MediSpin

Each year, thousands of patients suffer from medication mismanagement—whether it's forgetting a dose, overdosing, or becoming dependent on addictive prescriptions. This is especially true for vulnerable populations like the elderly with memory issues, such as Alzheimer’s or people already battling with addiction.

Luckily, there is a way to prevent such issues. Introducing MediSpin, a happy, intelligent, automated medication dispenser designed to give patients exactly what they need–and no more, no less. It not only prevents patients from risks of overdosing, but also supports adherence to prescriptions and provides peace of mind for caregivers and healthcare providers. The MediSpin has a smart dosing algorithm that allows doctors or authorized caregivers to set up the device to provide the correct dosage on the right days based on medical prescriptions.

Upon being set up at the beginning of each week, the MediSpin device only allows the user to dispense medicine once per day, as required by the prescription. To release pills, the user simply needs to press the dispense button. If the user attempts to dispense again, it will not let them. And if the user forgets to dispense their medicine for a day, the device will send an email notification to the caregiver to notify them of the missed dosage. The device is also connected to an online application where doctors, caregivers, or family members can log on to view updated information regarding their intake status.

The MediSpin device uses the power of the ESP8266 to process button inputs, control the servo motor, toggle the LEDs, and send HTTP POST requests to the PHP backend. The backend then takes in these requests and logs the data onto a text file, while also sending emails to the caregiver if the dose was flagged as missed. Then, our frontend webpage reads in the text file and outputs the data in an easy-to-read table, which can be accessed from any device.

The MediSpin device has huge potential in helping both people with memory deficiencies and recovering addicts to achieve more consistent medicine consumption habits. Taking medication should be safe, easy, and accountable, and with MediSpin, we ensure this is provided to patients, giving them and their loved ones a robust peace of mind.

Here after HackDavis 2025? Note that the website won't be updating anymore as the device that was posting to the database is offline.