Medication administration apparatus

An apparatus for managing adherence to medication by a patient, the apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory storing a predefined first medication schedule;
• an alert system configured to notify the patient to take medication, wherein the alert system is activated based on the predefined first medication schedule stored in the memory;
• a dispensing unit configured to dispense a pouch containing one or more medications, the pouch having displayed thereon machine-readable indicia representing a part of a second medication schedule;
• and an input configured to receive from a user an instruction to dispense the pouch, wherein the instruction to dispense deactivates the alert system and causes a scanning device to scan the indicia on the pouch to be dispensed, wherein the processor is configured to extract the part of the second medication schedule represented by the scanned indicia and compare the part of the second medication schedule to the predefined first medication schedule, and wherein the pouch is dispensed by the dispensing unit if the part of the second medication schedule is determined from the comparing to have a match with the predefined first medication schedule.