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As a law student, headache-sufferer Shaan Khan didn’t get much relief when he reached for the painkillers. “I could never dispense the exact amount of tablets I needed when using bottled painkillers. I would always get so frustrated,” he recalls.

Later on, when working at a law office, that frustration turned to disgust. He noticed that whenever his ailing coworkers dispensed tablets from the “community bottle,” they would shake out more than they needed into their hands, then return the unused tablets to the bottle. “Their germs went right into the bottle, just waiting to infect the next person. That’s when I got the idea for a one-at-a-time dispenser.”

Khan took the idea to two engineering students, Matthew Curtin and Hernan Morales, and to his long-time friend Eric Fisher, and the team spent ten years developing the One Dose At-A-Time pill dispenser and container having same. “At the time, there was nothing else on the market for us to use as a starting point,” says Khan. “Our design evolved from an eight-piece device on down to its current two-piece design, and we even know how it can be made cost-effectively into a one piece.” The two-piece, all-plastic device consists of a collar that snaps into standard bottles and a closure with a flip-top lid. The lid’s safety latch must be pushed in and up to open it, devised as such to provide child resistance. After inverting the bottle, a 72-degree rotation will dispense one dose (or whatever amount is intended). Khan adds that the closure can be manipulated by a whole hand, easing opening for seniors. Now an injection-molded prototype, the dispenser is currently being evaluated by a few large pharmaceutical manufacturers. It is being marketed by Talisman Technologies LLC (Plainview , NY).

Being careful not to endorse any one package design or even format, I have to say that I am always pleased to see new ideas like this for easing self-medication. I was also pleased to see the latest innovations in compliance packaging put forth by the winners of the Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council’s annual Compliance Package of the Year awards. The top winner was Taro Pharmaceutical’s Warfarin Track Pack by American Health Packaging. The runners up were Forest Pharmaceutical’s Namenda patient starter kit by Korber Medipak and GlaxoSmithKline’s Imitrex nine-count Perfpak by MeadWestvaco. These packages were clearly designed with the patient in mind, outlining regimens through packaging cues and detailed instructions.

Why isn’t packaging put to work more often? I am constantly reminded of the need for better packaging whenever I watch my parents manage their own regimens. For instance, they often leave child-resistant caps askew on pharmacy-generated packaging. “I thought I closed it,” my mom will say. I also find that their pharmacist “pads” the regimens now and then, probably by mistake, including more than 30 tablets in what should be a 30-count bottle. While extra tablets may not appear to be an inconvenience, they can be troubling for patients who lose track of their dosing and need to count the remaining tablets to double check. An extra tablet or two left in a bottle could just be an extra tablet or, more seriously, a missed dose.

Even though I’ve never thought about the germ-sharing risk before, Khan’s point about sick patients spreading germs when sharing a bottle is valid. Also, I am often scrambling after tablets my parents have dropped on the floor, wondering how many really did fall out and whether or not they may find their way into the mouths of our pets or kids. Perhaps unit dosing could reign in these tablets.

Khan’s design, which he says provides “unit dosing with a bottle,” may be what consumers are looking for. So may be another recent solution we covered in our June feature on compliance packaging, called the Reel Dispenser. Designed by Clear-Vu Pharma (Westbury , NY), the square-shaped dispenser can hold blister strips wound in a roll. Also intended to be child resistant and senior friendly, the package cuts blister cavities open, one at a time.

Adopting designs like these, of course, will require a significant investment, especially for manufacturers that have left patient packaging up to the pharmacist. But if adoption wins over new patients, keeps them on their regimens, or prevents at-home dosing errors, the investment may well be worth it.

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