Medication dispensing and timing system utilizing time reference message

Abstract

A medication dispensing and timing system includes a central monitoring computer which generates and sends a periodic time reference message over a two-way paging system to a plurality of patient communicators carried by respective patients. Each communicator includes sufficient memory to store the individual medication schedule of the particular patient, and processing circuitry which utilizes the time reference to interrogate the memory and generate a display and audible alarm to alert the patient when medication is to be taken. Upon the patient acknowledging the prompt, the communicator sends a reply message over the paging network to the central monitoring computer. Only in the event that a reply message is not received by the monitoring computer within a predetermined time period following the dispensing event, the computer initiates a procedure which includes an address-specific follow-up prompt message to the particular patient communicator. In the event no reply is received to this prompt message within a second predetermined period of time, appropriate telephone calls are made by the central monitoring center. The communicator may be equipped to electrically communicate with medication dispensing apparatus whereby the apparatus dispenses medication in response to a received prompting message. The dispensing apparatus may include a modem for communicating with the central monitoring computer to confirm actual dispensing when using, for example, a one-way paging system, and to provide a control path whereby the dispensing apparatus can be controlled from the monitoring computer in the event of a radio link failure.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.