PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16179287
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-11
Publication Date: 2019-03
Patent Classification: ["340", "568100"]

Abstract:
A method and apparatus for monitoring drug-regimen compliance is disclosed. Systems in accordance with the present invention enable automatic monitoring of the state of medicine content of a blister card. Each tablet location on the blister card is operatively coupled with a different sensor that detects whether the tablet location is occupied and/or a dispensing event at a tablet location. In some embodiments, capacitive sensing is employed, where the capacitance of each sensor is based on the physical state of a dispensing region of the lidding film of the blister pack, which is located at the tablet location being monitored. Alternative sensing approaches are based on optical, acoustic, and tactile sensors that interrogate either the dispensing region at each tablet location or the tablets themselves to determine whether tablets have been dispensed. The sensors interface with a mobile app that provides the user instructions to help improve drug-regimen compliance.

Claim (Index 42):
A method for monitoring the state of a blister card that includes a forming film, a lidding film, and a plurality of tablets that is arranged in a first arrangement, wherein each tablet of the plurality thereof is contained in a different reservoir of a plurality of reservoirs defined by the forming film and lidding film, wherein the method comprises:\n providing a detection module comprising a plurality of sensors that is arranged in the first arrangement such that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the plurality of sensors and the plurality of reservoirs, wherein each sensor of the plurality thereof includes a capacitor whose capacitance is based on the physical state of a different dispensing region of a plurality of dispensing regions of the lidding film, wherein each dispensing region of the plurality thereof is included in a different reservoir of the plurality of reservoirs; operatively coupling the plurality of sensors and the blister card such that each sensor of the plurality thereof is operative for providing an electrical signal based on the capacitance of its capacitor; determining a physical state of the blister card based on the plurality of electrical signals; comparing the physical state of the blister card with an expected state of the blister card, wherein the expected state is based on a predetermined prescription regimen for the plurality of tablets; and providing an output signal based on the physical state of the blister card relative to the expected state.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 5.0
- Percentile: 98.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.79775
- Patent Class: 340.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15223779', '16100430', '16156603', '14879874', '15170121']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7159142592785414
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.6156332259468338
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7058861559453705
- Mean Citation Score: 383.630132
- Max Citation Score: 551.76624
- Similarity Product: 503.65818430458086

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test