TWI758775B - Kit and system for medication dispensing - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a kit and system for medication dispensing. The kit for medication dispensing has a container and a dispensing module. The container is configured to hold the medication, and the dispensing module has a first actuator, a cap gripper, a cup and a scraper in structure. The first actuator is configured to push the medication out of the container, and the scraper is configured to push the medication into the cup. The cup has a weight-measurement unit disposed at the bottom of the cup to precisely control the amount of the medication pushed out of the container, so as to guarantee the precision of the amount of medication. The system of this disclosure is an automatic system integrating the dispensing module, for completing the automatic medication dispensing and the pharmacy inventory management.

Description

Medicine set and its system

The invention relates to an automatic medicine-taking set and a system thereof, in particular to an automatic system that can precisely control the amount of medicine.

At present, pharmacies in medical institutions still mainly use manual operations. In large-scale medical institutions, a lot of manpower is required to carry out replenishment and dispensing operations, resulting in many problems in pharmacy management. For example, the management of medication expiration dates, the accuracy of the dispensing process, and the time taken for the handling process are a burden to medical institutions that require precision, speed, and reliability.

In addition, in the Chinese people's medical habits, in addition to Western medicine treatment, traditional Chinese medicine is also a mainstream treatment category. Scientific traditional Chinese medicine is presented in the form of powder, and multiple drugs are usually taken for oral medication, and each drug needs to be obtained separately. weight, mixed in a certain proportion. At present, most of the current methods of taking medicine are to take out the appropriate medicine powder from multiple medicine pots by holding a medicine spoon. This method consumes a lot of manpower and is prone to cross-contamination due to the medicine powder sticking to the medicine spoon. Most of the traditional Chinese medicine powders are yellowish-brown in appearance, and its components cannot be identified with the naked eye. If human error occurs in the process, it will be difficult to check, exposing patients to the risk of using the wrong medicine.

In view of this, there is an urgent need in the technical field for an improved medicine collection set and system to improve the efficiency of medicine collection and dispensing, reduce the risk of medical negligence, and improve the deficiencies of the prior art.

SUMMARY The purpose of this summary is to provide a simplified summary of the disclosure to give the reader a basic understanding of the disclosure. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of the disclosure, and it is not intended to identify key/critical elements of embodiments of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention.

In order to solve the problems of the prior art, the first aspect of the present invention relates to a medicine collection set. In one embodiment, the medicine-receiving set of the present invention comprises a medicine-carrying container and a medicine-receiving module, wherein the medicine-carrying container comprises a body, a plate-like member and an upper cover. The main body of the medicine-carrying container is used for containing medicines, and an opening is arranged above it; the plate-shaped piece is penetrated in the main body and can move along the longitudinal direction of the main body; and the upper cover is arranged on the opening of the main body. In addition, in a non-limiting embodiment, the drug-carrying container is provided with an identification bar code for displaying the relevant information of the drug.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the upper cover may be a sealed moisture-proof cover to prevent the medicine or powder from being damp and contaminated.

The medicine taking module includes a first actuator, a cap taker, a medicine bucket and a medicine scraper in structure. The cap removal device is detachably coupled to the upper cap of the drug-carrying container, and is used for opening and closing the upper cap. The first actuator is detachably coupled to the plate-shaped member, and drives the plate-shaped member to move along the longitudinal direction of the body to push the medicine out of the body through the opening. The scraper is arranged above the main body of the medicine-carrying container for scraping the medicine pushed out of the main body. The medicine hopper is arranged on one side of the scraper to receive the medicine scraped by the scraper.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the medicine collection set includes a weighing sensor disposed at the bottom of the medicine hopper.

According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the scraper structurally includes a scraper and a second actuator coupled to the scraper to drive the scraper to push the medicine into the medicine bucket. middle.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the medicine-taking module further includes a medicine-guiding member, which is disposed at the upper opening of the body of the medicine-carrying container, and is used to assist the scraper to move the medicine-guiding member along the medicine-guiding member. The drug is pushed into the hopper.

