WO2020109848A1

WO2020109848A1 - Feelpres – medical prescription clue for liquid medicine

Info

Publication number: WO2020109848A1
Application number: PCT/IB2018/059506
Authority: WO
Inventors: Shobhana SUGIRTHAMUTHU; Periasamy Parikumar; Sitendu BASAK
Original assignee: Sugirthamuthu Shobhana; Periasamy Parikumar; Basak Sitendu
Priority date: 2018-11-30
Filing date: 2018-11-30
Publication date: 2020-06-04

Abstract

The practice of medicine involves prescribing medicines to the patients where the patient is advised to use eye/ear drops and syrups once/twice or several times a day. People fail to understand and forget the dosage and frequency of application or usage. This invention provides changes and modifications in the form of bulges or depressions on the surface of the liquid medicine bottles, varying numbers one, two and multiples and varying shapes which will indicate the number of times the patient has to use the liquid medicine. This serves as a "touch and understand "medical prescription and hence the name, Feelpres. Color coding may be used for the bulges. Instead of bulges, there could be rings as additional attachments, made up of either sturdy plastic or elastic materials, which contain the bulges, or there could be depressions for the same purpose.

Description

The following specifications particularly describe the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed

MEDICAL PRESCRIPTION CLUE IS AN INDICATOR ON THE MEDICINE CONTAINER AND ON ITS COVER

Field of invention: Medicine packaging.

Title of invention : FEELPRES - MEDICAL PRESCRIPTION CLUE FOR LIQUID MEDICINE Introduction:

The world wide practice in the field of medicine is to prescribe liquid medications packaged in bottles. The doctor gives instruction to the patient or the caretaker to follow the prescription. Due to several reasons the patients do not follow the instructions given. The medicine application is generally advised to be used once a day, twice a day, thrice a day or several times a day varying from 6 to 10 times per day depending on the disease condition and the drug characteristics. Generally patients don't fully follow the instructions given by the doctor. The reasons are many. One of the reasons is the confusion that the patient gets after going back home from the hospital with multiple drugs. Even educated patients get confused and apply the wrong medication at the wrong timings.

This invention is pertaining to this aspect of the medical practice which will eliminate the confusion from the patients.

The invention:

The medicine containers are usually manufactured in the plastic materials both recyclable and non recyclable. During earlier days, manufacturers used glass bottles, but the present generation manufacturers use only plastic. The invention pertains to the manufacturing process and provision of circular fashioned bulges, humps or depressions over the outer surface of the plastic medicine bottles. The number of bulges will vary from one, two or several bulges up to 10 or even more.

There are some medications which need to be used only once a day. Few medicines need to be used twice a day. Still there are some medicines which need to be used several times a day ranging from six to ten times a day. Few ophthalmologists even advice the patients to apply eye drops for fifteen to twenty times a day. The reason for this kind of a schedule in using medicines including drops (eye and ear) and syrups is because of the drug or medicine half life period. The half life period of a medicine is the time taken for half of the administered dose to be eliminated from the blood circulation. So, the medicines which have a half life period of 24 hours need to be used only once a day. The medicines which have a half life period of 12 hours need to be used twice a day and so on. However the antibiotic eye drops prescribed for corneal ulcers are advised to be used on an hourly basis as the frequent topical application will enhance the availability of the antibiotics in the tear film to fight against the infection. Once a day eye drops are usually anti glaucoma drugs and atropine eye drops used for corneal ulcer. Some allergic eye drops, anti glaucoma medications, mydriatics and cycloplegics are applied twice a day.

Usually the antibiotic eye drops are only prescribed several times a day along with some anti allergic and some artificial tear eye drops. Considering all these facts, a patient generally gets confused and uses the wrong medicines at the wrong timings. To avoid this confusion it is purposed that providing a palpable bulge on the outer surface of the drops bottle or containercorresponding to the number of times the medicine has to be applied will make it easy for the patient. Just by touching the bottle, the patient will know whether that medicine should be used once or twice or multiple times by touching and feeling the bottle.

One bulge will mean that the medicine has to be used once a day. Multiple bulges will mean that the medicine has to be applied several times a day. Background of the invention:

This invention provides a simple solution to the confused aged patients where they have difficulty in remembering how many times that particular medicine has to be used. It gives utmost freedom for the elderly and illiterate to not to get confused with the eye drops anymore. Also uneducated mothers will know when exactly the syrups have to be administered to their children. Just by touching the bottle, they will know when and how to use it.

Prior art:

There is no prior art in this aspect of a palpable prescription method , which makes it so simple to just feel the bottle and tell what is written on the prescription. As of now, only the medical and paramedical personnel explain the medical prescription to the patient or patient's attender.

This is often times misunderstood and the medicines being used at wrong intervals causing serious health issues.

