Apparatus and Methods for Removal of Pills from Packaging

Abstract

A pill extractor removes pills from a blister pack. In some embodiments, the pill extractor is designed to remove all of the pills from a blister pack for distribution or disposal. In such embodiments, the blister pack sits on a plate of the device, while a roller rolls across the blister pack to contact the blisters a row at a time and applies a force sufficient to extract the pills through the backing of the blister pack. The pills preferably fall through holes in the plate and may be collected on a tray under the plate. The roller is actuated by a crank, and a gear mechanism controls the advancement of the roller. In other embodiments, the pill extractor is designed to extract a single pill at a time from a blister pack. Methods of extracting pills from a blister pack are also disclosed.

Description

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation-in-part patent application of co-pending application Ser. No. 13/780,364, filed Feb. 28, 2013, entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR REMOVAL OF PILLS FROM PACKAGING”. The aforementioned application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention pertains to the field of medicine disposal. More particularly, the invention pertains to apparatus and methods for removal of pills from packaging.

2. Description of Related Art

Prescription medications in pill form are conventionally provided in packaging conventionally referred to as blister packs. An otherwise flat sheet of plastic includes regularly-spaced and equally-sized wells, with each well typically receiving one pill. A backing placed on the back side of the plastic sheet holds the pills in the wells. The backing is made of a material that can be easily pierced either from the back, such as by a fingernail or other hard object, or from the front by the pill. The backing is often made of aluminum foil or plastic. The plastic wells are preferably flexible such that a pill can be pushed through the backing by pushing on the well. In some cases, a third layer, often a thin layer of cardboard or similar material is placed over the backing layer with holes in the third layer corresponding to the locations of the blisters. The third layer provides support to the backing and helps prevent the backing from being inadvertently perforated.

Pills are packaged in blister packs for institutions such as pharmacies, hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons. Such blister packs are typically produced to hold 30, 60, or 90 pills. A 30-pill pack is typically about six inches by about 9 inches in size. The blister packs allow the institution to easily count and account for how many pills have been used and how many pills are remaining.

When a medicine is discontinued, the institution is required to collect all of its remaining supply and then tell authorities that it will be disposed of on a certain day. On that disposal day, many institutions have faculty, typically two nurses, sit and manually remove each pill in the blister pack. This can take a few hours and is a waste of resources. Some institutions, such as large hospitals, are able to avoid this manual process by incinerating the entire blister pack, but for many institutions, including smaller hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and pharmacies, this option is not available.

Rx Systems Inc. (St. Charles, Mo.) offers a deblister machine that applies pressure to blister packs to puncture the backing and release the pills without damaging the pills, but the deblisterer is large and expensive. The user pulls a handle down with a significant amount of force to press a flat plate against the front of the blister pack.

MTS Medication Technologies (St. Petersburg, Fla.) also offers a deblister machine, where the user pulls a lever down to press a flat plate against the front of the blister pack.

Vanguard Pharmaceutical Machinery Inc. (Spring, Tex.) offers two different models of deblister machines. One holds the blister pack in a vertical position and the other holds the blister pack in a horizontal position. Both models automatically remove the pills from the blister pack.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,414, entitled “Device to Remove Objects from Blister Packs” and issued Mar. 20, 1990 to Heath, discloses a device that includes a blade that, with the blisters facing downward, slices off the blisters above the pills but below the planar back portion of the plastic. The plastic blisters must then be physically separated from the pills.

Devices to aid in extracting pills one at a time from a blister pack for personal use are also known in the art, but these are not useful to institutions for bulk extractions of pills.

In institutions, such as, for example, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and pharmacies, that administer medications to individuals, it is necessary to extract one pill at a time on demand to supply the medication to the individual. This repetitive extraction process can also be labor-intensive and time-consuming, depending on the number of individuals receiving medication, the number of pills being administered, and the frequency of administration of the medication. These institutions would benefit from the use of a pill extractor that extracts a single pill at a time from a blister pack.