In other embodiments, the medicine taking module further includes a third actuator coupled to the medicine hopper for driving the medicine bucket to tilt and turn over on either side.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to a medicine taking system, which includes the medicine taking set, the rotating disk and the push-up member shown in any one of the above embodiments. Specifically, the rotating disk is provided with a plurality of accommodating grooves for loading at least one drug-carrying container; and the push-up member is provided below the rotating disk for loading any drug on the rotating disk along the longitudinal direction. The container is pushed up

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the medicine taking system includes at least one storage cabinet and at least one transport mechanism, wherein the storage cabinet is used for accommodating a plurality of medicine containers, and the transport mechanism is used for storage The drug container is transported between the cabinet and the carousel.

According to an optional embodiment, the handling mechanism is an automated robot or a transport track.

The main component symbols of the present invention are listed as follows:

100, 400, 600, 700: drug container

101, 601, 701: medicine set

110, 410: Ontology

112: Opening

114, 414: Plates

116: upper cover

120, 420: first actuator

130: Cap remover

140, 340, 540: medicine bucket

150, 650: scraper

151, 651, 751: Medicine module

152: Scraper

154: Second Actuator

156: Drug guide

342: Weighing sensor

542: Third Actuator

680, 780: Spinning disc

682: accommodating slot

685: Push-up parts

710: Locker

750: Handling mechanism

770: Control Module

752: Longitudinal handling pieces

754: Lateral Handling

756: Robotic Arm

7000: Medicine taking system

In order to make the above-mentioned and other objects, features, advantages and embodiments of the present invention more clearly understood, the accompanying drawings are described as follows: Fig. 1 is a medicine-taking set 101 according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 shows the medicine container 100 shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 shows the medicine hopper 340 according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figures 4A and 4B are schematic views of the operation of the medicine container 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 5 is a medicine hopper 540 according to another embodiment of the present invention; Figure 6 is according to the present invention A medicine-taking set 601 shown in another embodiment; FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the hardware configuration of a medicine-taking system 7000 according to an embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 8 is the medicine-taking system shown in FIG. 7 Schematic diagram of the structure of the 7000.

In order to make the description of the present disclosure more detailed and complete, the following provides an illustrative description for the embodiments and specific embodiments of the present invention; but this is not the only form of implementing or using the specific embodiments of the present invention. The features of various specific embodiments as well as method steps and sequences for constructing and operating these specific embodiments are encompassed in the detailed description. However, other embodiments may also be utilized to achieve the same or equivalent function and sequence of steps.

The term "drug" mentioned in this specification refers to a drug used to diagnose, treat, alleviate or prevent human diseases. In optional embodiments, the medicament may be in the form of tablets, pills, granules, powders, solutions, suspensions, syrups (syrups) or capsules (capsules). Most of the dosage forms of current scientific traditional Chinese medicines are medicinal powders, so the present invention adopts a preferred embodiment, and the dosage forms of the medicines are limited to powders, namely medicinal powders. In addition, the medicines described herein are not limited to western medicines or traditional Chinese medicines, and the medicines can exist in the form of a single prescription or a compound prescription.

Unless otherwise defined in this specification, scientific and technical terms used herein have the same meanings as understood and commonly used by those of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Furthermore, in not In the case of conflict with the context, the singular noun used in this specification covers the plural form of the noun; and the plural noun used also covers the singular form of the noun.

FIG. 1 is a medicine collection set 101 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The medicine-taking set 101 includes two components, which are a medicine-carrying container 100 and a medicine-taking module 151, respectively, and the two components can be configured to realize the operation procedure of automatic medicine-taking.

Specifically, in order to clearly illustrate the structure of the drug-carrying container 100 of the present invention, please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 at the same time. The drug-carrying container 100 structurally includes a body 110 , a plate-like member 114 and an upper cover 116 . The main body 110 is used to hold medicines, and an opening 112 is provided at the top; the plate-shaped member 114 is inserted through the main body 110 and can move along the longitudinal direction of the main body 110 , so that the volume in the main body 110 can be adjusted according to the plate-shaped member 114 position changes. Therefore, when the plate-like member 114 moves toward the direction of the opening 112 , it can be used to push the medicine in the body 110 out.