Reasons for the confusion:

Among the several genuine reasons, the senile dementia which is a condition where there is loss of memory for the elderly is a condition that warrants the use of this particular innovation. Other reasons include, lack of knowledge, absence of the care taker, inability to read doctors prescription, poor vision, small print on the medication and multiple unwanted prescriptions etc. All these factors play a role in the elderly life and increase their pain and agony by causing confusion in the usage of medication. In most of the under developed countries, the mothers who bring their children for medical treatment, are illiterates. This makes the situation worse. The medical prescriptions are misunderstood. Here we attempt to provide a solution to this major health related issue by providing modifications and alterations on the surface of the liquid medicine bottles / containers.

Drawing:

Enclosed

Drawing description

Fig : 1 Drops bottle with 1 bulge

1- Medicine bottle

2- Bulge

Fig : 2 Drops bottle with 2 bulges

1- Medicine bottle

3- Two bulges Fig : 3 Drops bottle with multiple bulges

1- Medicine bottle

4- Multiple bulges

Fig : 4 Syrup bottle with one bulge

5- Syrup bottle

2- Bulge

Fig : 5 Syrup bottle with 2 bulges

5- Syrup bottle

3- Two bulges

Fig : 6 Syrup bottle with 3 bulges

5- Syrup bottle

7- Three bulges

Fig : 7 Syrup bottle with multiple bulges

5- Syrup bottle

4- Multiple bulges

Detailed description:

The literacy level of the patients plays a major role in understanding the medical prescriptions given by the doctor. Sometimes even educated patients fail to understand the prescription leading to misuse or disuse of medicines. The hand written prescriptions hardly describe anything to the patients. Though the pharmacists understand the doctor's prescription, the patients fail to understand how frequently the medicines have to be used. Even if they understand in due course of time, they forget the dosage and frequency of application or usage.

The invention of palpres, which is a palpable prescription, will enable a patient to touch the medicine bottle and know how many times to use the medicines.

Fig : 1 Shows eye or ear drops bottle with 1 bulge indicating that the medicine must be used once a day indicated by the bulge 2

Fig : 2 Shows eye or ear drops bottle with 2 bulges 3 indicating that the medicine must be used twice in a day indicated by the bulges 3

Fig : 3 Shows eye or ear drops bottle with 3 or more bulges 4 indicating that the medicine must be used multiple times in a day indicated by the bulges 4

Fig : 2 Shows two bulges 3 are placed at the extremes of the bottle bottom so as to help the elderly patients with decreased tactile discrimination. If the bulges are placed close to each other, the elderly may find it difficult to distinguish between one bulge and two bulges.

Alternatively, the same concept is applicable for syrups also. Fig : 4 Shows syrup bottle 5 with a single bulge 2

Fig : 5 Shows a syrup bottle 5 with two bulges 3

Fig : 6 Shows a syrup bottle 5 with three bulges 6

Fig : 7 Shows a syrup bottle 5 with multiple bulges 4

Accordingly the syrup bottles have to be used based on the same principle as that of the eye or ear drops.

The bulges can be of varying sizes 3mm, 4mm and 5mm are circumferential bulges, circular in nature. The bulges can be semicircular, rectangular, oval, star or any other describable shape. There can be any variation in the shape of the bulge. Alternatively, the bulges can be replaced with palpable depressions on the surface of the bottle. But these depressions on the outer surface will cause protrusion into the bottle cavity which will in turn reduce the capacity of the bottle. Flence, the preferable choice would be to provide bulges of any shape and size appropriate for that particular size of the drops or syrup bottle. The manufacturer will decide which size will suit which medicine bottle.

There may be color coding applied for single bulge, two bulges, three bulges and multiple bulges. We recommend red color for single bulge, yellow color for two bulges, blue color for three bulges and green color for multiple bulges. As the color coding may vary in different countries and situations of life, these common colors may help the patients get a clue of how to use the medicines.

This invention gives the freedom to touch and feel the medical prescription instead of reading the prescription. Even an illiterate could easily tell that he / she must use the liquid medicine so many number of times a day. This makes understanding the unreadable medical prescriptions easy to understand.

This invention pertains to the field of medicine packaging in the manufacturing of medicine bottles, by providing small palpable bulges on the outer surface of the medicine bottle. The bulge may vary from size to size depending on the size of the medicine container. But on an average the size of the bulge will vary from 3mm to 5mm. This size should be sufficient to be palpable by the elderly fingers. Preferably the bulges should be present close to the bottom of the bottle. It will make it easy for the patient to feel the bulge very well as he or she tries to apply it into the eye in the case of eye drops by turning the bottle upside down. A 3mm/ 4mm/ 5mm bulge can be easily felt by soft palpation by the patient. This may vary from medicine to medicine as the size of the liquid medicine bottles vary extensively. So, it is preferable to have these bulges in these sizes. Preferably, the single bulge could be of the largest size of 5mm and double bulge could be of the size 4mm and multiple bulges could be of the size of 3mm. These bulges on the outer bottom surface of the medicine bottle will provide utmost comfort for the medicine user. One need not check the prescriptions to know how to use the medications.