Additionally, elderly individuals living independently or not in a nursing facility may need to take many different medications on a daily basis and may not have the strength or manual dexterity to remove the required medication pills from a blister pack. These individuals would benefit from the use of a pill extractor that extracts a single pill at a time from a blister pack.

Conventional single pill extraction devices are hand-held and require the use of the thumb in a pinching motion with similar dexterity and in a similar pinching motion as used to remove a single pill by hand from a blister pack.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A pill extractor removes pills from a blister pack. In some embodiments, the pill extractor is designed to remove all of the pills from a blister pack for distribution or disposal. In such embodiments, the blister pack sits on a plate of the device, while a roller rolls across the blister pack to contact the blisters a row at a time and applies a force sufficient to extract the pills through the backing of the blister pack. The pills preferably fall through holes in the plate and may be collected on a tray under the plate. The roller is actuated by a crank, and a gear mechanism controls the advancement of the roller. In other embodiments, the pill extractor is designed to extract a single pill at a time from a blister pack. Methods of extracting pills from a blister pack are also disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a pill extractor with a cylindrical roller in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a pill extractor with a roller with cylindrical nubs for applying force to the blisters of a blister pack in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A shows a side view of a roller with oval nubs in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3B shows an end view of the roller of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 3C shows a perspective view of the roller of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4 shows an end view of a roller in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of a plate in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a prior art blister pack.

FIG. 7 shows a perspective view of a pill extractor with a roller with oblong nubs, a blister pack placed on the plate of the pill extractor, and a tray located under the pill extractor.

FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of a pill extractor with a roller with oblong nubs, a blister pack placed on the plate of the pill extractor, a hinged flap to hold the blister pack in place, and an elongated arm.

FIG. 9 shows a perspective view of a pill extractor with suction cups and an elongated crank arm.

FIG. 10 shows a perspective view of a pill extractor for extraction of a single pill at a time in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 shows the pill extractor of FIG. 10 with a prior art blister pack in position for a single pill to be extracted.

FIG. 12 shows the pill extractor of FIG. 10 with a collar around the nub in an embodiment of the present invention and with a prior art blister pack in position for a single pill to be extracted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In some embodiments, a roller of a pill extractor applies force to the blisters of a blister pack to break the backing for removal of the pills in the blisters from the blister pack. The blister pack sits backing side down on a plate with the blisters sitting above holes in the plate. The roller is actuated by a crank and gears to roll over the blister pack. The device breaks one row of blisters at a time and therefore requires less force than prior art devices designed to simultaneously break a full sheet of blisters. A tray may be placed under the device to collect the pills falling through the holes in the plate. In some embodiments, the tray is of a custom-made size to fit under the plate. In some embodiments, the tray reversibly attaches to the tray or the supports. Although the pills are preferably removed in one piece for ease of collection, in embodiments where the pills are being disposed of, the extraction process may break the pills into more than one piece.

In other embodiments, a lever applies force to a single blister of a blister pack to extract the single pill from the single blister. The blister pack sits backing side down on a plate with the blister containing the single pill to be extracted sitting above a hole in the plate. The lever is attached to a base and is pressed such that a nub extending from the lever applies the force to the blister to extract the pill. A cup or other container may be placed under the hole in the plate to collect the single pill falling through the hole.

Referring to FIG. 1, the pill extractor 10 includes a plate 12 with a plurality of holes 14 mounted to a pair of supports 16, 18. Fasteners (not shown) attach each support 16, 18 to the plate 12. Each support 16, 18 includes a slot 20, 22, respectively, to receive the hubs (see FIG. 3A) at the ends of the roller 24. The roller 24 also includes spur gears 26, 28 with teeth that mesh with the teeth of racks 30, 32 located on top of the plate 12. A crank including a crank handle 34 and a crank arm 36 attached to one hub of the roller 24 allows the user to actuate the pill extractor 10 by rotating the crank to rotate the roller 24 by engaging and disengaging the spur gear 26, 28 teeth with the rack 30, 32 teeth as the hubs (see FIG. 3A) actuate along the slots 20, 22. As the roller 24 passes over a line of blisters, the roller contacts and applies pressure to each blister. The plate 12 includes a raised portion 38 to contact an end of the blister pack and prevent the blister pack from sliding along the plate 12 as a result of contact between the roller 24 and the blisters. The pressure on the blister causes an opening in each backing to form either as a result of the pill being pushed against the backing or the air pressure in the blister compartment building to a sufficient level to pop a hole in the backing. The pill is then able to fall out of the blister compartment and through the opening in the plate 12 below the blister.

