PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16290656
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2019-03
Publication Date: 2019-06
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 43):
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 housing for locating the blister card and a detection module, the housing including a lid having an open position and a closed position; providing the detection module such that it comprises a plurality of sensors configured to provide a plurality of first electrical signals, each first electrical signal based on the content of a different reservoir of the plurality thereof, wherein the plurality of sensors 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, and wherein each sensor is selected from the group consisting of (1) a capacitive sensor disposed on the lid, the capacitive sensor configured to provide its respective first electrical signal based on a capacitance that is based on the presence of a tablet in its respective reservoir when the lid is in its closed position and (2) a tactile sensor that is configured to provide its first electrical signal based on a force applied to the forming film of its respective reservoir; determining a physical state of the blister card based on the plurality of first 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: 8.0
- Percentile: 99.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.79775
- Patent Class: 340.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: closed
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['16179287', '16100430', '15223779', '16156603', '14879874']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8168558515036716
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.6353867182785747
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7987089381811618
- Mean Citation Score: 452.7972959999999
- Max Citation Score: 553.2551
- Similarity Product: 478.7651420705974

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