification barcode (not shown) on the patient's bracelet, and can be connected to a hospital server 900 with a signal, and can be based on the obtained The patient identification barcode requires the hospital server 900 to provide corresponding medication information, and can make a sensing judgment based on the medication information whether the medication is correct or not. The content of the medication information includes but is not limited to the patient's name, gender, age, photo, medical record number, hospital bed number and other personal information, as well as drug information such as the name and quantity of one or more drugs to be taken. The drug information includes, for example, but is not limited to, 1 stomach medicine (such as Nexen tablets), 1 anti-inflammatory and analgesic drug (such as ibuprofen tablets), and 1 antihistamine drug (such as Allacin tablets), etc.

The smart medicine cup system 100 includes a cup mechanism 2, an electronic valve mechanism 3 installed on the cup mechanism 2, an image capture module 41, a reminder module 42, a display module 43, and a power supply. module 44, a scanning module 45 and a control module 5.

Referring to Figures 1, 2, and 4, the cup body mechanism 2 includes an upright cup body 21, a flip cover 22 pivoted on the top side of the cup body 21, and a side cover 23 pivoted on the side of the cup body 21. , and a cup body identification barcode 24 provided on the outer surface of the cup body 21 . The cup body 21 has a medicine preparation space 211 with an upward opening recessed on the top surface, a receiving space 212 located below the medicine preparation space 211 and capable of accommodating a medication cup 700 , and an upper and lower connecting space 212 connected to the medicine preparation space 211 . There is a communication opening 213 between the medicine preparation space 211 and the accommodating space 212, and a medicine inlet 214 provided on its side and transversely connected to the accommodating space 212 for allowing the medication cup 700 to enter and exit the accommodating space 212. The flip cover 22 partially covers the opening of the medicine preparation space 211, and can be flipped upward to expose the entire opening of the medicine preparation space 211. However, during implementation, it is not necessary that the flip cover 22 can be flipped.

The side cover 23 can be pivoted open to cover the medicine dispensing port 214 . In this embodiment, the side cover 23 is transparent, allowing the accommodating space 212 to be viewed through perspective, but the implementation is not limited to being transparent. The cup identification barcode 24 can be a two-dimensional barcode that can be scanned and read by an optical scanner, or a QR code that can be captured and read by an image capturer. However, during implementation, the cup body identification barcode 24 type is not limited to this.

The electronic valve mechanism 3 includes a driving module 31 installed on the cup body 21 , and a weighing module 32 installed on the driving module 31 and openably closing the communication port 213 . In this embodiment, the weighing module 32 is mounted on the driving module 31 so as to be pivotable up and down. The driving module 31 can be controlled by the control module 5 to drive the weighing module 32 on a scale. The up and down pivot changes between the weight position and an open position. When the weighing module 32 is at the weighing position, the communication port 213 will be closed and can be used to carry the medicine 800 placed in the medicine preparation space 211. And the carried medicine 800 is weighed to obtain a medicine weighing value. When the weighing module 32 pivots downward relative to the cup body 21 to the open position, the communication port 213 will be opened, and the medicine 800 carried will fall downward into the accommodating space 212 and fall out. into the medication cup 700.

In this embodiment, the weighing module 32 is made of a pressure sensor that can sense the weight of the medicine 800 carried. However, during implementation, in other implementation aspects of the present invention, the weighing module 32 can also use other currently known weight sensing technologies to sense the weight of the medicine 800, such as but not limited to using a load cell. ) or strain gauge (Strain gauge), etc. for weight sensing. In addition, during implementation, the weighing module 32 can also be changed to an action mode that can be driven by the driving module 31 to rotate horizontally relative to the cup body 21 between the weighing position and the opening position. When the cup body 21 pivots horizontally to the open position, the medicine 800 carried therein will be pushed away by the peripheral edge of the cup body 21 defining the communication port 213 and fall downward into the accommodation space 212 . However, during implementation, the manner in which the weighing module 32 is driven to the open position is not limited to the above manner.

Referring to Figures 2, 3, and 5, the image capture module 41, such as but not limited to a CCD (Charge-coupled Device), is installed on the bottom of the flip cover 22 and can be directed downward toward the weighing module 32. Image capture is performed on the medicine preparation space 211 to obtain an image to be analyzed.

The reminder module 42 is installed and exposed on the top side of the flip cover 22 and can be driven to generate reminder messages. The reminder message may be of a perceptible type such as sound, light, vibration and/or image. The display module 43 is installed on the side of the cup body 21 and can be used to display image data, for example, to display the medication information.