The pill extractor 40 of FIG. 2 includes a roller 42 with rows of elongated cylindrical nubs 44 extending from the central portion 43. The elongated cylindrical nubs 44 are preferred for blister packs with small circular blisters and small circular pills. The nubs 44 line up with the blisters and apply pressure to the blisters to form holes in the backing for removal of the pills. The roller 42 also includes rings 46 spaced between the rows of nubs 44. The rings 46 contact the blister pack and, in combination with the elevated portion 38, prevent the blister pack from sliding along the plate 12 as a result of contact between the nubs 44 and the blisters. The pill extractor 40 is preferably designed to remove all of the pills from the blister pack.

FIG. 3A through FIG. 3C show different views of a roller 50 with oblong nubs 52 extending from the center portion 51. The nubs 52 are symmetrical, as best seen in FIG. 3B and the roller is bi-directional, operating the same whether rolled clockwise or counterclockwise across the blister pack. The oblong nubs 52 are preferred for blister packs with oblong blisters, which are typically used for oblong pills or capsules. The thirty oblong nubs 52 are arranged in seven rows of four, one row of two, and one row of none around the roller 50 to correspond with the arrangement of the thirty holes on the plate. Alternatively, however, the roller could have only rows of four oblong nubs spaced evenly around the roller. The top surfaces 53 of the nubs 52 are shown as having a slightly convex shape but may alternatively be flat or slightly concave in shape to optimize the pressure applied to the blisters as the roller 50 passes over each row of blisters. The hubs 54, 56 on the ends of the roller 50 are visible in FIG. 3A through FIG. 3C. The crank arm is received in a central opening 58 and secondary opening 60 of one of the hubs 54 to couple the crank arm to the roller 50.

FIG. 4 shows a uni-directional roller 70 for a pill extractor. The roller 70 has nubs 72 that are asymmetric with top surfaces 74 that are not perpendicular with respect to a radius of the roller 70. This roller 70 is intended to be operated only in a clockwise direction 76 with respect to the orientation in FIG. 4 when contacting blisters to extract pills. The angle of the top surfaces 74 is preferably selected to provide a more uniform contact with the blister and a more even pressure at the point where the pressure is expected to be sufficient to pop the backing of the blister pack. The top surface may be flat, slightly concave, or slightly convex in order to further optimize the applied pressure.

Other nub shapes may be used within the spirit of the present invention. In some embodiments, the nubs are of a similar height as the nubs in FIG. 3A but are substantially round rather than oblong. The nubs are preferably sized and shaped to provide enough force in a form that is strong enough but small enough to compress the blisters while allowing the pills to go through the holes in the backing created during the compression. Alternatively, the nubs may be for an entire row, rather than being individualized to correspond to each blister. In some embodiments, the roller 70 includes only nine nubs 72, each nub extending along the width of the central portion of the roller to contact all of the blisters in a row of the blister pack.

Similarly, the size and shape of the holes in the plate may vary to accommodate different shapes of blisters. For example, FIG. 2 shows both oblong and round holes in the plate. In some embodiments, the holes in the plate are the same shape as the nubs on the roller and the blisters. In other embodiments, the shape of the nubs differs from the shape of the holes.

