THE 'AIDIS' MULTIPLE MEDICINE DISPENSER PACK

A number of people suffer from AIDS or other ailments requiring repetitive multiple medications. Some are old and have difficulty in keeping track of what they need to take. Steven Wolfowitz, a chemical engineer, designed a composite double-sided compartmentalized dispensing pack to help systemize and help those sufferers. Prescription medication can be sorted by clinic staff to simplify the use requirements of patients and this packing encourages employment opportunities:

Many patients are poor, illiterate and live in rural undeveloped third world countries; they, and the other afflicted members of their families have to attend clinics where their conditions are diagnosed and medication is prescribed and supplied. Most are too ill and confused by their illness and the myriad of medicines and schedules of prescriptions to be able to take the requisite medication regularly and in the correct quantities. Doses depend on age, weight, condition, etc and each patient needs to take cocktails of different drugs at different times. In many cases the drugs are not taken correctly according to the prescriptions or at all resulting in the medicines losing their efficacy.

The container has numerous compartments arranged in an array of rows and columns. Each row compartment contains one particular medicament packed and labeled in doses by the clinic dispensary according to the column date and time. For example the first column refers to the morning of the first day, the second refers to midday of the first day, the third afternoon of the first day and the fourth the evening of the first day. The next row contains the doses for the second day's medicine, etc. A sliding cover, fixable at each column position, allows all the rows (medicines) for the first period to be uncovered simultaneously so that all the medicaments for that time can be extracted from the container and taken.

For the sake of cost saving a twin packaging arrangement is provided on the obverse side so that a two-week regimen of drugs may be administered for each patient from one dispenser. Every member of the family has his or her own pack so no confusion occurs. Two packs last for four weeks' supply. Drug manufacturers need supply in bulk lots thus saving on individual bottles, etc. Considerable packaging cost savings also result from not using ten individual bottles/packages for the numerous drugs for each patient.