BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a drug inspection assisting apparatus and a drug inspection assisting method and, more specifically, to a drug inspection assisting apparatus and a drug inspection assisting method which assist inspection to check whether or not drugs packaged in a packaging bag are drugs exactly according to a prescription.

2. Description of the Related Art

In medical settings, commonly, a patient brings a prescription written by a medical doctor to a pharmacy and drugs are dispensed according to the prescription in the pharmacy. When dispensing, so-called “one dose packaging” is often performed to package the prescribed drugs in a packaging bag for each dose. This packaging of drugs (one dose packaging) is expected to achieve effects such as prevention of forgetting to take drugs, facilitation of taking drugs, or facilitation of management of drug administration.

In the meantime, when a pharmacist dispenses or provides drugs, it is requested to check the prescribed contents based on listed items in the prescription, patient information, and the like. Because the pharmacist is required to confirm directions for each dose in inspections of the packaged drugs, the pharmacist bears large burden in the inspections. In order to lighten the burden on the pharmacist in inspections, an inspection assisting method and an inspection assisting apparatus have been developed in order to collate the contents written in a prescription regarding the kinds, quantity, and the like of drugs with the contents in packaged drugs. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-067342 (hereinafter referred to as “PTL 1”) discloses a technology to collate drug master images with captured images to identify which drugs are present in the captured images, and to create a listing table that displays the drug master images and drug area images showing each drug identified in the captured images while their positions aligned with each other. According to PTL 1, it is possible to facilitate collation of the captured images with the master images by the listing table, and improve efficiency in visual inspections by the pharmacist.

CITATION LIST

PTL 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-067342

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In PTL 1, the listing table including the master image and the captured images is created. Because the listing table displays the captured images for all kinds of drugs listed in the prescription, images of different drugs are displayed adjacent to each other in the vertical and/or lateral directions. Therefore, it is difficult to understand whether the listing shows a collation result for other drugs or a collation error occurs, thereby requiring time and effort for inspections.

The present invention is made in view of such circumstances, and the present invention aims to provide a drug inspection assisting apparatus and a drug inspection assisting method which enable pharmacist to effectively perform drug inspection work.

In order to achieve the foregoing object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, a drug inspection assisting apparatus for inspecting drugs dispensed and packaged in a packaging bag according to a prescription, includes: a drug collating unit configured to collate a reference image of each drug listed in the prescription and a collation-target image based on a captured image of drugs packaged in the packaging bag and determine whether or not the drug shown by the collation-target image and the drug shown by the reference image are the same drug; a listing-table creating unit configured to create, for each kind of the drugs to be packaged in the packaging bag, a listing table including the reference image of drug to be dispensed according to the prescription and all images which are determined to show the same drug as the drug shown by the reference image, among collation-target images; and a display control unit configured to cause a display device to display the listing table for a single kind of drug among kinds of the drugs listed in the prescription on a display screen.

With the first aspect, the listing table is created for each kind and the listing table for a single kind of drug among the drugs listed in the prescription is displayed on the display screen of the display device. Therefore, mistakenly collated drugs can be found easily, and the pharmacist (user) can perform the drug inspection efficiently.

According to a second aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus, the display control unit causes the display device to display the listing table for a similar drug which is similar to the single kind of drug on the display screen. With the second aspect, the listing table for the similar drug is also displayed so that the pharmacist can easily recognize a collation error even when the images are switched between similar drugs which are mistakenly determined.

According to a third aspect, the drug inspection assisting apparatus of the second aspect further includes a similarity calculating unit configured to calculate similarity between the drugs, in which the display control unit determines the drug whose calculated similarity to the single kind of drug is equal to or more than a threshold value as the similar drug, and causes the display device to display the listing table for the similar drug. The third aspect defines an example of a specific manner to determine the similar drugs.

According to a fourth aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus of the second or third aspect, the display control unit causes the display device to display, according to an instruction to display a designated kind of drug, the listing table for the designated kind of drug and the similar drug on the display screen. With the fourth aspect, the listing table including the similar drug to a desired kind is displayed on the display screen, so that the pharmacist can perform inspection efficiently.

According to a fifth aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus of any one of the first to fourth aspects, the listing-table creating unit creates the listing table including inspection assisting information of the collation-target images, and the display control unit causes the display device to display the listing table including the inspection assisting information on the display screen. With the fifth aspect, the listing table including the inspection assisting information is displayed on the display screen, so that the pharmacist can perform the inspection more efficiently. Note that the inspection assisting information in the fifth aspect is information for efficiently performing collation and inspection of the drugs, and may include dosing day (indicating a day for which the packaging bag is prepared), dosing timing, packaging bag number, and the like about the drugs shown by the collation-target images included in the listing table.

According to a sixth aspect, in drug inspection assisting apparatus of the fifth aspect, the listing-table creating unit changes an amount of the inspection assisting information to be included in the listing table depending on a number of the collation-target images included in the listing table. As in the sixth aspect, instead of fixing the amount of the inspection assisting information, the amount of the inspection assisting information included in the listing table is changed depending on the number of collation-target images (for example, through decreasing the amount of the inspection assisting information when the number of collation-target images is increased). Therefore, even when there are a large number of drugs, it becomes easier to view the listing table (images of drugs) so that the pharmacist can perform the inspection efficiently.

According to a seventh aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus of the fifth or sixth aspect, the display control unit causes the display device to display the inspection assisting information regarding only a designated image among the collation-target images displayed on the display screen. As in the seventh aspect, even when there are a large number of collation-target images (number of drugs) and less inspection assisting information to be displayed, the inspection assisting information about the designate image is displayed. Therefore, it is possible to check the necessary inspection assisting information so that the pharmacist can perform the inspection efficiently. Note that the inspection assisting information displayed in the seventh aspect may be displayed on a different screen from that of the listing table.