FIG. 5 shows a plate 80 for a pill extractor that includes a base 82 that attaches to the supports and a face plate 84 that includes the array of holes 86 and sits in the base 82. This design allows the size of the holes 86 to be changed by replacing only the face plate 84 without having to disconnect the plate 80 from the supports. The view of FIG. 5 shows locations of the support mounting holes 88 and the rack mounting holes 90 on the base 82. These holes 88, 90 receive fasteners to attached the supports and racks to the plate 80. The holes 88, 90 are preferably threaded to receive screws as fasteners. The view of FIG. 5 also shows that the rack mounting surfaces 92 are recessed in relation to the location of the top surface at the central portion of the base 82. The top surface of the face plate 84 is preferably recessed with respect to the surrounding top surface of the base 82 so that the formed edge prevents the blister pack from sliding with respect to the plate 80 while the pills are being extracted.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a prior art blister pack for use with a pill extractor. The blister pack 100 includes thirty blisters 102 forming wells to receive pills and extending from a flat portion 104 connecting the blisters. The blister pack 100 is shown with the blisters 102 facing upward in a grid of eight rows 103 (including one half-row) and four columns 105. A backing layer 106 covers the downward-facing side of the blister pack 100 and seals the pills in their respective wells of the blister pack. The blister pack 100 also includes a through-hole 108 by which it can be hung on a post.

FIG. 7 shows a pill extractor 110 with a pin 112 extending upwards from the plate and a tray 120 for collecting the pills as the pills fall through the plate of the pill extractor. A blister pack 100 is shown positioned on the plate with the pin 112 extending through the through-hole of the blister pack, and the roller 50 is ready to be actuated across the blister pack 100. Walls around the edges of the tray 120 prevent pills from rolling off the tray 120, or alternatively, the tray may be designed with a lip around the edges of the tray rather than walls. The tray may fit between the supports 16, 18 and below the plate as shown in FIG. 7, or alternatively, the pill extractor 110 may sit in the tray.

FIG. 8 shows a pill extractor 130 with a flap 132 attached by a hinge 134 to the plate 136 of the pill extractor 130. Fasteners 138 attach the hinge 134 to the flap 132 and the end of the plate 136. The flap 132 includes at least one hole 140 sized to the size of a blister of the blister pack 100 and aligning with the blister of the blister pack 100, when the blister pack 100 is properly located on the plate 136 and the flap 132 is placed on top of the blister pack 100. The flap 132 preferably includes at least two holes 140 in at least two different rows and columns to minimize or prevent rotation of the blister pack 100 with respect to the flap 132 when the flap 132 is properly placed over the blister pack 100. The blister pack 100 is shown positioned on the plate 136 and ready to receive the flap 132. An elongated crank arm 142 provides increased leverage to the user and makes it easier for the user to turn the crank.

FIG. 9 shows a pill extractor 150 with suction cups 152, 154 and an elongated crank arm 156. The supports are shortened from the earlier embodiments to provide space for the suction cups 152, 154 and a pair of back legs 158. The suction cups 152, 154 extend down from under the plate and act as legs in combination with the back legs 158 to balance the plate and crank mechanism. Additionally, the suction cups 152, 154 preferably attach by suction to the surface on which the pill extractor 150 is mounted in order to prevent the pill extractor 150 from moving during the pill extraction process. Although the design of FIG. 9 includes two suction cups, one or more than two may be used on either or both sides of the device within the spirit of the present invention. The tray 160 is designed to fit under all of the holes of the plate while avoiding the suction cups 152, 154 and the legs 158 of the pill extractor 150. The elongated crank arm 156 provides increased leverage to the user and makes it easier for the user to turn the crank. In some embodiments such as FIG. 9, the crank arm extends below the bottom of the rest of the device when oriented downward, such that the device must be placed on the edge of a table or counter to allow full motion of the crank arm. In a preferred embodiment, the crank arm has a length of about twelve inches.

In a preferred embodiment, the pill extractor is made of the following materials. The rack and spur gear are made of acetal plastic. The plate, supports, crank, and roller are made of aluminum that is preferably anodized or polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) hard-coated. The anodization may be black or colored. In other embodiments, the plate and supports are made of a different metal or plastic.

