Automated pill dispenser to improve medication compliance, efficiency, and accuracy

Millions of people need to manually sort various medications into pill boxes, causing medication inaccuracies which is detrimental to public safety and an important cause of hospitalizations. It is especially challenging for seniors living alone and people with physical and mental disabilities to sort out pills and may need reminders to take their medications on time. There is an urgent need for a user-friendly home-based pill dispenser system to keep track of dosage and changes, in real-time, and dispense pills per schedule on time without the need to sort out pills in advance. Public safety personnel especially emergency response personnel who respond to medication overdoses and who temporally dispense medications during disaster relief, would benefit from having an automated pill dispenser device. There is currently no affordable, portable, and reliable automated pill dispensing and reminder device. A smart electronic pill dispenser was designed and 3D printed. An Arduino system and a custom-made Android application is used to electronically program a patient’s medication schedule. Two different pills are loaded into respective individual compartments. The android application guides the Arduino system to drop the individual pills into a receptacle below and an audio alarm alerts the patient to take the pills. The pill dispenser can accurately dispense medications without the need for manual sorting. In conclusion, the automated pill dispenser is a valuable device for use by patients and public safety personnel to be able to dispense medications conveniently and accurately.