A telemedicine drug delivery and compliance evaluation system

The prescription of drug dose by medical practitioners can be quite arbitrary, taking little account of age, body mass, sex or other physiological parameters. This can sometimes lead to overdose and unpleasant side effects or, in other cases, an insufficient drug dose to treat the symptoms. The authors' innovative approach to this problem is based on using the patient's own perceived needs, or opinion on condition, to request drugs, subject to constraints imposed remotely by the physician. This is accomplished using a supply of a drug in liquid form which is dropped onto a fibre tablet to be administered sublingually. The microcontroller-based delivery unit accurately measures the drug delivery by counting the drops and by weighing the tablet. Demand can be monitored by the physician over the telephone network enabling him to change the dose limits or study patient compliance to an agreed prescription.