In a preferred embodiment, the pill extractor has the following dimensions. The plate is twelve inches long, 6.8 inches wide, and 0.44 inches thick. The rows of holes on the plate are 0.8 inches apart, and the columns of holes are 1.275 inches apart. The rack mounting surfaces are recessed by 0.15 inches with respect to the top surface of the plate. The supports are twelve inches long, six inches high, and 0.25 inches thick. The slot in each support is 9.43 inches long and 0.682 inches wide. The racks are eleven inches in length, 0.25 inches wide, and mounted to the plate by a pair of fasteners about 0.2 inches from each end. The spur gear has a diametrical pitch of 24 teeth per inch with 54 teeth. The crank arm is 3.5 inches long, one inch wide, and 0.4 inches thick.

In some embodiments, the top surface of the plate includes features, such as cleats, to increase the friction between the plate and the blister pack and prevent the blister pack from sliding on the plate. In some embodiments, rubber pads on the bottoms of the supports prevent the pill extractor from moving around on whatever surface where the device is placed.

In some embodiments, the pill extractor includes a roller and a plate with holes sized to be universal to all standard 30-pill blister packs. In a universal pill extractor, the holes on the plate are preferably sized to accommodate the largest pill sizes. The universal pill extractor may be used with 60-pill or 90-pill blister packs by cutting the blister pack into two or three units to form 30-pill blister packs.

In other embodiments, a pill extractor set includes multiple rollers and plates that are exchangeable to accommodate different blister packs. In some embodiments, the plate includes a base, which attaches to the supports, and a face plate, which sits on the base. The pill extractor set includes multiple face plates that are exchangeable to accommodate different blister packs. In such embodiments, the base of the plate remains attached to the supports and only the face plates are exchanged.

In some embodiments, the roller and crank assembly is separable to allow the roller to be easily exchanged with the supports remaining coupled to the plate. In some embodiments, both hubs are separable from the central portion. In other embodiments, only the hub coupled to the crank assembly is separable from the central portion. In other embodiments, only the hub not coupled to the crank assembly is separable from the central portion of the roller and the crank assembly is separable from the other hub.

In some embodiments, the pill extractor includes a pair of indications that the user can line up when assembling the pill extractor or when exchanging rollers to assure that the nubs on the new roller align properly with the holes in the plate when the roller is rolled across the plate. The indications may be grooves or marks.

In some embodiments, the through-holes in the plate are replaced with wells. Each well collects a pill from a blister and the pills are consolidated from the wells by inverting the plate and dumping the pills into a bag or onto a tray. The wells are preferably sized to receive multiple pills so that multiple blister packs may be processed before collecting the pills from the wells.

In other embodiments, instead of collecting expired pills for disposal, pills are individually removed from a blister pack for distribution to patients. In such situations, it is advantageous to easily remove pills from the blister pack one pill at a time.

Referring to FIG. 10, a single pill extractor 200 includes a plate 202 with a hole 204 mounted to a support 206 having a support body 207 and a base 208. Although the plate 202 is shown as a separate piece from the support 206 connected to the support by a pair of fasteners 203, the plate 202 may alternatively be integrally formed with the support body 207. Since different blister packs may have different blister sizes, shapes, and spacings, a single pill extractor may have a set of interchangeable plates, each plate having a hole with a size, shape, and location to correspond to one type of blister pack. A lever 210 is pivotally attached at a pivot 212 to the support 206 and extends out past the hole 204 of the plate 202. A spring 214 biases the lever 210 away from the plate 202 such that a user can insert a blister pack between the plate 202 and the lever 210. A nub 216 extends from the lever 210 toward the hole 204 of the plate 202. A knob 218 at the end of the lever 210 aids the user in actuating the lever 210. A container 220 sits in a well 222 below the hole 204 of the plate 202 to receive the extracted single pill from the blister plate. The plate 202 and the support 206 are preferably sized, shaped, and arranged such that all blisters of a blister pack are accessible for extraction by the nub 216 of the single pill extractor 200 with the blister pack placed on the plate 202.

