Digital prescription carrier and monitor system

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention provides a method and a prescription carrier apparatus for storing prescription data by a physician and for retrieval by a pharmacist.
The carrier data cannot be accessed by the patient; however, the carrier also functions as a prescription reminder for the patient and as a prescription compliance recorder.
The prescription carrier is a device roughly the size of a paging receiver or pager and has a dot matrix liquid crystal display (LCD), an infrared (1R) communications interface, pushbutton keys, a sound alert, and a vibration alert.
Internally, the carrier includes a microprocessor, non-volatile memory, a real-time clock/calendar, and interface circuitry to the LCD display, the IR transmit/receive devices, the keys, and the alert devices.
Data access to the prescription carrier is made by way of the IR interface which includes IR receiver and transmitter devices.
Such IR interfaces are provided on some laptop computers for communication functions, such as conveying data to be printed to a printer without electrical connection of the laptop to the printer.
The IR interface provides for communication with a physician's computer or a pharmacist's computer, both of which are provided with appropriate software to respectively upload or download prescription and/or compliance data.
The prescription data may be in the form of a data record with data fields which can be parsed by software within the prescription carrier to retrieve the name of the medication along with dosage factors and dosage scheduling.
The processor within the carrier uses the dosage scheduling data to set up a prescription reminder schedule for each medication in cooperation with the real time clock/calendar and the alert devices.
By this means, the carrier alerts the patient each time a dose of the prescription medication is due.
The prescription carrier includes a "delay" switch and a "take" switch.
The delay switch functions similar to a "snooze" button on a conventional alarm clock