Gerenciador de Pílulas Inteligente

In Brazil, as in other countries in the world, the percentage of elderly people has been increasing in recent decades. This fact is mainly caused by the drop in the birth rate and the increase in the average life span. As a result, health care for the elderly becomes increasingly important. Adherence to drug treatment is a clinical challenge for doctors who serve this population. Very old people have multiple illnesses and, consequently, they use multiple medications. Some also have impaired cognitive or sensory functions, such as visual pathologies or decreased motor skills. However, nonadherence to drug treatment can lead to the emergence of new diseases, hospitalizations or even death. This article presents the development of an intelligent device that has the function of assisting drug management, seeking the well-being of the elderly. The device allows the registration of the time and interval of medication intake through a list of products, regulated by Anvisa, pre-registered in the system and selected according to its format. After audible and visual warnings, the medication is dispensed automatically, allowing the medication to be ingested at the appropriate time. It is also possible to view a drug consumption report and registration times. After testing, the developed prototype was effective for the purpose for which it was designed. The encoder system, responsible for monitoring and controlling the position of the medication compartment disc, presented an average deviation of 0.0263 mm, which prevents the overlapping of pills. At the same time, samples of medication availability at the scheduled times showed a zero error rate.