In FIG. 11, a blister pack 100 sits on the plate 202 with a blister 102, containing a single pill to be extracted, positioned between the nub 216 of the lever 210 and the hole 204 of the plate 202. A user actuates the single pill extractor 200 by lining up the nub 216 with a blister 102 and pressing the lever 210 toward the blister 102 against the bias of the spring 212 to apply a force to the back of the blister 102 such that the backing on the blister 102 is broken and the pill falls through the hole 204 and into the container 220. The container 220 containing the pill may then be removed from the well 222 and given to an individual receiving the pill as medication. Upon removal of the force on the lever 210 by the user, the lever 210 pops back up as a result of the spring 214 bias, and the blister pack 100 is easily repositioned on the plate 202. A new container may be placed in the well 222 and the blister pack 100 may be positioned to have a different blister containing a pill located over the hole 204 for extraction of that pill from the blister pack 100. When the blister pack 100 is empty or when a new medication is to be administered, the blister pack 100 is easily replaced with a different blister pack 100.

The single pill extractor 200 shown in FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 may be modified in many ways within the spirit of the present invention. Although a coil spring and a pivot are shown, other biasing mechanisms or no biasing mechanism and other actuation mechanisms may be used. Although a coil spring is shown to apply a biasing force to the lever, other springs and non-spring biasing structures may be used to apply the biasing force, including, but not limited to, a leaf spring or a resilient compressible material, including, but not limited to, a solid foam. In some embodiments, the lever does not pivot but instead is flexible and bends to contact the blister for extraction of the pill. In all embodiments, but especially in embodiments without a pivot, a biasing force on the lever is optional.

In FIG. 12 the single pill extractor 250 has a collar 252 around the nub 216. This increases the footprint of the nub 216 and allows the user more room for error in lining up the nub 216 with the blister 102 to be extracted. The user does not have to sight it in exactly to successfully extract the pill from the blister. Although the collar 252 has a larger perimeter than the blister 102, the collar 252 is preferably small enough to avoid contacting neighboring blisters 102 during the extraction of a pill. In a preferred embodiment, the collar 252 has a length greater than the length of a blister but less than or equal to the center-to-center distance between neighboring blisters in a row, and the collar has a width greater than the width of a blister but less than or equal to the center-to-center distance between neighboring blisters in a column. In a preferred embodiment, the nub 216 and the collar 252 are made of aluminum.

Although a small plate design that provides a compact single pill extractor is shown in FIG. 10, FIG. 11, and FIG. 12, larger plate designs are also possible. In some embodiments, the plate has dimensions as large as or larger than a 30-pill blister pack, a 60-pill blister pack, or a 90-pill blister pack. In some embodiments, the top of the plate includes markings to aid a user in aligning the edges of a blister pack on the plate such that a desired blister is aligned with the nub and hole for extraction. In some embodiments, the blister pack is mounted in a predetermined fixed position on the plate and the plate is translatable with respect to the support and the lever such that moving the plate moves the blister pack to align the nub of the lever with a different blister for extraction. In such embodiments, any translation mechanism may be used for translation of the plate with respect to the support may be used within the spirit of the present invention. Alternatively, the blister pack may mounted in a predetermined fixed position on the plate and the pivot portion of the support and the lever may be translatable with respect to the rest of the support, the base, and the plate such that moving the pivot portion moves the lever to align the nub of the lever with a different blister for extraction in some embodiments. In such embodiments, the well for the container may be coupled with the pivot portion to move with the pivot portion and the lever so that the container is always located below the blister to be extracted.

Accordingly, it is to be understood that the embodiments of the invention herein described are merely illustrative of the application of the principles of the invention. Reference herein to details of the illustrated embodiments is not intended to limit the scope of the claims, which themselves recite those features regarded as essential to the invention.

Claims

1. A pill extractor comprising:

a) a support having a base and a support body extending upward from the base;

b) a plate extending from the support body and having a flat upper surface and having at least one hole sized and spaced to align with a blister of a blister pack; and

c) a lever comprising a lever arm operatively coupled to the support body at a first end of the lever arm and a nub extending from the lever arm toward the plate;

wherein actuating the lever arm toward the plate applies a force to the blister of the blister pack aligned between the nub and the hole of the plate to extract a pill from the blister and through the hole.

2. The pill extractor of claim 1 further comprising a pivot operatively coupling the lever arm to the support body at the first end of the lever arm.

