This was a student project to participate in the Community College Innovation Challenge sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the American Association of Community Colleges.

Update: June 18, 2015

We won the National Science Foundation Community College Innovation Challenge!  We were honored to take part in the competition and learned a TON in the process.  While we were in Washington DC, we learned how to pitch ideas, then tested them on Capitol Hill during a reception. It was an immensely challenging and rewarding experience.

We built a second prototype of the disaster medical dispensation kit that was finished (and immediately shipped) the Wednesday just prior to the DC event.

Our second prototype is more practical and can be carried to the disaster site.

Our second prototype was more practical and could be carried to the disaster site.

The second prototype uses RFID authentication (located on the left side behind the PCM logo).  Upon successful scan, the box begins listening to movement of the bins (green and red inside the box) with potentiometers which track and indicate if a bin has been opened. Information about who and what was accessed was logged into a database.  The box had GPS tracking and was powered by a Raspberry Pi 2.

Here are the 2015 Community College Innovation Challenge teams.

Community College Innovation Challenge 2015 group picture. We were excited to be in one of the Senate buildings pitching our projects. Photo: American Association of Community Colleges

The Community College Innovation Challenge 2015 group picture. We were excited to be in one of the Senate buildings pitching our projects. Photo credit: American Association of Community Colleges

Information about our original entry and first prototype:

We are a team from Red Rocks Community College seeking to address Infrastructure Security, focusing on medicine dispensation within disaster relief scenarios.

Raspberry Pi Medical Dispensation Prototype

Our prototype with an RFID reader, stepper motor and controller, driven by a Raspberry Pi B+.

Medical teams will benefit because the device simplifies their job, while it brings them into compliance with current medical standards and laws. By focusing our engineering effort on proven, simple components, our solution can be manufactured at an extremely low cost. This results in a product that is easily maintained in the field. Most importantly, it protects doctors while allowing them to focus on the task of saving lives.

Doctors and those that work within dangerous areas will benefit because they will be better protected within the medical environment. For example, this system will allow doctors to be authenticated without putting others at risk of contact with a patient’s fluids. Some hospitals use fingerprint authentication which requires doctors to sometimes remove bloody gloves within the critical stage of surgery. In the age of ebola and other infectious diseases, it is important that we protect those working to safeguard society. With this system, doctors can easily authenticate to receive the medicine for the patient in a timely manner, while the system automatically creates a secure record of the transaction.

This is an improved and more secure system than the paper-based disaster relief record keeping systems used in some areas. Because devices are networked, the data will be securely transmitted to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the medical information. Doctors can focus on saving lives and not worry about tracking medicine and creating records. This device makes the nation’s infrastructure security more efficient, accountable and secure.