According to an eighth aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus of any one of the first to seventh aspects, the reference image includes a plurality of images obtained by imaging each of the drugs to be dispensed according to the prescription from a plurality of directions; and the listing-table creating unit creates the listing table including the plurality of images.

According to a ninth aspect, the drug inspection assisting apparatus of any one of the first to eighth aspects includes an imaging unit configured to image the packaged drugs from a plurality of directions to obtain a plurality of captured images, in which the listing-table creating unit creates the listing table including a plurality of the collation-target images respectively corresponding to the plurality of captured images. The drugs may face in various directions in the packaging bag (facing the front direction, back direction, or the like). The images captured from a plurality of directions are included in the listing table as in the ninth aspect so that collation can be performed securely and the pharmacist can perform the inspection efficiently.

According to a tenth aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus of any one of the first to ninth aspects, the listing-table creating unit creates the listing table with a size of the collation-target image adjusted to the reference image by magnifying or reducing the collation-target image. By marching sizes of the collation-target image to the reference image each other as in the tenth aspect, the listing table can be easily viewed and the pharmacist can perform the inspection efficiently.

According to an eleventh aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus of any one of the first to tenth aspects, the listing-table creating unit creates the listing table with a direction of the collation-target image adjusted to the reference image by rotating the collation-target image. By matching the directions of the reference image and the collation-target images each other as in the eleventh aspect, the listing table can be easily viewed and the pharmacist can perform the inspection efficiently.

According to a twelfth aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus of any one of the first to eleventh aspects, the reference image is a master image stored in advance for each drug possible to be dispensed or a processed master image obtained by performing image-processing on the master image. Through performing the image processing on the master image as necessary as in the twelfth aspect, visual confirmation and collation of the drugs can be performed easily.

According to a thirteenth aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus of any one of the first to twelfth aspects, the collation-target image is the captured image or a processed captured image obtained by performing image-processing on the captured image. Through performing the image processing on the captured image as necessary as in the thirteenth aspect, visual confirmation and collation of the drugs can be performed easily.

According to a fourteenth aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus of the thirteenth aspect, the image processing is an image-processing for extracting a drug region from the captured image. For example, when a plurality of drugs are included in the captured image or regions other than the drugs are also imaged in the captured image, by extracting the drug region as in the fourteenth aspect, collation and inspection can be performed efficiently.

According to a fifteenth aspect, the drug inspection assisting apparatus of any one of the first to fourteenth aspects includes a drug selecting unit configured to receive selection of a drug from a user, in which the display control unit causes the display device to display the listing table for the drug for which the selection is received. With the fifteenth aspect, the user (pharmacist) can display the listing table for a desired drug.

According to a sixteenth aspect, in the drug inspection assisting apparatus of any one of the first to fifteenth aspects, the display control unit causes the display device to display the listing table on a single display screen. With the sixteenth aspect, the listing table is displayed on a single screen, so that scrolling of the screen is unnecessary and checking of the collation result can be performed easily even when there are a large number of packaging bags. Note that the listing table can be displayed on a single screen by reducing the size of the images of the drugs, setting the resolution of display to be equal to or less than the resolution of the display screen, or the like.

In order to achieve the foregoing object, according to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, a drug inspection assisting method for inspecting drugs dispensed and packaged in packaging bag according to a prescription by a drug inspection assisting apparatus, includes: by the drug inspection assisting apparatus, performing a drug collating step of collating a reference image of each drug listed in the prescription and a collation-target image based on a captured image of drugs packaged in the packaging bag to determine whether or not the drug shown by the collation-target image and the drug shown by the reference image are the same drug; by the drug inspection assisting apparatus, performing a listing-table creating step of creating, for each kind of the drugs to be packaged in the packaging bag, a listing table including the reference image of drug to be dispensed according to the prescription and all images which are determined to show the same drug as the drug shown by the reference image, among collation-target images; and by the drug inspection assisting apparatus, performing a display control step of causing a display device to display the listing table for a single kind of drug among kinds of the drugs listed in the prescription on a display screen.

According to an eighteenth aspect, in the drug inspection assisting method of the seventeenth aspect, the display device is caused to display the listing table for a similar drug which is similar to the single kind of drug on the display screen in the display control step by the drug inspection assisting apparatus. With the eighteenth aspect, the pharmacist can easily recognize the collation error even when images are switched between similar drugs which are mistakenly determined, as in the case of the second aspect.

According to a nineteenth aspect, the drug inspection assisting method of the eighteenth aspect further includes a similarity calculating step of calculating similarity between the drugs by the drug inspection assisting apparatus, and it is determined that a drug whose calculated similarity to the single kind of drug is equal to or more than a threshold value as the similar drug, and the display device is caused to display the listing table for the similar drug by the drug inspection assisting apparatus. The nineteenth aspect defines an example of a specific manner to determine the similar drugs as in the case of the third aspect.

According to a twentieth aspect, in the drug inspection assisting method of the eighteenth or nineteenth aspect, in the display control step, according to an instruction to display a designated kind, the listing table for the designated kind of drug and the similar drug is displayed on the display screen. With the twentieth aspect, the pharmacist can perform the inspection efficiently as in the case of the fourth aspect.

Assisting method according to a twenty-first aspect, in the drug inspection assisting method of any one of the seventeenth to twentieth aspects, in the display control step, the listing table is displayed on a single display screen of the display device. With the twenty-first aspect, checking of the collation result can be performed easily as in the case of the sixteenth aspect.

As described above, with the drug inspection assisting apparatus and the drug inspection assisting method according to the present invention, pharmacists can perform the drug inspection work efficiently.