The power module 44 is installed in the cup body 21 and can be used to supply the electronic valve mechanism 3, the image capture module 41, the reminder module 42, the display module 43 and the control module 5 for operation. of electricity. The power module 44 is a battery-powered type. In this embodiment, the power module 44 uses a rechargeable battery as the power source, and has an exposed module installed on the outer surface of the cup body 21 for connecting external power ( (not shown) charging terminal 441 for charging. However, during implementation, in other implementation aspects of the present invention, a non-rechargeable battery type design may also be used. In addition, in another embodiment, the power module 44 can also be changed to a type that directly connects to an external power source for power supply, such as mains power, and processes the connected mains power into what is required by the aforementioned related components. Power specifications.

The scanning module 45 is exposed and assembled on the side of the cup body 21 and can be used to scan and read the patient identification barcode on the patient's bracelet through optical scanning technology or image capture technology. Since there are many types of scanning modules 45, they will not be described in detail.

The control module 5 is installed on the cup body 21 and is connected with signals to the electronic valve mechanism 3, the image capture module 41, the reminder module 42 and the display module 43. It includes a communication unit 51 and a drug identification module. unit 52 and a control unit 53. The communication unit 51 can communicate with the hospital server 900 through currently known wireless communication technology for data transmission, and can be used to receive the medication information provided by the hospital server 900 . The wireless communication technologies include, but are not limited to, wireless network technologies such as Bluetooth and wifi, and mobile communication technologies such as 4G/5G.

The drug identification unit 52 has built-in drug feature templates for a variety of drugs. These drug feature templates are based on currently known machine learning algorithms to identify the shape, size, color, surface texture/symbol, and weight of various drugs. Created by analytical training, such as through algorithms such as neural networks and support vector machines. The drug identification unit will first analyze and identify the drug image present in the image to be analyzed generated by the image capture module 41 through currently known image recognition technology. Then, the image features of the drug image and the corresponding drug weighing value are further analyzed based on the drug feature templates. If the image features of the drug image and the drug weighing value both match one of the drug feature templates, then The product name of the drug 800 corresponding to one of the drug feature templates is obtained. Since there are many ways to identify drug images through image analysis and recognition technology, which are existing technologies, such as image binarization processing, image edge detection enhancement processing, shape feature extraction, image shape and size matching and comparison, etc., they will not be described in detail. .

The control unit 53 has a built-in drug administration detection program that can be activated by operation. When starting the drug administration detection program, the control unit 53 will display the drug administration information obtained by the communication unit 51 on the display module 43, and will control the image capture module 41 to start capturing the data to be analyzed. image, and controls the weighing module 32 to start weighing, and drives the drug identification unit 52 to start analyzing the image to be analyzed. The control unit 53 will start to analyze the current identification result of the drug identification unit 52 based on the currently obtained drug administration information to determine whether the current drug is correct.

The following describes how to use the smart medicine cup system 100 of the present invention.

When a medical practitioner wants to administer medication to a patient, he or she can place a medication cup 700 into the accommodating space 212 of the cup body 21 and start the medication detection program of the control unit 53, and then Medication operations can begin.

The medical staff can directly scan the patient identification barcode on the patient's bracelet with the scanning module 45 installed on the cup mechanism 2, and the control unit 53 will send an entrainment message to the hospital server 900 via the communication unit 51. The medication information request with the patient identification barcode drives the hospital server 900 to return the medication information corresponding to the patient. The control unit 53 will display the medication information on the display module 43 to allow medical staff to administer medication. Comparison of patient status before medication.

When dispensing medicine, the medical staff can put the medicines 800 into the medicine preparation space 211 of the cup mechanism 2 one by one according to the medicine information displayed on the medicine administration information, so that the medicines 800 fall into the medicine preparation space 211 of the electronic valve mechanism 3 On the weighing module 32. The weighing module 32 will start to weigh the drug weighing value of the drug 800, and the image capture module 41 will capture the image of the drug preparation space 211 to obtain the image to be analyzed. The drug identification unit 52 of the control module 5 will identify the drug image present in the image to be analyzed, and analyze the image features of the drug image and the corresponding drug weight value according to the drug feature templates, so as to Identify the product name of the drug 800.

