Rapid pharmaceutical identification and verification system

1. A method for identifying and verifying a phannaceutical in a prescription vial, comprising:

storing a plurality of stored spectral signatures corresponding to known pharmaceuticals in a database;

inserting the prescription vial containing the phannaceutical whose identity is to be verified into a sample handling system;

measuring a spectral signature of the pharmaceutical whose identity is to be verified using a multimodal multiplex sampling (MMS) spectrometer;

comparing the measured spectral signature to at least one of the stored spectral signatures;

determining if the measured spectral signature matches one of the stored spectral signatures;

if the measured spectral signature does not match one of the stored spectral signature, reporting that the identity of the pharmaceutical could not be determined; and

if the measured spectral signature matches one of the stored spectral signatures, reporting the identity of the pharmaceutical.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sorting pharmaceuticals according to whether they have been identified or not been identified.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising reading an identifier on the prescription vial to obtain a prescription identity and displaying the prescription identity on a display.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising displaying the identity of the pharmaceutical on the display.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising comparing the identity of the pharmaceutical to the prescription identity and determining whether the pharmaceutical identity matches the prescription identity.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising reading an identifier on the prescription vial to obtain a prescription identity.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising comparing the prescription identity to the pharmaceutical identity.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying a confidence level representing how well the measured spectral signature matched the stored spectral signatures.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multimodal multiplex sampling (MMS) spectrometer comprises a laser diode, and wherein the laser diode has a laser beam that is incident on the pharmaceutical after it is transmitted through the bottom, side or top of the prescription vial.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multimodal multiplex sampling (MMS) spectrometer is a Raman spectrometer.

11. A prescription verification system comprising:

a database containing a plurality of spectral signatures corresponding to identified pharmaceuticals;

a multimodal multiplex sampling (MMS) spectrometer;

algorithms for matching spectra of pharmaceuticals to be verified obtaining using the MMS spectrometer to spectral signatures contained in the database corresponding to identified pharmaceuticals; and

algorithms for identifying such pharmaceuticals to be verified.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the MMS spectrometer is a Raman spectrometer.

13. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a display for displaying the identity of the pharmaceutical to be verified.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the pharmaceuticals to be verified are contained in a prescription vial, and wherein the prescription vial has a barcode label identifying the prescribed pharmaceutical,

further comprising a barcode reader for reading the barcode label identifying the prescribed pharmaceutical.

15. The system of claim 14 , further comprising a display for displaying the identity of the pharmaceutical to be verified and the identity of the prescribed pharmaceutical.

16. The system of claim 14 , further comprising a pharmaceutical sorter for sorting pharmaceuticals to be verified into either one of a “match” bin or a “no match” bin.

17. The system of claim 11 , further comprising an imaging device and an algorithm for processing images of the pharmaceuticals in the prescription vial to calculate parameters related to at least one of the size, shape, color and texture of the pharmaceuticals.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the system uses the parameters related to at least one of the size, shape, color and texture of the pharmaceuticals to identify the pharmaceutical.

19. A method for identifying pharmaceuticals in a closed vial comprising:

maintaining a database of known spectral signatures corresponding to known pharmaceuticals:

placing the closed vial containing the pharmaceuticals in a spectrometer system;

directing a beam of electromagnetic radiation at the pharmaceuticals in the closed vial though the side, the bottom or the top of the closed vial;

measuring a spectral signature from the electromagnetic radiation reflected, transmitted or scattered by the pharmaceuticals in the closed vial;

matching the measured spectral signature to one of the known spectral signatures; and

reporting the identity of the pharmaceutical in the closed vial,

wherein the spectral signature is measured using multimodal multiplex sampling spectroscopy.

20. A method for identifying pharmaceuticals in a closed vial comprising:

maintaining a database of known spectral signatures corresponding to known pharmaceuticals;

placing the closed vial containing the pharmaceuticals in a spectrometer system;

directing a beam of electromagnetic radiation at the pharmaceuticals in the closed vial though the side, the bottom or the ton of the closed vial;

measuring a spectral signature from the electromagnetic radiation reflected, transmitted or scattered by the pharmaceuticals in the closed vial;

matching the measured spectral signature to one of the known spectral signatures; and

reporting the identity of the pharmaceutical in the closed vial,

wherein the spectral signature is obtained using multimodal multiplex sampling Raman spectroscopy.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein Raman photons are processed using a parallel optical channel processing system.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein the beam of electromagnetic radiation is a laser beam coded so as to reduce fluorescence background.

23. A method for identifying pharmaceuticals in a closed vial comprising;

maintaining a database of known spectral signatures corresponding to known pharmaceuticals;

placing the closed vial containing the pharmaceuticals in a spectrometer system;

directing a beam of electromagnetic radiation at the pharmaceuticals in the closed vial though the side, the bottom or the top of the closed vial;

measuring a spectral signature from the electromagnetic radiation reflected, transmitted or scattered by the pharmaceuticals in the closed vial;

matching the measured spectral signature to one of the known spectral signatures; and

reporting the identity of the pharmaceutical in the closed vial,

wherein the database also contains the weight of the known pharmaceuticals, further comprising calculating the total weight of the prescription vial and the pharmaceuticals, to verify that the vial contains the correct number of pharmaceuticals.

24. A method for identifying pharmaceuticals in a closed vial comprising:

maintaining a database of known spectral signatures corresponding to known pharmaceuticals;

placing the closed vial containing the pharmaceuticals in a spectrometer system;

directing a beam of electromagnetic radiation at the pharmaceuticals in the closed vial though the side, the bottom or the to of the closed vial;

measuring a spectral signature from the electromagnetic radiation reflected, transmitted or scattered by the pharmaceuticals in the closed vial;

matching the measured spectral signature to one of the known spectral signatures; and

reporting the identity of the pharmaceutical in the closed vial,

wherein the prescription vial is rotated to ensure that the beam of electromagnetic radiation illuminates a random selection of the pharmaceuticals in the closed vial.

25. A method for identifying an unknown pharmaceutical in a prescription vial comprising:

creating, naming, and storing a plurality of known pharmaceutical spectral signatures using one or more multimodal multiplex sampling (MMS) spectrometers;

measuring the spectral signature of an unknown pharmaceutical using a multimodal multiplex sampling (MMS) spectrometer;

comparing the measured spectral signature of the unknown pharmaceutical to at least one of the known spectral signatures;

determining if the measured spectral signature of the unknown pharmaceutical matches one of the known spectral signatures;

if the measured spectral signature of the unknown pharmaceutical does not match one of the known spectral signatures, reporting that the identity of the unknown pharmaceutical could not be determined; and

if the measured spectral signature of the unknown pharmaceutical matches one of the known spectral signatures, reporting the identity of the unknown pharmaceutical.

26. The method of claim 25 , further comprising using a bar code reader to determine a prescribed identity of the unknown pharmaceutical.

27. The method of claim 26 , further comprising verifying whether the identity of the unknown pharmaceutical, as determined from the comparison of the measured spectral signature to the known spectral signatures, matches its prescribed identity.

28. The method of claim 25 , wherein the one or more multimodal multiplex sampling (MMS) spectrometer are Raman spectrometers.

29. The method of claim 25 , wherein the measured spectral signature is obtained through a closed prescription vial.