Inexpensive automated medication dispenser for persons with neurodegenerative illnesses in low resource settings

Abstract

Neurodegenerative illnesses due to diseases or old age are typical examples of clinical conditions that may affect the proper observation of prescribed medication usage with negative consequence on dose potency. Commercially available medicine dispenser for these populations are expensive, complex to operate and/or beyond the reach of those living in low resource settings due to lack of social protection. This study presents the design and construction of an inexpensive ($49.6) medication dispenser suitable for point of care applications in low resource settings. The dispenser was constructed using a simple control mechanism based on Arduino^® IDE that controlled three different micro servo motors to accommodate different shapes of medication. Sequel to the laboratory trials by abled individuals, we were able to demonstrate between 58% and 100% accuracy of the device when the three servo motors were simultaneously used to dispense medication of three different sizes. Following rigorous clinical trials in the target population, we intend to deploy this device for wider and independent usage by users in order to prevent unnecessary hospital admission meant to enforce compliance with appropriate medication usage for the users.

Keywords:

• Neurodegenerative illnesses
• medicine dispenser
• older adults
• low resource settings

Disclosure statement

The authors of this manuscript declare that they do not have any financial or personal relationship with other people or organisation that could have inappropriately influenced this manuscript.