The control unit 53 will continue to analyze and determine whether the product name of the drug 800 currently identified by the drug identification unit 52 matches one of the drugs 800 in the medication information. If it is determined to be consistent, it will further determine that the drug 800 is currently being used. Is the quantity released into the accommodation space 212 equal to the corresponding quantity in the administration information? If it is determined to be less than the quantity, it means that the quantity of the drug 800 currently released into the accommodation space 212 has not reached the quantity in the administration information. Corresponding to the quantity, the control unit 53 will control the driving module 31 to drive the weighing module 32 to change to the open position, so that the currently weighed medicine 800 is released into the accommodation space 212, and then controls the scale. The heavy module 32 returns to the weighing position again. In addition, each time the control unit 53 drives the electronic valve mechanism 3 to release a drug 800 into the accommodating space 212, it will accumulate the amount of the drug 800 currently released into the accommodating space 212.

If the control unit 53 determines that the currently recognized product name of the drug 800 does not match the medication information, it will drive the reminder module 42 to send a medication error reminder message. If the control unit 53 determines that the medicine 800 currently placed in the medicine preparation space 211 will cause the total number of medicines 800 in the accommodation space 212 to exceed the corresponding number in the medication information, the reminder module will be driven. Group 42 sent out the wrong number of reminder messages. The aforementioned error reminder message may emit a specific sound and/or image of a red light, etc.

When the control unit 53 determines that the product names of all drugs 800 currently released into the accommodation space 212 and the accumulated quantity of each drug 800 are exactly the same as the product names and quantities of the drugs 800 in the drug administration information, If it means that the dispensing information has been completed, the reminder module 42 will be controlled to generate a reminder message that represents the completion of dispensing, such as a green light, a specific sound and/or image, etc., to notify the dispensing personnel and end the corresponding medication. Information on this administration testing program. At this time, the medical staff can open the side cover 23, take out the medication cup 700 from the accommodation space 212, and give it to the patient to take.

In the above embodiment, the image analysis, identification and weighing of medicines 800 are performed one by one as an example for medicine analysis and identification. However, during implementation, multiple medicines 800 can also be placed into the medicine preparation space 211 at the same time, as long as the As long as the drugs 800 do not overlap and obscure each other, the product name and quantity of each drug 800 in the drug preparation space 211 can be identified through image analysis and weight comparison, and further analysis and judgment can be made based on the drug administration information. Are the name and quantity of drug 800 correct?

During implementation, in another embodiment of the present invention, the smart medicine cup system 100 may not be provided with the scanning module 45. At this time, the medical staff can use the scanner (not shown) on the nursing cart to scan the patient. The patient identification barcode on the bracelet is transmitted to the hospital server 900 to drive the hospital server 900 to call up the corresponding medication information. Then, the medical staff uses the scanner to scan the cup identification barcode 24 of the cup mechanism 2, and sends the cup identification barcode 24 to the hospital server 900, driving the hospital server 900 to identify the cup. The communication unit 51 of the smart medicine cup system 100 corresponding to the barcode 24 sends the medication information it retrieves. With this design, the smart medicine cup system 100 can also obtain the patient's medication information.

In addition, in other embodiments of the present invention, it is not necessary to provide the weighing module 32, that is to say, the electronic valve mechanism 3 is not necessary to have the weighing function of the medicine 800. The smart medicine cup system 100 Image analysis alone is sufficient for drug 800 identification.

In summary, through the design of the smart medicine cup system 100, the medication information provided by the hospital server 900 can be obtained before medication, and the medication information can be displayed on the display module 43 for medical staff. Check patient identity and drug 800 content before administration. And when dispensing medicine, it can automatically analyze and identify based on the medication administration information whether the medication 800 placed in the medication preparation space 211 is correct, and determine whether the total quantity of the medication 800 is correct. Once the analysis determines that the medication administration content does not match the medication administration information, When the time comes, a reminder message will be sent, so medication safety can be greatly improved. Therefore, the smart medicine cup system 100 of the present invention is indeed a very convenient, practical and innovative creation, and can indeed achieve the purpose of the present invention.

However, the above are only examples of the present invention. They cannot be used to limit the scope of the present invention. All simple equivalent changes and modifications made based on the patent scope of the present invention and the contents of the patent specification are still within the scope of the present invention. within the scope covered by the patent of this invention.

