Abstract: A pill verification system obtains a prescription filled at a pharmacy and gathers information of the pills being dispensed for a remote pharmacist to verify the prescription. As pills are dispensed to a pill vial to fill the prescription, a pill imaging system captures images of the pills, and a pill vial imaging system captures an image of the pill vial. The prescription, pill images, and pill vial image are transmitted to a remote verification system. A pharmacist is presented with the prescription, images of substantially all pills filling the prescription, and the pill vial of the prescription to verify the prescription is correct. The remote verification system may present prescriptions filled from many different pharmacies, permitting increased rate of verification and one pharmacist to support many pharmacies. The pharmacist's verification is transmitted to the pill verification system and displayed for a technician to complete verification of the pills.

Abstract: Medication errors happen frequently in hospital, home, and pharmacy environments. A medication verification and dispensing system provides protection against such errors. The apparatus includes a guide tube that receives a medication and imaging device(s) adjacent to the guide tube that take image(s) of the medication. The imaging devices(s) and light source(s) are oriented for capturing images that reveal markings, color, size, shape, etc., of the medication. A verification system uses a signature of the image to identify the medication or compares the image(s) to reference images to identify the medication and to a prescription record of the patient to ensure it is a correct medication, dose, amount, timing, etc., for administration. If the medication is correct, it is dispensed into a dispensing vessel that locks the medication inside, but unlocks when it recognizes a unique patient identifier worn by a patient that is a correct recipient for the medication.