Bag to gather, removably secure, and track pills and pill organizers in a compact way
A bag that holds pill-organizers within, which together serve as a rolodex of pill organizers, accommodates several pill organizers that are commercially available in the market in an orderly and secure manner. Similar to a rolodex, the pill organizers in the bag can also be removed individually for refilling with pills and rearranged back into the bag easily. The bag is completely or partially lined on the insides or constructed with loop material such that found on one side of a Velcro®. The pill organizers are provided on their under-side with the hook part of the Velcro®. This makes it possible to temporarily fasten the pill organizers along the inside walls of both sides of the bag. The invention, which is the bag with the pill organizers within, can be completely closed to look like a compact carrying case. The invention has additional spaces to provide documentation and other aids for administration of pills. The bag of pill organizers can be easily carried in one's hand or on the shoulder with a shoulder-strap while on a visit to the doctor or medical professional for a visual examination of pills not yet consumed and any changes in medication. The present invention can also be carried as a travel accessory during a user's trip such as on a cruise. The invention can have various ornamental designs to serve as identifiers and to cater to the preferences of users. The invention fills the need for a simple tool to organize pills and remove the pain of taking pills even while traveling.
This application is based on the Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/932,587, filed Jun. 1, 2007.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENTNot Applicable.
REFERENCE TO A SEQUENCE LISTING, A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM, LISTING COMPACT DISC APPENDIXNot Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is related to bags, the internal surfaces of which will have a collection of pill organizers that can be individually and removably attached to the inside surface of the bags using material sold in strips or pieces that can be glued or sewn to the interior surface of the bags, with the complemental part of such adhering strips or pieces glued or molded to the external surface of pill organizers; the bags internal surface and the pill organizers' external surface when thus equipped and pressed together will form a utility bag to secure the pill organizers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONPill organizers are used regularly by a variety of people, whether they are senior citizens who consume a lot of pills to maintain their health, young individuals who take health supplements, pregnant women and new mothers taking pills such as pre-natal vitamins and other vitamins, or medical patients who are required to take several pills at regular intervals during the day. Several types of pill organizers are commercially available to cater to the needs of various pill consumers. Filling up a pill organizer is often a weekly chore for the individuals who are taking the pills or their care providers. It is a tedious process; however like any assembly line process once the filling of the pill organizers is started the repetitive action makes it easier to fill several weeks' supply of pills where practicable. Pills that are purchased against a prescription can be orders for several weeks at a time. The pill consumer or care provider ought to be able to complete the chore of several weeks at in a single filling session, thereby saving considerable time and energy due to the efficiency achieved by repetitive action. The pill consumers or care providers have to often face the inconvenience of having to open several bottles of pills multiple times a day based on the prescribed dosage, and retain the bottles as long as the prescription lasts. This is inconvenient and prone to costly errors not only at the time of consuming the pills, but also when the medicine cabinet, rearranging closets, moving things around the house or when traveling. Further, it has been observed that when physicians ask their patients to bring along with them information on the medications during their visit to the doctor, the patients take several bottles of medicines with them in a highly disorganized manner. This makes it difficult or impossible to check at a glance if the patient has been taking medicines as prescribed or to assess at a glance if the pills are ready for reorder with another prescription.
Accordingly, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide convenience to persons consuming pills as well as any care providers including physicians helping such pill consumers with their consumption of pills to be able to easily gather, secure, store move, carry, open, keep a track of them at a glance, and further, with minimal effort be able to temporarily detach and re-attach pill organizers of any shape and form or number, at will for convenience or replacement. The invention prevents clutter in the medicine cabinet; prevents wrongful medication or mixing up of medication if an elderly couple has medications that look similar, so long as each of the medicine consumers use separate colors or identifiers on the invention.
For most users, pills and pillboxes are not a pleasant chore to deal with. Adding mechanical devices or electronic devices make them further intimidating. The present invention makes organizing of pillbox a simple activity. The present invention makes review of medication taken also a simple visual activity that can be handled competently by any medically untrained person with common counting skills. The present invention also emphasizes on simplicity by creating a product of convenience using clasps and straps and fasteners that are easy to understand and use requiring no special training or learning curve by the end-users. The present invention aims at replacing the clutter in a medicine cabinet to bring more structure and organization in a simple visual manner to the chore of managing and consuming pills from pillboxes day after day. The present invention also helps users to keep their medications and pills discreet in neatly closed presentable bags. The present invention allows the user to take all the pills and keep them together in one place, neatly organized. The invention includes the bag which externally is pleasing to the eye can be conveniently carried during travel.
