"Smart Pills" Intelligent, Internet-connected Medication Dispensing Machine

Prescription drugs have become an increasingly important part of the lives of the elderly. Some highly potent chemical drugs must be strictly managed and taken with caution. It is very difficult to understand the large amount of information about these drugs and to properly control them. According to research, the number of American patients who take medication at home by mistake exceeds 530,000 times a year[1]. This is even more common in remote medical institutions, with the number of accidents reaching 800,000. These data do not include those cases where patients do not take their medication at all. The cost of these mistakes is heavy, not only threatening people's health and life safety, but also causing huge medical waste.

The problem is exacerbated by the use of multiple medications. Nearly one-third of adults take five or more different medications. One study predicts that by 2010, the average senior in the United States will hold 38.5 prescriptions[2]. Each medication may have unique indications, contraindications, and drug interactions. With this large amount of information, coupled with an aging population, it is clear that medication errors will be a major problem that needs to be addressed.

Solution

Fortunately, technology will be able to help solve many of these problems. In fact, some aspects of a solution are already in place, but they need to be integrated into a comprehensive solution. For example, commercial databases of drug information already exist, and some of them are already online. These databases contain recommended dosages and frequencies, patient education materials, drug interaction warnings, and even pictures of what the drugs look like. Recently, new information has been added to drug labels. Every prescription drug package now has a barcode with the drug's prescription information. Many over-the-counter drugs have taken the same approach. In this way, a small, inexpensive embedded computer can be built that has database components, web page connections, timing functions, and I/O device control.

The Smart Pill is the name I gave to this device, which can help solve many problems of incorrect medication. It combines multiple technologies to identify the medications a patient is taking and understand the relevant pharmaceutical information, which can help patients take their medications correctly and on time. The Smart Pill consists of several small medicine boxes suitable for families and small medical institutions. Each medicine box contains a medicine bottle. The device is also equipped with a barcode scanner for reading drug prescription information, a touch screen , an electronic display that guides the user to select different medicine boxes, and an embedded computer for storing drug prescription information and medication schedules.

"Smart Pill" Prototype

The prototype device was developed using the ARTiGO Builder kit and WinCE software provided by the "Creative Flying" competition. Its components include a touch screen LCD display for automotive applications, a barcode scanner, a Velleman K8055 I/O board, several electronic displays, and a wooden box purchased from a craft store. The finished device is shown in Figure 2.

The LCD screen displays information in large, clear fonts to ensure that elderly or visually impaired patients can understand it at a glance. The "smart pill" can even read information to patients through text-to-speech technology. In addition, the device can perform regular checks to update drug information stored in a local database.

Figure 4 shows the main table interface of the "Smart Pill". This table appears when the user has not loaded new medicine into the device or has not been recommended to take a certain medicine. It is a "static" display of the device. The table can indicate the next time to take the medicine and the person who takes it. The "Smart Pill" can support multiple users in the same family. Advertisements or drug information scrolls in the picture display window. Users can get more relevant information by clicking on the advertisement or information menu. The main table interface can also display the latest reminder. If the user wants to view more reminder information, just tap the corresponding button.

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Through the main table interface, users can enter the user creation and drug information interface of "Smart Pill", as shown in Figures 5 and 6. In the creation interface, new users can be added or deleted through the input panel of WinCE software. Each user can set a personalized reminder ringtone for the drugs they take, and can audition and set these ringtones through the table.

Through the drug table interface, users can view the drug information that has been loaded into the "smart pill" device. It displays the name and quantity of each drug box. Through the drug dosage table interface (as shown in Figure 8), the dosage of each drug prescription can be viewed or changed.

Users can load new drugs into the "smart pill" by scanning the drug barcode. This function can trigger the device to contact the pharmacy database through XML Web services to retrieve all prescription information about the drug. Web connection can be achieved through wired or wireless networks, or even the modem in the mobile phone. Through wireless network connection, the "smart pill" becomes a portable device. The data is stored in the internal XML database of the "smart pill". When a new drug is added, the device will automatically compare the drug interaction information of the new drug with the existing drugs. If a slight drug interaction is found between them, the device will prompt the user and then continue the drug loading procedure; if a serious drug combination contraindication is found, the "smart pill" will not be able to continue to load new drugs, and it can generate a notification form so that the user can contact the doctor to solve the problem.

When new medicine is scanned before being loaded into the "smart pill", a screen interface as shown in FIG. 7 will appear.

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Next, the user needs to enter the last time they took the medicine, and can choose to adjust the standard dosage guidance information provided by the doctor. The "smart pill" will set the next dosage of the medicine in the medicine box based on the new information. The dosage creation table interface is shown in Figure 8. The "smart pill" can even automatically and gradually adjust the dosage time of different medicines to allow patients to obtain the easiest medication schedule to follow while also being within the allowed range of the medicine.

When it is time to take the next dose, the Smart Pill will sound a reminder ring and display relevant information on the LCD screen (as shown in Figure 9). If there are other instructions for taking the medicine (such as taking it between meals, etc.), these will also appear on the display. The Smart Pill lights up the electronic display on the corresponding medicine box and displays a picture of the medicine to be taken. According to the user's choice, the Smart Pill can also remind the user of medication information by calling a mobile phone, sending a text message, or triggering a small local paging device. The user can read the reminder information about a specific medicine, or the text-to-speech conversion technology can help read the relevant reminder information aloud. When the patient has taken the medicine, press the "Drug Complete" button to see the information about the next dose (if any). If several medicines are due at the same time, the Smart Pill will sort them one by one until all the medicines are displayed. The user can also choose to skip a dose. Therefore, the "Drug Skip" prompt item is added to the prompt list. The Smart Pill can collect the medication information that is very close in time and give a unified prompt, thereby minimizing the interference to the patient.

Main technologies

Artigo and Windows Embedded CE

According to the requirements of the "Creative Flying" competition, the "Smart Pill" must be developed with the help of Artigo Builders Kit and Windows Embedded CE. The OS image was created using Platform Builder. There is a program vulnerability in the VIA BSP of the Pico-ITX board, which affects the sound function. With the technical support of VIA, the author successfully solved the problem and shared the patch he made with all other contestants.

Touch screen display

The "smart pill" uses a Lilliput LCD touch screen for display and input. The reason for choosing this screen is that its moderate size and 12V power supply can perfectly match the Pico ITX system. I downloaded EETI's USB touch screen driver and integrated it into my platform image as an accessory. The display also has a speaker, which is connected to the audio output line of the Pico ITX.

Input/Output

The electronic display corresponding to the medicine box is controlled by the Velleman K8055 USB Experimenter board. The reason for choosing this board is that it is economical, feature-rich, and durable. However, the board does not come with Windows Embedded CE drivers. Using the Platform Builder documentation and templates found on the Internet, I wrote a dedicated USB stream driver for the K8055, integrated the driver into my OS image, and then wrote a software layer to integrate it with the application code.

Barcode Scanner

Barcode scanners can be integrated smoothly via the USB keyboard driver in Platform Builder.

.NET Compact Framework

The application is written in C# and uses the .NET Compact Framework. Windows Forms and XML serialization/deserialization are two particularly useful technologies. The internal database of the "smart pill" is stored in XML. Together, these tools maximize the productivity of the application.

Web Services

Although the prototype device's Web service connection was simulated, I wrote a Web service and proxy client to ensure proof of concept. Using the Visual Studio tool and .NET Compact Framework, I created the client while writing my application. The Web service was created using Visual Studio, IIS, and the standard .NET framework. This made it easy for the "smart pill" to implement a proof of concept Web service.