The progress of technology may be most easily seen by looking at some of the simple products that Americans use on a daily basis. A pharmaceutical bottle that contains your daily thyroid prescription, for example, is significantly different that a bill bottle your mother or grandmother would have used. The “bottle” is now almost always plastic, whether it contains a liquid or pill prescription. And through the use of computerized labels pharmaceutical bottles can remind patients about dosage amounts and any necessary warnings. The pill itself is uniquely stamped with a number that indicates the dosage and an indicator of the medicine. These same specifics are included on the label of the pill bottle so that patients, nurses, and other care givers can always double check that they are taking the correct medication.
Individualized Medication Packaging to Fit Consumer Needs Helps Ensure Accuracy, Convenience
Pharmaceutical container supplies come in a variety of formats. A ten day dose of a medication, for example, no longer has to come in a bottle that is too big for the small pills. Instead, these small one time doses can be packaged in plastic injection molding products that label each pill with a day of the week. No matter what day you begin the prescription, the consumer can pop the pill from the correctly labeled day and easily make sure that they take the dose for the required length of time.
Patients who take multiple prescriptions can request that their medications be carded in single day sealed packets. This convenient packaging allows for consumers to take exactly the right amount of medicine along for a vacation, but not risk losing the rest of the medicine in forgotten pill bottles.
Although much of the progress in pharmaceutical containers and closures makes medications more convenient, more importantly, it is also more accurate. Travelers often left pill bottles at home when they went on vacation and simply threw their medications together in ziplock plastic bags. These unmarked pills could be a danger to the patient as well as anyone else who accidentally got a hold of the medicine. single day packets, for example, make sure that all medication is accurately labeled and identified.
The Advancement of Plastics Manufacturing Provides Many Modern Day Conveniences
One of the reasons that pharmaceutical care has advanced so much is the continued development of plastic and plastic molding products. Injection molding and plastic manufacturing facilities, for example, can now be found throughout the the U.S. in all 50 states. In fact, current research indicates that there are nearly 16,000 facilities just in America. The entire plastics industry employs as many as 900,000 american workers. This makes plastics a key building block within manufacturing and the overall U.S. job force overall. Currently, the American plastics industry is the third-largest manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the outlook for the industry is strong. Everything from injection molding companies to 3D printing remains in high demand throughout the world.
The impact of plastics and technology is easy to see when the consumer looks at every day products like pharmaceutical bottles and other medication packaging.
