Medication dosing systems and methods

1. A method of preparing liquid medication doses using an automated dosing device, comprising:

securing a vial within a vial holder of the automated dosing device, wherein the vial comprises a liquid medicament;

securing an empty syringe within a syringe holder of the automated dosing device, with a plunger of the syringe being secured by a plunger gripper of the automated dosing device and a luer lock of the syringe being secured within a luer lock gripper of the syringe holder;

aligning and moving the syringe holder and the vial holder closer together to insert a needle of the syringe through a septum of the vial while longitudinal axes of the syringe, a needle of the syringe, and the vial are at a generally downward angle relative to horizontal and while the vial holder is at a lower position than the syringe holder;

rotating the syringe holder and the vial holder to align the longitudinal axes of the syringe and the vial with a vertical axis, with the vial holder positioned above the syringe holder; and

pulling the plunger gripper away from the luer lock gripper while the luer lock is secured within the luer lock gripper to transfer a volume of the liquid medicament into the syringe.

2. The method of preparing liquid medication doses using an automated dosing device of claim 1 , further comprising:

loading the syringe in the syringe holder using a robot arm.

3. The method of preparing liquid medication doses using an automated dosing device of claim 1 , further comprising:

releasing the syringe from the syringe holder to a robot arm.

4. The method of preparing liquid medication doses using an automated dosing device of claim 1 , further comprising:

aligning the syringe holder with a medication bag along the vertical axis;

moving the syringe holder closer to the medication bag to insert the needle of the syringe into a port of the medication bag; and

pushing the plunger gripper toward the luer lock gripper to transfer the volume of the liquid medicament into the medication bag.

5. The method of preparing liquid medication doses using an automated dosing device of claim 1 , further comprising:

rotating the syringe holder and the vial holder such that the longitudinal axes are at the generally downward angle; and

moving the syringe holder and the vial holder apart from one another to withdraw the needle from the septum.

6. The method of preparing liquid medication doses using an automated dosing device of claim 1 , further comprising:

blowing first air from a clean air source directly onto fluid transfer locations of the automated dosing device.

7. The method of preparing liquid medication doses using an automated dosing device of claim 1 , wherein:

pulling the plunger gripper away from the luer lock gripper to transfer a volume of the liquid medicament into the syringe is performed as part of a milking procedure to remove a first number of doses of the liquid medicament from the vial.

8. The method of preparing liquid medication doses of claim 7 , wherein:

the milking procedure comprises:

pulling the plunger gripper away from the luer lock gripper to introduce air into the syringe prior to inserting the needle of the syringe through the septum of the vial;

pushing the plunger gripper toward the luer lock gripper to introduce air into the vial after inserting the needle of the syringe through the septum of the vial;

pulling the plunger gripper away from the luer lock gripper to introduce liquid into the syringe; and

determining whether a volume of the liquid in the syringe matches a desired dose.

9. The method of preparing liquid medication doses of claim 8 , wherein:

the milking procedure further comprises pushing the plunger gripper toward the luer lock gripper to introduce a portion of the liquid from the syringe back into the vial when the volume of the liquid exceeds the desired dose.

10. The method of preparing liquid medication doses of claim 2 , wherein:

pushing the plunger gripper toward the luer lock gripper to introduce a portion of the liquid from the syringe back into the vial is performed after waiting a predefined dwell time.

11. The method of preparing liquid medication doses using an automated dosing device of claim 1 , further comprising:

transferring an additional volume of the liquid medicament from the vial into an additional syringe.