Alternatively, instead of bulges, there could be a cavity kind of depressions in the form of excavations, which will convey the same information to the user, as to how many times that particular medicine has to be used. Either a bulge or a depression conveys the prescription information to the patient or the user and that is the ultimate purpose of this invention.

Alternatively, instead of providing bulges on the surface of the liquid medicine container, the said bulges could be provided on the surface of ring shaped attachments as additional fittings on the lower outer aspect of the liquid medicine containers. These ring shaped structures could be packaged along with the carton boxes of the liquid medicines. The user is expected to fit these attachments to that particular container of liquid medicine as soon as it is opened, so as to avoid any confusion. This could be easily achieved if the paramedical staff is trained to do this job, instead of expecting the patients to do it.

These ring shaped attachments with the respective bulges could be made with sturdy plastic material or a soft pliable elastic material such as rubber, nylon, vinyl or silicon rubber. This gives the freedom to stretch and fit to the varying sizes of the liquid medicine containers such as eye and ear drops and pediatric syrups.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the benefit of this disclosure that this invention provides palpable prescriptions for any medical packages or containers especially the eye drops, ear drops, pediatric preparations like syrups and drops. The drawings and detailed description herein are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive manner, and are not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms and examples disclosed. On the contrary, the invention includes any further modifications, changes, rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives, design choices, and embodiments apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention, as defined by the following claims. Thus, it is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such further modifications, changes, rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives, design choices, and embodiments. Collaborative usage.

It is envisioned that our accompanying patent application is about an eye drop applicator device which will provide space for the inverted eye drop bottle. So the eye drop bottle with bulges on the bottom surface of the bottle will ideally be used along with our eye drop applicator, which is a cup shaped provision to hold and support the eye drop bottle.

It is not a Braille system, where the bulges are on the surface of the paper but something close to that kind of palpable reading. It is a palpable prescription, the doctor's instruction which the patient can understand without reading the prescription by "touch and feel " and hence the name, FEELPRES.

Claims

CLAIMS We claim:

1. A single, two or multiple bulges on the outer surface of the liquid medicine, in the form of drops( eye/ear) bottle or syrup bottle, provided with bulge or bulges at the outer and lower bottom surface of the liquid medicine container, for the user to palpate and feel and know how many times the medicine has to be applied or used in a day.

2. According to claim 1, a single, double and multiple bulges on the outer bottom surface of the drops or syrup bottle.

3. According to claims 1& 2, the bulge of varying sizes 3 mm, 4 mm or 5 mm.

4. According to claims 1 & 2, the bulges of varying shapes square, rectangular, triangular, star shaped oval, elliptical, circular or any other describable shape.

5. According to claims 3 & 4 palpable depressions on the surface of the eye drop bottle of varying sizes and shapes.

6. According to claim 1 & 2 a palpable notch on the surface of the eye drop bottle, single, double or multiple

7. According to claims 1 & 2. A bulge, double bulge or multiple bulges of any shape and size proposed to indicate the number of times the eye drop has to be applied.

8. According to claims 1 & 2, a single bulge or double bulge or multiple bulges of any shape and size proposed to indicate the number of times the medicine has to be used in any other specialty of medicine.

9. Alternatively, according to claim 1, a there could be depressions in the form of excavations or cavities or any other palpable form, shape or size, or any other modifications which are purposed to indicate the number of times a particular liquid medicine has to be used.

10. Alternatively, according to claim 1, there could be color coding red for a single bulge, yellow for a double bulge, blue for three bulges and green for multiple bulges.

11. Alternatively, according to claim 1, instead of providing bulges on the surface of the liquid medicine container, the said bulges could be provided on the surface of ring shaped attachments as additional fittings on the lower outer aspect of the liquid medicine containers.

12. Alternatively, according to claims 1 & 11, these ring shaped attachments with the respective bulges could be made with sturdy plastic material or a soft pliable elastic material such as rubber, nylon, vinyl or silicon rubber, which gives the freedom to stretch and fit to the varying sizes of the liquid medicine containers such as eye and ear drops and pediatric syrups.

13. According to claims 1, 9, 10, 11 & 12, the bulges or excavations, depressions and cavities, could be of the same size or of different sizes, approximately 3mm / 4 mm / 5mm, or any other suitable size in proportion to the size of the liquid medicine container / bottle, indicating different number of times of usage of the liquid medicine.