University of Lincoln student Edward Pitts-Drake has won £5,000 to support development of his idea for an automatic pill dispenser.
The first-year paramedic science student won the money in a Dragons’ Den style competition run by the University’s Student Enterprise service.
Inspired by his grandma who has dementia and struggles to remember to take her medication at the correct dose and timing and Edward’s business, Pills 365 Ltd, designed, manufactured and programmed a machine to help with this.
Edward’s invention could be used in a range of clinical settings, including care homes, hospitals, as well as domestically. The design holds several weeks’ worth of tablets and is equipped with an alarm to alert the patient to their next timed dose. Should they forget to take their pills, the motion sensor will detect nearby movement and re-sound the alarm reminder. Additionally, there is the option to send an email alert to a designated person.
To prevent medication being tampered with, the device can only be accessed with specific tools. It also houses an internal battery which will switch on in the event of a power cut and is equipped with an internal 4G Wi-Fi modem.
Edward said: “The Swans’ Den competition presented me with a unique and challenging competition to win funding as part of a business grant through Student Enterprise and the University of Lincoln Student’s Union. The competition has guided me in business planning and challenged my decision making to create a robust business plan that will allow my design to succeed for many years to come.
“Pill Dispenser v3 is in the prototype stage and built on the successes of version two, it will be the next level of automated medication dispensing management, as well as being an extremely easy device and ecosystem for the device user and carers. The funding has enabled me to speed up the process of prototyping and testing, which will allow the product to come to market in a shorter timeframe than I’d previously planned.”