3. The pill extractor of claim 2 further comprising a spring biasing the lever arm away from the support body.

4. The pill extractor of claim 1, wherein the base has a well located below the hole of the plate.

5. The pill extractor of claim 4 further comprising a container removably located in the well to receive the pill extracted from the blister pack.

6. The pill extractor of claim 1, wherein the lever further comprises a knob extending from a second end of the lever arm opposite the first end of the lever arm.

7. The pill extractor of claim 1, wherein the pill extractor extracts a single pill from the blister pack at a time.

8. The pill extractor of claim 1 further comprising a collar around the nub, the collar having a perimeter greater than a perimeter of the blister.

9. A method of extracting at least one pill from a blister pack comprising a plastic layer comprising a plurality of blisters evenly spaced in rows and columns and a backing layer, each pill being held between the plastic layer and the backing layer in one of the plurality of blisters prior to extracting the pill, the method comprising:

a) placing the blister pack on a plate of a pill extractor with the blisters facing away from the plate and one of the blisters aligned with at least one hole of the plate sized and spaced to align with the blister of the blister pack, the pill extractor comprising: a support having a base and a support body extending upward from the base; the plate extending from the support body and having a flat upper surface and having the at least one hole; and a lever comprising a lever arm operatively coupled to the support body at a first end of the lever arm and a nub extending from the lever arm toward the plate; and

b) applying a force to the lever until the nub contacts the blister containing the pill to be extracted to compress the blister until the backing behind the blister breaks such that the pill falls from the blister and into the hole of the plate.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein exactly one pill is extracted at a time.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising collecting the pill in a container located below the hole of the plate.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising placing the container on the base below the hole of the plate.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of applying a force to the lever comprises bending the lever arm until the nub contacts the blister.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of applying a force to the lever comprises causing the lever arm to rotate about a pivot operatively connecting the first end of the lever arm to the support body until the nub contacts the blister.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of applying a force to the lever comprises causing the lever arm to rotate about a pivot operatively connecting the first end of the lever arm to the support body and against a spring biasing the lever away from the support body until the nub contacts the blister.

16. A pill extractor comprising:

a) a plate having a first edge, a second edge opposite the first edge, and a plurality of plate holes in rows and columns, the plurality of plate holes being sized and spaced to align with a plurality of blisters of a blister pack;

b) a first support coupled to the first edge of the plate, the first support extending above the plate and having a first slot;

c) a second support coupled to the second edge of the plate, the second support extending above the plate and having a second slot;

d) a roller comprising a central portion, a first hub extending from a first end of the central portion and a second hub extending from a second end of the central portion opposite the first end, the first hub extending into the first slot and the second hub extending into the second slot;

e) a crank coupled to the first hub of the roller;

f) a gear mechanism coupling movement of the roller by way of the crank to movement of the hubs along the slots; and

g) a flap hingedly attached to the plate, the flap having at least one flap hole being sized and spaced to align with at least one of the plurality of blisters of the blister pack and at least one of the plurality of plate holes when the flap is flipped down toward a top surface of the plate.

17. The pill extractor of claim 16, wherein the gear mechanism comprises:

a first spur gear located at the first end of the central portion of the roller and comprising a plurality of first spur teeth;

a first rack located above the first edge of the plate and comprising a plurality of first rack teeth, the first rack teeth meshing with the first spur teeth;

a second spur gear located at the second end of the central portion of the roller and comprising a plurality of second spur teeth; and

a second rack located above the second edge of the plate and comprising a plurality of second rack teeth, the second rack teeth meshing with the second spur teeth.

18. The pill extractor of claim 16, wherein the crank comprises:

a crank arm having a first end coupled to the first hub and a second end opposite the first end; and

a crank handle coupled to the second end of the crank arm.

19. The pill extractor of claim 16 further comprising a tray located under the plate.

20. The pill extractor of claim 16 further comprising a plurality of nubs extending radially from the central portion of the roller, the nubs being arranged in rows and spaced to correspond to locations of the holes as the crank is being turned to move the roller.