This device is aimed at giving medications more easily to patients who have swallowing difficulty or dysphagia, mostly the elderly.

TYPE OF DEVELOPMENT

Medical device.

DESCRIPTION

A pill crusher was designed that reduces the efforts required by healthcare personnel by properly pulverizing medications. On top of that, it should be noted that many pill crushers available on the market do not fully ensure that there is no cross-contamination between medications. This contamination describes the mixing of residual powders from one patient's medications with those of another, which, no matter how minor it may seem, can lead to incidents or dangerous situations depending on the type of medication, and for this reason, it is a practice to avoid. Generally, it is often due to technical limitations of the crusher used, which fails to isolate the resulting powders of one patient from those of another between operations.

However, other times it is due to the incorrect use that ends up being given to the grinder after the staff has to perform that task repeatedly and ends up doing it improperly due to excessive work and lack of time. That is why a solution was sought to automate the grinding of pills in order to save time for the healthcare staff and at the same time reduce the efforts required to successfully complete the task. Additionally, the proposed solution must eliminate or minimize the risk of cross-contamination between medications.

INDICATION

Health area.

NOVELTY/ADVANTAGE

• Technical advantages: easy to use
• Social advantages: reduce residues and Improve working conditions
• Economic advantages: reduce costs

INFORMATION

• Reference: Automatic Pill Crusher
• Research group: COMPMECH Research group
• Main researcher: Iñigo Lorenzo, Mónica Urizar and Saioa Herrero
• Contact: Knowledge/Technology Transfer Office, iproperty.otri@ehu.eus

IPR STATUS

• Patent filing: ES1296006 (Granted)
• Priority date: 22/06/2022
• Applicant: University of the Basque Country (EHU)

COOPERATION GOAL

• Company interested in the license agreement.