| 摘要 |
A portable medication cartridge (100) allows for both manual and automated dispensing of tablets or capsules (7,8) of virtually all sizes through a radial dispensing apparatus. The cartridge (100) may be sealed and encoded with medication and patient identification. A microprocessor controlled medication dispensing apparatus includes a cartridge magazine (400) capable of holding a plurality of cartridges (100a-n) for the same or different patients. The portable medication dispensing apparatus and method detects patient identification data and activates a radial dispensing medication cartridge (100) in response to verification of patient identification data. The radial dispensing medication cartridge (100) may include, for example, a tablet carrier tape (700) having a plurality of tablet packets with at least a partially open side. The tablet carrier tape (700) accommodates different sizes and types of tablets or capsules (718) and is sealed with a cover tape (704) having an identification (720) of the tablets. The cover tape (704) is removed after the carrier tape (700) is inserted into the dispensing medication cartridge (100). The medication is sequentially advanced and allowed to radially dispense through the open side of the tablet carrier tape (700) from the medication cartridge (100). <IMAGE> |