Prior art in this field is replete with examples of organizers that require a lot of administrative skills with calendars and documentation. An example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,237 to Brandon which discloses a monthly calendar with daily panels, requires skills of an accounting clerk and an administrative assistant combined.
Other prior art in this field are not designed for convenience during long travel such as a senior citizen's cruise on a ship. An example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,506 to Welles which discloses a magnetic panel, containers that are not discreet about the contents or purpose, and complicated forms for medication compliance.
The present invention also emphasizes the need of the pill consumers for some privacy and dignity by covering the pillboxes in a convenient bag that is discreet and can be carried around like a fashion accessory. This is an emotional need of the pill takers that the prior art does not address well. An example is the prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,085 to Denney that places conventional pill boxes in ribbed open top trays.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThis and other objects are provided in accordance with the present invention by an aggregate of pill organizers which may be individually and removably fastened to the internal surface of a bag by a synthetic material sold in pieces or strips comprising complemental parts which adhere when pressed together. This is sold under the registered trademark VELCRO®, which is manufactured by American VELCRO Inc. of Manchester, N.H.
VELCRO® or the like, is applied by adhesive or sewn-in to both inside-surfaces of the bag and the outer surface of the pill organizers. This enables the pill organizers to be applied, removed and replaced at will. The VELCRO® or like material may be sewn in or applied by adhesive to the inside of the bag in the shape of parallel strips or other patterns, or completely covering or partially covering the inside surface of the bag. The complemental part of the VELCRO® or like material will be applied to the pill organizers by adhesive or may be molded to the surface of the pill box in strips, circles or other pattern to enable easy removal without compromising on the stability of the pill organizer when adhered to the bag after pressing the complemental VELCRO® surfaces against one another.
The bag itself may be shaped to adapt and hold any of a number of pill organizers of different shapes and styles. The bags themselves may be ornamental in design and may have a monogram or other decorative item or symbol attached or sewn in for fashion or identification. The bag may make a fashion statement as well. The bag may be made of denier nylon or fabric or leather or other synthetic material. The bag may have other utilitarian items attached as accessories such as planner or other aids to memory or fashion accessories.
These and other objects, features and advantages will be better understood by a study of the detailed description hereinafter with reference to the attached drawings.
The preferred embodiment illustrated is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Rather, it is chosen and described to better explain the principles of the invention and to enable one having an ordinary skill in the art to utilize the invention.
Referring to
Other modifications are shown in
Any other like materials can be substituted by one skilled in the art. While the invention has been described and illustrated in connection with preferred embodiments, many variations and modifications as will be evident to those skilled in this art may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention, and the invention as set forth in the appended claims is thus not to be limited to the precise details of construction set forth above as such variations and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.
Claims
1. A bag with multiple individual pillboxes securely held within, but capable of separating from the bag easily by simply pulling them apart by hand.
2. The invention according to claim 1, wherein said bag which contains pillboxes opens into two halves, and each half of such bag has an inside wall built of or equipped with a mechanism of Velcro® or like mechanism to hold firmly but temporarily onto several pillboxes at a time.
3. The invention according to claim 1 where in each of the said pillboxes further have their undersides equipped with the opposite kind of fastener allowing for the pillboxes to adhere securely but temporarily to the inside wall of the invention as explained in claim 2.
4. The invention according to claim 1 is further equipped with spaces and pockets to carry medical records and any documentation to assist the medical professional to check on the consumption of pills.
5. The invention according to claim 4 will have the facility to attach various accessories to create extra spaces for items of value to the user such as a place for plane tickets or currency and coins.
6. The invention according to claim 1 will have a mechanism like a zipper or other effective fasteners to effectively close and seal the invention in order to be able to carry the invention around during travel or during a visit to the doctor.
7. The invention according to claim 1 further has a strap or a handle on the outside to allow user to conveniently carry them around as a travel accessory.
8. The invention according to claim 1 wherein the bag opens up, further may have only one side with pillboxes, and the other side serving as a place to store any other item or items that can be held by Velcro® or similar compatible fasteners.
9. The invention according to claim 1 is of such capacity that it can store a 90-day supply of pills for the serious pill consumer.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 2, 2008
Publication Date: Jan 8, 2009
Inventor: Namratha Sanka (Sinking Spring, PA)
Application Number: 12/156,477
International Classification: B65D 33/06 (20060101); B65D 30/22 (20060101); B65D 33/16 (20060101); B65D 83/04 (20060101);