The upper cover 116 is disposed on the opening 112 of the main body 110 for sealing the drug-carrying container 100 . According to a preferred embodiment, a sealing rubber ring is arranged around the upper cover 116 in contact with the main body 110 to form a sealed moisture-proof cover, which improves the tightness of the two components, so that the drug-carrying container 100 can provide a good storage environment.

In optional embodiments, the configuration of the body 100 may be cylindrical or square. In a preferred embodiment, the main body 110 is cylindrical, which is convenient to process and can also avoid the accumulation or residue of medicinal powder in the main body 110 .

Furthermore, the body 110 of the present invention may be made of plasticized material or metal, depending on the available embodiment. In a specific embodiment, the body 110 is made of a metal material, for example, 304 stainless steel or an aluminum alloy material, and the surface is coated with a Teflon material to reduce the adhesion of the powder.

In one embodiment, the plate-like member 114 is structurally arranged corresponding to the configuration of the main body 110 , and the edge of the plate-like member 114 is closely adjacent to the inner wall of the main body 110 , so that the plate-like member 114 is up and down in the main body 110 During the moving process, the medicine/medicine powder can be pushed up outside the main body 110 reliably, so as to avoid the occurrence of powder leakage, especially, the medicine/medicine powder can be prevented from leaking from the bottom of the medicine-carrying container 100 . In other embodiments, the plate-shaped member 114 is in the form of a piston, and a tightening ring may be provided around the plate-shaped member 114 so that the plate-shaped member 114 can be kept in a sealed state during the moving process to avoid leakage.

In addition, in other embodiments, the drug-carrying container 100 is provided with a readable identification code (not shown in the figure) to indicate the drug loaded in the drug-carrying container 100 and its related information, for example, Drug name, date of manufacture, batch number, shelf life, storage status or stock, etc. In optional embodiments, the identification code may be an RFID or barcode. Those with ordinary knowledge in the art should understand that the identification code can be scanned by a machine reading device to obtain drug information corresponding to the identification code.

The medicine taking module 151 structurally includes a first actuator 120 , a cap taker 130 , a medicine bucket 140 and a medicine scraper 150 . The medicine-taking module 151 is configured to be coupled with the medicine-carrying container 100 . As shown in FIG. 1 , the medicine-carrying container 100 is configured in the medicine-taking mould of the present invention during the medicine-taking process. The group 151 is the area where the medicine taking operation is performed to carry out the medicine taking operation. The area mentioned here refers to the position where the medicine-taking module 151 of the present invention is configured to perform medicine-taking operation with respect to the medicine-carrying container 100 , so that each component in the medicine-taking module 151 can be detachably connected with the medicine-carrying container 100 . coupled.

Specifically, the first actuator 120 of the medicine-taking module 151 is detachably coupled to the plate-like member 114 of the medicine-carrying container 100 to drive the plate-like member 114 to move up and down in the body 110 . The cap remover 130 is detachably coupled to the upper cover 116 of the drug container 100 for opening and closing the upper cover 116 . the fetch The lid device 130 may be an actuator or a robotic arm, and the upper lid 116 is moved by grasping, so as to perform the opening and closing operation of the drug-carrying container 100 .

The medicine hopper 140 is disposed on one side of the scraper 150 to collect the medicine pushed out of the medicine container 100 . The scraper 150 is disposed above the main body 110 of the medicine container 100 for pushing the medicine pushed out of the main body 110 into the medicine hopper 140 .

In this embodiment, the scraper 150 is structurally provided with a scraper blade 152 and a second actuator 154 coupled with the scraper blade 152 . The scraping plate 152 is driven by the second actuator 154 to scrape the medicine powder into the medicine hopper 140. Furthermore, in order to prevent the medicine powder from falling during the scraping process, a medicine guide can be provided. 156 , so that the medicine scraper 152 can push the medicine powder into the medicine hopper 140 along the medicine guide piece 156 . In this embodiment, the drug guiding member 156 is a concave guide member formed by a bottom plate and two side plates, and the bottom plate is provided with a hole corresponding to the opening 112 .

