Systems, apparatuses and methods to encourage injection site rotation and prevent lipodystrophy from repeated injections to a body area
Systems and methods encourage users to rotate injection sites and avoid lipodystrophy. Sleeves and/or lost-tooth gear dials and/or microswitches in or on injection pens or their caps, on vials, and on other portable devices manually adjust an indicator before or after an injection to show a current or next injection site in accordance with a site rotation plan. Injected medicine packaging and related printed indicia encourage site rotation. Optical devices employing optical mouse or projection technology help locate and/or distribute injection sites within a body area. A mobile phone app tracks injections and locations to select next injection site, and can use imaging to locate a target injection site and optionally diagnose lipodystrophic conditions and record them. Tactile and print media educational tools are presented to help users palpate and identify lipos in body areas having injection sites.
1. A reminder system for varying the locations of an injection site, comprising:
a user-operable device including an indicator, the indicator comprising
a rotatable lost-tooth device with at least one gear tooth and having indicia thereon related to respective days of the week; and
a rotatable indicator device disposed adjacent to the lost-tooth device, the indicator device comprising gear teeth and indicia comprising an indicium for each of a plurality of body areas for injection sites, the body areas comprising buttocks, thighs and abdomen;
wherein the at least one gear tooth is configured on the lost-tooth device to engage the gear teeth of the indicator device during part of a rotation of the lost-tooth device to advance the indicia by one indicium corresponding to a respective body area during one full rotation of the lost-tooth device.
2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the lost-tooth device is configured as a lost-tooth sleeve, which is rotatably secured to one of a medication device selected from the group consisting of an injection pen body, an injection pen cap, and a medicament vial.
3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the indicator device is configured as an indicator sleeve and further comprising
a mechanism linking the lost-tooth sleeve and the indicator sleeve so that advancing the lost-tooth sleeve by seven indicia advances the indicator sleeve by a single indicia, the mechanism comprising
a biasing device disposed between the lost-tooth sleeve and the indicator sleeve and configured to bias the lost-tooth sleeve distally toward the end of the medication device,
a cam track and a follower disposed on respective ones of the lost-tooth sleeve and the medication device such that, when the lost-tooth sleeve is rotated relative to the medication device, the follower is guided in the cam track,
the cam track having a first portion that guides the follower in a substantially planar manner and the biasing device prevents the lost-tooth sleeve from contacting the indicator sleeve,
the cam track having a second portion configured to permit the follower and the lost-tooth sleeve to overcome the bias of the biasing device, displacing the lost-tooth sleeve toward the indicator sleeve and allowing contact between the at least one gear tooth of the lost-tooth sleeve with the gear teeth of the indicator sleeve.
4. The system according to claim 3 , wherein the lost-tooth sleeve and the indicator sleeve are disposed inside the medication device, and the medication device comprises at least one window through which indicia on the lost-tooth sleeve and the indicator sleeve are visible.
5. The system according to claim 3 , wherein the lost-tooth sleeve and the indicator sleeve are disposed inside the medication device, the medication device comprises a plurality of windows, at least one of the plurality of windows being configured to allow one of the indicium on the lost-tooth sleeve to be visible, and a subset of the plurality of windows corresponds to respective ones of the body areas, the indicium of the indicator sleeve being configured to fill in a respective one of the subset of windows depending on the rotation of the indicator sleeve by the lost-tooth sleeve.
6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the exterior of the medication device is provided with a graphical human form, and the subset of the plurality of windows are arranged within the graphical human form in accordance with the respective body areas to which they correspond.
7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the lost-tooth device and the indicator device are each configured as a disc.
8. A reminder system for varying the location of an injection site, comprising:
an indicator having indicia thereon and comprising an indicator sleeve, which is movably disposed inside an injection pen having an injector button, and has a plurality of radial protrusions disposed on the indicator sleeve, each of the plurality of radial protrusions corresponding to a single one of the indicia, the indicia being visible one at a time through a window disposed on the injection pen; and
a rotating mechanism comprising a primary advancing protrusion disposed on the injection pen;
wherein upon distal displacement of the injector button to complete an injection, the injector button displaces the indicator sleeve distally, and the interaction between the primary advancing protrusion and a proximal one of the radial protrusions during the distal displacement of the indicator sleeve causes rotation of the indicator sleeve.
9. The system according to claim 8 , further comprising:
a biasing member biasing the indicator sleeve proximally relative to the injection pen; and
a secondary advancing protrusion disposed on the injection pen, the secondary advancing protrusion being circumferentially and axially offset from the primary advancing protrusion;
wherein upon proximal displacement of the indicator sleeve due to the biasing member, the interaction between the secondary advancing protrusion and one of the radial protrusions during the proximal displacement of the indicator sleeve causes additional rotation of the indicator sleeve.
10. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the indicia on the indicator sleeve correspond to respective body areas for injection sites.
11. The system according to claim 10 , wherein the indicia are repeated a given number of times on the indicator sleeve and advanced by one indicia upon distal displacement of the injector button to complete an injection for viewing through the window for a given number of injections.