Pill compliance device and monitoring system

Abstract

A pill compliance device maintains a patient's pill supply and monitors the patient's access to pills contained in the device to memorialize the patient's compliance with his/her pill-taking regimen. The device has a housing, including an inner pill or capsule storage compartment and an electronics unit, a removable cover, a switch to detect removal of the cover and magnet away from the housing, and to detect a replacement of the cover and magnet to the housing, wherein activating the switch triggers a transition from an active state, to a dormant state, and vice versa. A transition from the dormant state to the active state, by replacing the cover to the housing generates a pill-taken signal. A microcontroller generates a compliance notification signal that is communicated wirelessly, to memorialize the apparent compliance.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A method of providing pill compliance by use of a pill compliance device for maintaining a patient's pill supply and monitoring the patient's access to the pills contained in the device to memorialize the patient's compliance with his/her pill-taking regimen, the pill compliance device comprising an electronics unit with a microcontroller and electronic components such as memory, a housing with an inner pill or capsule storage compartment for storing pills, a removable cover covering the inner pill or capsule storage compartment of said housing,
 said removable cover including at least one of:
 a) a magnet, a magnetically activated switch with the magnet, or, 
 b) a sensor switch including a sensor element detecting when said sensor switch is an open or a closed switch state, 
   at least one of said magnet switch or said sensor switch is independently used to detect removal of said cover away from said housing, and is responsive to a replacement of said cover to said housing,   wherein when separating said cover triggers each said magnet switch or said sensor switch being in a transition from an active state, to a dormant state, when the switch is activated, the magnet switch or said sensor switch are proximate due to the cover's presence prior to removal, and wherein attaching the cover to the housing triggers a transition from the dormant state to an active state, the method including the steps of:   first generating an access signal upon removal of the removable cover from the housing and inner pill storage compartment, the access signal indicative of a transition from the active state to the dormant state;   second generating a pill-taken signal when, within a predetermined amount of time, the removable cover is replaced on the housing and inner pill storage compartment, the pill-compliance signal indicative of the patient's having ingested the pill;   in response to a pill-taken signal, the microcontroller generating a compliance notification signal and provides said compliance notification signal to a wireless communication attached to or coupled to the electronic unit to memorialize the apparent compliance.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of the microcontroller generating a compliance notification signal includes directly sending said signal to a third party to communicate that the user has failed to take a required pill or capsule. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of the microcontroller generating a compliance notification signal includes directly sending said signal to a cloud storage system, where the user data of the wireless notification signal is stored and accessed by authorized users. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the step of the microcontroller generating a compliance notification signal requires generating an open cover signal and a closed cover signal in a sequence within a predetermined time period. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the access signal indicates the time and date that a patient user acted to obtain access to the pills in the compartment. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the electronics unit comprises a printed circuit board. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  wherein said printed circuit board comprises an ESP09 microprocessor module, a super capacitor, and a resistor, wherein when said power supply is a battery and said battery does not supply necessary current at a fast enough speed, a draw from the circuit reduces a load from said battery, said super capacitor accumulates the current from said battery over a short period of time, and discharges the current at an increased speed to power said circuit board; and said resistor controls the discharge of the current from said super capacitor. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said wireless communication is selected from the group consisting of Wi-Fi communications and Bluetooth® communications.