Please refer to FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B , which are schematic diagrams of the operation of the drug-carrying container 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In actual use, in order to control the position of the plate-like member 414 inside the body 410 , the first actuator 420 is detachably coupled to the plate-like member 414 (see FIG. 4A ) to push up the plate-like member 414 414 The height inside the body. In this embodiment, the first actuator 420 pushes up the plate-shaped member 414 through a linear actuating mechanism (refer to FIG. 4B ) . In the process of actual use, when the powder is to be replenished, the plate-shaped member 414 is located at the bottom of the main body 410, so that the drug-loading capacity of the main body 410 is in the maximum state; when the medicine is to be taken, the first actuator 420 pushes up the plate-like member 414 to push the powder in the main body 410 upwards out of the main body 410 .

In a non-limiting embodiment, since the plate-like member 414 is a movable member in the body 410 , the first actuator 420 can abut under the plate-like member 414 and push upward or move downward. By moving, the position of the first actuator 420 in the main body 410 can be controlled. In other embodiments, a concave-convex joint structure is provided between the plate-like member 414 and the first actuator 420 , and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains can select an appropriate joint structure according to actual usage conditions.

FIG. 3 shows a medicine hopper 340 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In order to accurately measure the weight of the medicine powder, the present invention is further provided with a weighing sensor 342 at the bottom of the medicine hopper 340 . The weighing sensor 342 and the medicine hopper 340 may be independent components, or the weighing sensor 342 may be fitted or installed in the medicine bucket 340 .

FIG. 5 is a medicine hopper 540 according to another embodiment of the present invention. After the medicine hopper 540 of the present invention is loaded with medicine, the third actuator 542 can be further rotated to the left or right to pour out the medicine powder in the medicine bucket 540 for subsequent use. In actual use, it is set that the medicine hopper 540 can be turned to the left when the medicine is taken, and the medicine powder can be poured out for subsequent operations; on the other hand, if an error occurs in the medicine-taking process, the medicine bucket 540 The powder is poured out for recycling. For example, the error may be that the amount of medicine taken does not meet the specifications.

Therefore, the present invention is provided with a weighing feedback adjustment mechanism through the arrangement of the weight sensor and the third actuator, so as to solve the problem that the precision of the dose of medicine cannot be controlled in the prior art.

FIG. 6 is a medicine collection set 601 according to another embodiment of the present invention. The main components in this embodiment are substantially the same as the components of the medicine collection set 101 shown in FIG. 1 , so the same parts will not be repeated here. In addition to the aforementioned components, the medicine collection set 601 further includes a rotating disk 680 and a push-up member 685 . Specifically, the rotary disk 680 is provided with a plurality of accommodating grooves 682 for loading a plurality of drug-carrying containers 600 . The push-up member 685 is disposed below the rotary disk 680 to push up the drug-carrying container 600 loaded on the rotary disk 680 along the longitudinal direction, so that the top of the drug-carrying container 600 can be coupled with the scraper 650 to execute Taking medicine work.

During the actual operation, a plurality of medicine-taking containers 600 are loaded on the accommodating grooves 682 of the rotary disk 680, and the medicine-carrying containers 600 are coupled with the medicine-taking module 651 through the push-up member 685 in sequence, and subsequent medicine-taking is performed. Operation. It can be seen from this that the medicine-taking set 601 shown in this embodiment can simultaneously perform medicine-taking operations from a plurality of medicine-carrying containers 600 to improve medicine-taking efficiency.

Those with ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention pertains should understand that the push-up member may be an actuator, such as an electric actuator, an oil hydraulic actuator or a pneumatic actuator. In one embodiment, the push-up member is an ejector pneumatic cylinder.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the hardware configuration of a medicine taking system 7000 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The medicine-taking system 7000 includes a medicine-taking set 701, a locker 710, a handling mechanism 750 and a control module 770, wherein the control module 770 is connected in communication with the medicine-taking set 701 and the handling mechanism 750 to form an automated Medicine System 7000.

The storage cabinet 710 is used to provide a storage space for the medicine-carrying container 700 , and the transport mechanism 750 is configured to transport the medicine-carrying container 700 between the storage cabinet 710 and the medicine-taking module 751 .

In optional embodiments, the handling mechanism 750 is an automated robot or at least one transport track. The control module 770 can control each component to carry out the medicine taking operation through wired or wireless communication. The control module 770 drives the transport mechanism 750 to take out the target medicine-carrying container from the locker 710, and then transport it to the take-out. On the rotating disk of the medicine set 701, the automatic medicine taking operation is carried out as described above.

