THE ‘Poly Pharmacy Manager’, the newly developed device on the medical market, has been invented by United-States based Guyanese agency Nurse Technologies, to take healthcare to a new level with an expectation of saving an unpredictable number of lives the world over.

The device, known as ‘Poly-P’ was designed by Chief Executive Officer of Nurse Technologies, Lloyd Nurse, after he had a personal experience with missed doses of medicine and recognised that an undetectable number of people suffer in sickness, even unto death, because they have not used their medication properly or on time.

Nurse recently launched the device in Guyana and in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, described its purpose, and explained the inspiration and process behind the making of the mini-machine.
“We’re into medication management. Medication management simply refers to helping people take their medicine responsibly and the reason it is necessary is because you might be given your medicine to take… and you forget, or you remember to take it and then you take it and then 15 minutes after you’re wondering ‘did I take my medicine’… so this device is gonna make it easy for you not to have that problem,’” Nurse said.

Thousands of people die annually because of lack of medicinal care. Many people also develop further medical complications because of medicine not being taken on time, and Nurse said while he has had experiences with missing medicines, his invention will ensure medicinal mistakes are reduced. The electronic and battery operated device is programmed and instructions on how it works are part of the package. A number of medicines can be used through the system at the same time. Nurses Invention has four issued patents and two additional ones are waiting to be issued.

“You plug it up and it starts… after you take your first dose you just put the bottle (back) in there. It’s already programmed. If you try to take your medicine out before the time it is gonna go into an alert… If you don’t put it back, it’s gonna go into an alert. In cases where some people are older and they want to log that information so that their doctor could see or their son or daughter could see that they actually picked up that bottle automatically it’s logged into their cellphone or smart device. It don’t have to be that way but if they want that feature, it’s available. So somebody can be across the globe and they can tell them if they picked up their medicine.”

The Poly Pharmacy Manager carries a built-in Bluetooth device which sends a signal to a mobile phone or smart device attached to it, making someone aware even a great distance away, that the bottle has been removed and medicine taken.
“Once you pick it up the signal goes to the cellphone and it activates your app … And by programming this specific bottle into your smart device, it knows what you picked up… It makes so much easier to follow and to know what you’re doing, when you’re doing… It is a critical piece of equipment for anyone who needs medical care.”
Up to twenty medicines can be managed with the more advanced of the devices, and the smart device will record immediately who is taking the medicine, the colour of the medicine, and a photograph of the medicine, etc.

The inventor of the Poly Pharmacy Manager told the Guyana Chronicle that although the product has been patented in the USA, he has launched the product here since he is Guyanese and sees his invention as a tool to lift the country higher on the global map of recognition.
Nurse is a veteran of the Guyana Defense Force (GDF), and before migrating to North America in 1985, held the position of ‘Pilot in Command’ under the stewardship of now President Brigadier David Granger. In the US, he worked briefly as Pilot before becoming employed in the Financial Services field. He moved from New York to Atlanta Georgia, where he started the Atlanta Residential Mortgage Company.

His experience as a Pilot has also contributed greatly to the creation of the new appliance.
“I came up with this invention after I was given anti-biotic for a strep throat that I had and the Pharmacist said to me make sure that you take the full course or else your body can develop a resistance… got my medicine, went home and I took it for three days, the strep throat went away and so is the memory of taking the medicine, I totally forgot,” Nurse said.
A week after he encountered the bottle again his body had already started developing a resistance to the medicine, and so he thought of creating a reminder.

“If this can happen to me, it can happen to anybody and I started down the road by finding a simple solution. The first thing is noted is that … If you tell people to set a timer, they wouldn’t wanna do it, it’s too much work. And then I realize that you can have a clock without a visual on it, and that’s coming from my exposure as a technician in aviation. Part of my aviation training there were products or there were components on an airplane that would be running when you start, you don’t see it but it’s time related. And so I thought about that and I said this would be a good concept to apply to it.”
“And then it relates to how someone else can be brought in … if you’re passed out and you can’t get to your medicine… Your …. Can call your nurse’s cellphone or your wife’s… It will keep beeping until you get it,” Nurse explained.