Wizzard Software Announces Canadian Patent Application Filing for Talking Pill Bottle

PITTSBURGH - Wizzard Software Corp. announced it has filed a patent application through its MedivoxRx Technologies, Inc. division with the Canadian Patent and Trademark Office. The application is titled "Pill, Capsule, or Medicine Container Audio Instruction Systems and Methods for Providing Audio Instructions with Pill, Capsule or Medicine Container."

IMS Health's annual review of prescribing and diagnoses trends reveals 2003 was a record year in the growth of retail prescriptions filled by Canadians. There were over 361 million prescriptions filled in Canadian retail pharmacies in 2003 (excludes hospitals). Retail prescriptions grew 7.9 percent over 2002, the largest annual increase during the last decade. Last year's retail prescription market totaled $15.9 billion, which represents on average 11 prescriptions per Canadian at an average retail price of $44 per prescription.

It follows that Canadian physicians were just as busy in 2003 as their health care colleagues in pharmacy, especially those in family practice.

There were 309 million visits made to office-based physicians last year and a family physician/general practitioner was seen in 73 percent of these visits.

Of the more than 361 million retail prescriptions filled in Canadian retail pharmacies in 2003, 80 percent of all prescriptions (new prescriptions and refills) were written by family physicians. Family physicians comprise about half of the approximately 57,000 doctors in Canada.

Rex, the talking medication bottle, assists pharmacies in complying with stringent prescription medication regulations by having the dosage instructions and other critical information read "out-loud" to patients in addition to providing the instructions on the standard label. This audio assistance helps to ensure that a patient fully understands what the medication is, how often to take it and when to refill the prescription or discontinue its use.

In addition to assisting pharmacies with their compliance initiatives, Rex helps meet the needs of an aging population as people lose their sight, cognitive functionality and physical abilities. Rex allows a patient to simply push a button on the bottle and hear their name, prescription type, dosage instructions, drug warnings and other information read in a clear, friendly voice.