100:Smart medicine cup system 2: Cup body mechanism 21: cup body 211:Medicine preparation space 212:accommodation space 213: Connecting port 214:Medicine taking port 22: Lift the cover 23:Side cover 24: Cup body identification barcode 3: Electronic valve mechanism 31:Driver module 32:Weighing module 41:Image capture module 42: Reminder module 43:Display module 44:Power module 441:Charging terminal 45: Scanning module 5:Control module 51: Communication unit 52: Drug identification unit 53:Control unit 700: Medication cup 800:Drugs 900:Hospital server

Other features and effects of the present invention will be clearly presented in the embodiments with reference to the drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the smart medicine cup system of the present invention; Figure 2 is a side cross-sectional view of this embodiment; Figure 3 is a side view of this embodiment; Figure 4 is a top view of this embodiment; and Figure 5 is a functional block diagram of this embodiment.

100:Smart medicine cup system

2: Cup body mechanism

21:cup body

211:Medicine preparation space

213: Connecting port

214:Medicine taking port

22: Lift the cover

23:Side cover

24: Cup body identification barcode

3: Electronic valve mechanism

41:Image capture module

42: Reminder module

43:Display module

441:Charging terminal

800:Drugs

Claims (10)

A smart medicine cup system is suitable for signal connection to a hospital server to receive medication information, and includes: A cup body mechanism has a medicine preparation space with an opening facing upward, an accommodation space located below the medicine preparation space, and a communication port connecting the medicine preparation space and the accommodation space up and down; An electronic valve mechanism, installed on the cup mechanism and closing the communication port, can be used to carry a medicine placed in the medicine preparation space, and can be controlled to open so that the medicine carried falls into the accommodation space; An image capture module is installed on the cup mechanism and can be used to capture images of the medicine in the medicine preparation space to obtain an image to be analyzed with a medicine image; and A control module is installed on the cup mechanism, and the signal is connected to the electronic valve mechanism and the image capture module, including a communication unit for signal connection with the hospital server to receive the medication information, and a A drug identification unit and a control unit. The drug identification unit has built-in drug feature templates for multiple drugs. It will analyze the image features of the drug image in the image to be analyzed based on the drug feature templates to identify the product name of the drug. , the control unit will control the electronic valve mechanism to open and then close when it determines that the product name of the drug identified by the drug identification unit matches a drug in the drug administration information. The smart medicine cup system as described in claim 1 also includes a reminder module that is exposed on the cup mechanism and is connected to the control module via a signal. The control unit controls the opening of the electronic valve mechanism each time. Record the product name and quantity of the drug currently released into the storage space, and when it is determined that the product name and quantity of all recorded drugs are completely consistent with the dosing information, control the reminder module to generate a drug preparation completion message Reminder message. The smart medicine cup system as described in claim 1 or 2, wherein the electronic valve mechanism includes a drive module installed on the cup body mechanism, and a weighing module connected to the drive module. The drive module The group can be controlled by the control unit to drive the weighing module to change between a weighing position and an open position. When the weighing module is at the weighing position, the communication port will be closed and can be used for measurement. The weight of the drug carried is used to obtain a drug weighing value. The drug identification unit analyzes the image characteristics of the drug image of the drug and the corresponding drug weighing value according to the drug feature templates to identify the drug. Product name, when the weighing module changes to the open position, the medicine carried will fall downward into the accommodation space. The smart medicine cup system as described in claim 1 also includes a display module exposed on the cup body and used to display the medication information. The smart medicine cup system as described in claim 1 is also suitable for scanning the patient identification barcode of a bracelet on a patient. The smart medicine cup system also includes a mechanism provided on the cup body and connected to the control module via a signal, The scanning module that can be used to scan and read the patient identification barcode can send a medication information request containing the patient identification barcode to the hospital server through the communication unit, and receive the medication information request from the hospital server through the communication unit. The device corresponds to the medication information returned by the device. The smart medicine cup system according to claim 1, wherein the cup body mechanism includes a cup body provided with the medicine preparation space, the accommodation space and the communication port, and a side cover installed on the cup body, The cup body also has a medicine inlet that is laterally connected to the accommodation space, and the side cover can be opened to close the medicine inlet. The smart medicine cup system as described in claim 6, wherein the side cover is transparent. The smart medicine cup system according to claim 6, wherein the cup body mechanism further includes a cup body identification barcode that is disposed on the outer surface of the cup body and can be scanned and read. The smart medicine cup system as described in claim 1 also includes a power module disposed in the cup body mechanism and electrically connected to the electronic valve mechanism, the image capture module and the control module. The smart medicine cup system according to claim 9, wherein the power module has a charging terminal exposed on the outer surface of the cup body mechanism and used to connect a power source for charging.

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