1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a pill dispenser. More particularly, this invention relates to a compartmentalized pill dispenser that is small enough to be carried with the user at all times, seals the pills against moisture and other degrading elements, protects the pills against vibration and is easy to use by an impaired person in an emergency situation.
2. Background Art
There are many instances where a person is required, due to illness, to carry medicine, such as pills and capsules, with them to be taken at prescribed times or upon the indication of need. An example of such a situation would be a person who has angina pectoris. In the case of an angina attack, an emergency arises due to deficient oxygenation of the heart muscles. This emergency requires an immediate dosage of nitroglycerin to be orally administered by the person affected. Since time is of the essence a person must, as of necessity, carry the pills on their person at all times and administer them immediately when an emergency situation arises. In such an emergency situation, a lapse of even a few minutes without administration of the medication could be harmful or even fatal.
It is conventional practice that persons who are required to carry pills with them at all times to keep these medications in their original containers. One drawback of this practice is that many such containers are bulky and are not easily carried in one's pockets. Another drawback that can result in dire consequences is that a person must first remove the cap of the container, remove the cotton stuffing and then single out a one small pill for ingestion. Often this problem is made more difficult if the person requiring the medicine has trembling or shaking hands or the container has a child-proof cap. Additionally, such an emergency situation may occur at night or while the victim is driving, or poor eyesight may make it particularly difficult for him or her to single out the tablet or pill and take it before their condition worsens. If the pills are spilled the user may not be able to find them in time to prevent harm.
It is also known for person's required to carry pills with them to employ a small container. For example, nitroglycerin tablets are often carried in a small tube with an inside diameter just larger than the pills themselves. Usually five to seven pills are stacked one on top of another in this tube. Unfortunately, these containers are known to fail such as when the cap which seals the tube becomes cross-threaded and stuck thereby making it difficult to remove the cap. Sometimes the pills are crushed by the cap if too many are loaded within the dispenser. If space is left to avoid this problem vibration of the pills increases. Vibration has been known to powderize the nitroglycerin pills to the point where they become jammed within the tube and cannot be extracted. Additionally, when the pills become powderized the dosage is then uncertain. Another problem with these tube dispenser is that like the larger bottles, the pills stacked within the tube can be easily spilled; this is especially true when the user is having some kind of attack. The dispenser is also difficult to load, especially for someone with poor sight, because it is often difficult to ascertain the number of pills within the container.
Additionally, many pill dispensers of the prior art do not protect the pills or tablets against moisture, light or other degrading effects. This is important as some medications are detrimentally affected by these environmental factors. For example, nitroglycerin degrades substantially when exposed to moisture or light and the pills are easily pulverized when exposed to vibration.
One attempt at resolving the access and spilling problems involved a pen-shaped dispenser, having an elongated hand-held core with a plurality of cavities adapted to contain pills or tablets. A sheath, open at both ends, surrounds the core which is slideable from a position covering all of the cavities to another position uncovering the cavities. A detent mechanism is employed between the sheath and the core for interrupting the sliding movement after each of the cavities is uncovered. For spatially orienting the tablet dispenser, and without the need to look at it, distinct physical touch indicia are fixed to the dispenser in lengthwise alignment with the tablet cavities. Although this pill dispenser resolved some of the problems associated with carrying pills on the person at all times, other persist. For instance, although the core and the sheath of the container are in close proximity to each other, there is not a water-tight seal between the core and the sheath of the container. This allows air and water to enter the dispenser and degrade the pills or tablets over time. Additionally, although the container is smaller than some of the prior art, its size is still substantial when considering its user would have to carry it with them constantly. Its length approximates that of a pen--on the order of six inches in length. In fact, the container purposely had an extension and pen clip such that the container could be carried in one's shirt pocket. Since women, and many men, usually do not place pens in any shirt pocket they might have, this would render the dispenser somewhat impractical for a person to carry with them.
To prevent the common pill dispenser problems, a better pill dispenser than is provided by the current technology is desirable. Ideally, this pill dispenser should be easy to use even when the user is in an impaired state. It should also be light-weight and small enough to take with one at all times. It should be able to dispense individual doses of medicine without the user having to touch them. Additionally, it should protect the pills from the effects of moisture, sunlight, air, and vibration. It is also necessary that the pill dispenser be made of materials that do not react with the pills thereby contaminating them.