| abstract |
Many conditions are treated by ingestion, inhalation or injection of drugs at regular intervals, and the success of the drugs to treat and/or control a particular condition is largely dependent on the ability of the user to comply with the regimen associated with the drug. Personal management of user compliance with the regimen is assisted by various reminding devices and systems, which either generate an alarm at certain specified times or inform the user whether or not a dose is due in response to a request for medication. The invention provides an alerting system for use in generating an alert in respect of usage of a device, the alerting system including a detector (104,106) capable of detecting an event that is indicative of usage of the device, the alerting system being arranged to invoke a selected alert state prior to the activation of a forthcoming said event by a user, the alert state being selectable from a plurality of different alert states, wherein each of the different alert states represents a different stage of elapsed time since a previous said event, and wherein the alerting system is arranged to select an alert state in dependence on the elapsed time. The alerting system can be used in conjunction with a medicament dispenser (10,20,30,), in which case the event indicative of usage of a device may be an event relating to the dispensing of medication, such as taking a dose of medication. When integrated with a medicament dispenser (10,20,30,), the user can review the stage of elapsed time since a previous dose - i.e. whether it is too early to take a dose, time to take a dose or whether the dose time has been missed - before deciding whether to initiate dispensing of the medicament. |