In Brazil, as in other countries in the world, the percentage of elderly
people has been increasing in recent decades. This fact is
mainly caused by the drop in the birth rate and the increase in the
average life span. As a result, health care for the elderly becomes
increasingly important. Adherence to drug treatment is a clinical
challenge for doctors who serve this population. Very old people
have multiple illnesses and, consequently, they use multiple medications.
Some also have impaired cognitive or sensory functions,
such as visual pathologies or decreased motor skills. However, nonadherence
to drug treatment can lead to the emergence of new
diseases, hospitalizations or even death. This article presents the development
of an intelligent device that has the function of assisting
drug management, seeking the well-being of the elderly. The device
allows the registration of the time and interval of medication intake
through a list of products, regulated by Anvisa, pre-registered
in the system and selected according to its format. After audible
and visual warnings, the medication is dispensed automatically,
allowing the medication to be ingested at the appropriate time. It
is also possible to view a drug consumption report and registration
times. After testing, the developed prototype was effective for the
purpose for which it was designed. The encoder system, responsible
for monitoring and controlling the position of the medication
compartment disc, presented an average deviation of 0.0263 mm,
which prevents the overlapping of pills. At the same time, samples
of medication availability at the scheduled times showed a zero
error rate.