Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02211724 1997-07-22
CLOSURE WITH INTEGRAL TIME KEEPING DEVICE
The present invention relates to closures for containers, especially to closures
used on pharmaceutical containers. Such closures are commonly termed caps.
Various types of caps are known to be used to close pharmaceutical containers,
none are known to provide an aid to memory. For many persons taking medication
over an extended period of time, dose control becomes a problem when the act of
taking a medication becomes mechanical and unthinking. The probability that a
10 person will double dose or miss a dose, increases with the increasing duration of a
drug therapy. The risk is greatest for persons, such as the applicant, who are on
long-term drug maintenance programs.
With respect to pharmaceutical regimens, the most common aid to memory in
dosage control has been a simple array of several small compartments, each
provided with an independent closure. The compartments, of which there are
normally seven - one for each day of the week - are often conjoined into a single
linear unit. More complex square arrays are available and may contain as many as
35 compartments. The medication to be controlled is removed from its dispensing
20 container and placed in the compartments of the array. The array can be consulted
occasionally and the medication in the compartment representing a specific day or
time can be administered once and only once.
The primary deficiency of the arrayed compartment aid to memory is that it
requires the removal of the medication from the container in which it was originally
CA 02211724 1997-07-22
dispensed. This results in the loss of most of the information that was provided with
the medication. The name of the person for whom the medication was prescribed,
the name and concentration of the drug itself, the ailment being treated, the date of
dispensation, the dosage instructions from the prescribing physician, and the
contraindications and warnings from the dispensing pharmacist, are all lost when
arrayed compartment devices are employed.
A secondary and inherent deficiency of the arrayed compartment aid to memory
is the physical size of the array. The entire array is significantly larger than most
10 pharmaceutical containers. This is often an inconvenience, and can deter some
patients from carrying their medications on their person.
It is desirable to have a pharmaceutical container that directly incorporates an
aid to memory and that does not, therefore, result in the separation of a medication
from its relevant information. The most direct and useful method of incorporating an
aid to memory device in a pharmaceutical container is to place it within the closure
or cap portion of the container. The record of time elapsed since the closure of the
invention was last placed on a pharmaceutical container, greatly reduces the risk
that a patient will inadvertently either overdose, or under dose. Furthermore, where
20 the closure of the invention is employed to replace a standard cap on a
pharmaceutical container, the new combination of container and replacement
closure is not appreciably larger than the original combination as dispensed. The
new combination is considerably smaller than any known arrayed compartment
device, and as such, it is much more likely that a patient will carry their medication
on their person. More importantly, the new combination obviates the primary
CA 02211724 1997-07-22
deficiency of the arrayed compartment aid to memory, by ensuring that medications
remain physically associated with the relevant information that was dispensed
therewith.
Further benefits of the closure of the invention arise in the circumstance wherein
a patient becomes incapable of self-administering a medication. In a medical
emergency, the closure of the invention provides two more benefits that are
additional to its aid to memory function. Firstly, and insofar as the closure of the
invention increases the probability that a patient will have his or her medication on
10 their person, the retention of the dispensing information with the medication, permits
other persons on scene to identify a medication found in the possession of a patient,
and thereby determine if the medication may be related to the patient's present
condition. Secondly, it provides to other persons on scene, a reliable record
regarding the time elapsed since the medication was last self-administered.
The closure of the invention is designed to replace existing caps used to seal
standard sized pharmaceutical containers and the like. The closure, as an aid to
memory, provides the user with an exact and continuous record of the time elapsed
since the conlai, ler was last opened. The closure of the invention consists of a time
20 keeping device, a battery, a pressure switch, and a display device. The pressure
switch is so arranged that when the closure is removed from the container, the time
keeping device is deactivated and reset to zero elapsed time. The closure, when
next replaced on the container, resumes its function of recording the elapsed time
since the container was last opened.
CA 02211724 1997-07-22
No closure with an integral time keeping device that is specifically designed to
replace the standard caps now used for pharmaceutical dispensing containers, has
been described or produced.
The invention, as exemplified by a preferred embodiment, is described with
reference to the drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a top view of the preferred embodiment of the closure.
Figure 2 is a sectional view of the closure shown in Figure 1.
Referring to Figure 1, the embodiment of the invention shown, a closure with
integral time keeping device, comprises a body portion with a knurled outer
circumference 10, a liquid crystal display 12 on the upper surface of the body 10,
and embossed lettering 14 on the upper surface of the body, serving to identifying
the correct orientation for reading the liquid crystal display 12.
Referring to Figure 2, the embodiment of the invention shown, a closure with
integral time keeping device, comprises a body portion 10, where, interior to the
body portion 10, are disposed a multiplicity of protuberances 20, arranged along the
20 lower inner surface of the body 10, which when engaged by the opposite members
of a pharmaceutical container, force the closure down onto the container. A pliable
gasket element 22, then contacts the upper rim of the container and is thereby
deformed. As the gasket element 22 is compressed, a rigid non-conductive annular
element 24, is forced upward, in turn forcing a resiliently flexible disk-shaped
CA 02211724 1997-07-22
conductive metal membrane 26, to impinge upon one pole of an electric storage
battery 28. This contact, completes an electric circuit, sending power to the
electronic time keeping device 30. Both the battery and the time keeping device are
immovably mounted on a rigid, disk-shaped conductive metal mounting element 32.
The activated electronic time keeping device 30, commences to record elapsed time,
said record being continuously transmitted to a digital liquid crystal display device 12,
by means of a multi-conductor element 34.
In operation, the closure of the invention, in its preferred embodiment, provides
10 an aid to memory in the form of an elapsed time record. The closure of the invention
is a self-contained mechanism, inclusive of a power source in the form of a battery, a
time keeping device, preferably in the form of an electronic time keeping device, a
display device, preferably in the form of a digital liquid crystal display, and a pressure
switch that regulates the supply of electrical power to the time keeping device,
depending on the state of the closure being affixed to a container or otherwise.
When the closure of the invention is affixed to a container, the pressure switch
is compressed, thereby completing an electric circuit, thereby permitting power to
flow from the battery to the electronic time keeping device, initiating said device to
20 continuously record the time elapsed since the electric circuit was established. The
electronic time keeping device continuously sends a record of elapsed time to a
digital liquid crystal display device. By these means, the number of hours and
minutes elapsed since the closure was last removed, is continuously displayed.
When the closure is removed from a container, the electric circuit is interrupted,
CA 02211724 1997-07-22
thereby erasing the record of elapsed time, and essentially resetting the device to
zero.
In the preferred embodiment of the closure of the invention, the time keeping
device and the display device are capable of recording and indicating elapsed times
of up to ninety nine hours (99 hr) and fifty nine minutes (59 min). For a patient on a
once per day drug regimen, an indicated elapsed time provided by the closure of the
invention of greater than 20 hours as an example, would remind the patient that he
or she had yet to take their medication for that time interval. Conversely, if the same
10 patient were to find an indicated elapsed time provided by the closure of the
invention of less than 3 hours as an example, it would inform the patient that it is
likely that he or she had already taken the medication for that time interval. For the
patient on a medication regimen of three doses per day, an indicated elapsed time
provided by the closure of the invention of approximately eight hours would indicate
that another dose was due presently.
The aid to memory provided by the closure of the invention, does not require the
separation of a medication from its original container. The prior art of arrayed
compartments requires such a separation. Furthermore, the closure of the invention
20 is smaller and more convenient to carry on one's person than are arrayed
compartments.