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of the medicine taking system 7000 shown in FIG. 7 . The medicine taking system 7000 includes two storage cabinets 710 , a transport mechanism 750 , a plurality of medicine-carrying containers 700 , two medicine taking modules 751 and a control module (not shown in the figure). Please refer to Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 at the same time, the control module 770 is in communication connection with the transport mechanism 750 and the medicine taking module 751 . The two lockers 710 are arranged opposite to each other, the transport mechanism 750 is arranged between the lockers 710 , and the two medicine taking modules 751 are respectively arranged corresponding to the lockers 710 .

In this embodiment, the conveying mechanism 750 is composed of a longitudinal conveying member 752 , a lateral conveying member 754 and a robotic arm 756 , and is configured to move the longitudinal and lateral directions of the longitudinal and lateral axes by the longitudinal conveying member 752 and the lateral conveying member 754 . Move and grab the medicine container 700 on the locker 710 through the robotic arm 756, and transport it to the rotating disk 780 of the medicine collection set 701, so as to perform medicine extraction according to the description of the above-mentioned embodiment.

Using the medicine taking system 7000 of the present invention to take medicine is fast and reliable, and through the identification code on the medicine-carrying container 700, the main control program can instantly determine the stock, expiration date or other source information of the medicine in the medicine-carrying container 700, It can carry out drug management and control more efficiently, improve the efficiency of pharmacy management, and at the same time, it can reduce the pollution and defects that may occur in the human operation process, and reduce the risk of medical negligence.

100: Medicine container

101: Take medicine set

110: Ontology

112: Opening

114: Plates

116: upper cover

120: First Actuator

130: Cap remover

140: Medicine Bucket

150: Scraper

151: Medicine module

152: Scraper

154: Second Actuator

156: Drug guide

Claims (10)

A medicine-receiving set, comprising: a medicine-carrying container, comprising: a main body for containing a medicine, and an opening is arranged on the upper part of the main body; and a top cover installed on the opening of the body; and a medicine-taking module, including: a first actuator, which is detachably coupled with the plate-shaped member to drive the plate-shaped member. The part moves along the longitudinal direction of the main body, and the medicine is pushed out of the main body through the opening; a cap remover is detachably coupled with the upper cover of the medicine-carrying container to open or close the upper cover ; a scraper, set above the body of the drug-carrying container, to scrape the drug pushed out of the body; a medicine bucket, set on one side of the scraper, to receive the scraper Medications scraped by the device. The medicine collection set as claimed in claim 1 further comprises a weighing sensor arranged at the bottom of the medicine hopper. The medicine-taking set of claim 1, wherein the scraper comprises: a scraper; and a second actuator coupled to the scraper for driving the scraper to push the medicine into the hopper. The medicine-receiving set set according to claim 3, wherein the medicine-receiving module further comprises a medicine-guiding member disposed at the upper opening of the main body of the medicine-carrying container to assist the medicine scraper to move along the medicine-carrying container. The medicine guiding piece pushes the medicine into the medicine bucket. The medicine-taking set set as claimed in claim 1, wherein the medicine-taking module further comprises a third actuator, coupled to the medicine bucket, for driving the medicine bucket to tilt and turn over on either side. The medicine-taking set according to claim 1, wherein an identification bar code is provided on the medicine-carrying container. The medicine-receiving set as claimed in claim 1, wherein the medicine-receiving module further comprises: a rotating disk with a plurality of accommodating grooves for loading the at least one medicine-carrying container; Below the rotating disk, it is used to push up any one of the drug-carrying containers on the rotating disk along the longitudinal direction. A medicine taking system, comprising: the medicine taking set according to claim 7; at least one storage cabinet for accommodating a plurality of the medicine-carrying containers; and at least one transport mechanism for storing the at least one storage The medicine-carrying container is transported between the cabinet and the medicine-taking module. The medicine taking system of claim 8, wherein the transport mechanism is an automated robot. The medicine dispensing system of claim 8, wherein the transport mechanism includes at least one transport track.

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