Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

The MDS or Personalised Dosage System is the name given in Spain to a blister-type device, hermetically sealed, with a series of blisters where the medication is distributed in a solid pharmaceutical form, following the prescribed therapeutic guideline.

It has been specifically designed to facilitate the administration of medication to patients, helping them to correctly follow their drug treatment, in a much simpler way and avoiding errors.

The MDS is a pharmaceutical care service (since there is a medicine-patient relationship) and is process-oriented

The MDS has been designed to facilitate the administration of medication to patients, helping them to improve their adherence to treatment, as the medication is perfectly organised, avoiding errors when taking it.

It is especially useful and advisable for chronic patients who are prescribed with 4 or more medicines and in whom some of the following circumstances concur:

1. Patients with reduced autonomy
2. Patients in the care of relatives and/or carers
3. Patients with complicated drug regimens who live alone and have problems in the organization of their medicines.
4. Patients taking complex medication therapies
5. Patients referred by their doctor
6. Patients included in programs arranged with their health administrations

In the pharmacy MDS service, the pharmacist is responsible for preparing the blister packs well in advance, for providing information about the medicines to patients, including providing the relevant package leaflets, and for contacting the doctor or patient/caregiver if any problems are detected.

The community pharmacy is a healthcare establishment that is very close to the patient.

Thanks to its proximity and the fact that it is located at street level, the pharmacist is often the health professional who interacts most closely with the patient.

The pharmacy not only offers medicines, but also a series of pharmacy services in which the pharmacist offers his or her health knowledge for the benefit of the patient’s health.

The Personalised Dosage System or MDS is one of the most demanded services in the pharmacy.

• The patient has his or her medication organized.
• Avoids confusion in the handling and storage of medication.
• Reduces the stock of medications stored at home.
• Greater control of treatment.
• All of the above contributes to an improvement in medication compliance and therefore in their health and quality of life.

The type of blister used by Medical Dispenser is the only one on the market with a circular shape.

This design makes it easier and more intuitive for patients to use, as they simply must follow clockwise to progress through the doses.

• Facilitates the administration of medication to the patient
• Reduces the risk of medication errors
• Enormous peace of mind, knowing that the patient’s medication is organised and controlled by a pharmacist.

We all have family members and/or friends who could do with some help in preparing and managing their medication.

Pharmacies offer drug therapy monitoring services and prepare the medication in weekly blister packs, so that the patient has all their medication centralized and organized by doses.

Yes, our personalised blister packs can be printed with the patient’s photo, which makes them easy to identify, so that patients do not have to read the information on the label.

• It makes it easier for your patients with complicated drug regimens to adhere to treatment.
• Helps minimize medication errors in your patients’ medication intake.
• Helps you build patient loyalty.
• Enhances your value as a professional expert healthcare provider.
• Improves communication with other healthcare professionals: doctors and nurses.

There are other systems on the market for the preparation of medication for chronic patients in blister format. The offer is very varied, ranging from manual preparation to large robots whose investment starts at €50,000 and can go up to €300,000, depending on volume of medications that can be stored.

In our niche, semi-automatic preparation, there is not much variety, except for some guided systems, which use LEDs or light projections to show the blisters into which the tablets are to be inserted. These systems, although there are similar in price range, there are not similar in performance as it is still the pharmacist who puts the pills into the blister. With Medical Dispenser, it is the machine itself, which counts the pills and places them in the correct pocket.

In addition, the temperature and humidity of the environment is controlled to ensure that the medicines do not leave their primary packaging, unless they are guaranteed to do so.

In short, Medical Dispenser is an ideal tool for any pharmacy that wants to offer its patients a service to improve medication compliance, without making large investments, but with total guarantee.

The Medical Dispenser system guarantees that the medication preparation service generally offered by community pharmacies to their patients with poor adherence to treatment is carried out with full guarantee.

With Medical Dispenser, the preparation of medication in blister packs is faster, safer and cleaner than with any other system on the market. The system consists of a machine and software for the management of treatments by the pharmacist, weekly blister packs for patients and a mobile application to reduce the number of missed doses and therefore improve patients’ adherence to medication treatment

No, Medical Dispenser is also a magnificent tool for nursing homes and day centres that need to organize the medication of their institutionalized patients safely and efficiently, and for hospitals that want to organize the medication of their chronic and patients with complicated drug regimens  managed from the outpatient pharmacy.

The commercial and technical support in each country is provided by our local partners.

They will be in charge of the installation of the system, technical support and commercial advice. You can consult the complete list of partners at: Where are we?

Once the machine has received the loading order from the software (either the Medical Dispenser software or other integrated software for pharmacies), it displays on the screen the steps that the pharmacist must follow to make the blister correctly. First, the bubble is inserted into the machine and then, one by one, the medicines are inserted in the order suggested by the machine. 

For greater security, the medicines are scanned with the datamatrix reader and then the number of pills indicated is simply inserted into the machine one by one. The machine itself counts them, and will ask for all the necessary medicines until the treatment is complete. Once the loading process is complete, the blister pack is closed and the corresponding labels are attached, which are automatically printed when the loading process is complete.

No. Operation is extremely simple. Simply follow the instructions the machine itself displays on the screen. With the training provided when you purchase the Medical Dispenser, you can operate with complete peace of mind from the very first moment.

Before installing the Medical Dispenser, it is important to select the correct location based on the following characteristics:

• Without receiving direct light. In the case of halogen lights, the machine should be located more than half a metre away from the light source.
• Adequate ventilation.
• Room temperature never below 0°C and never above 40°C.
• Away from any source of heat.
• On a rigid and correctly levelled surface.

The machine is 39.8cm long by 26.4cm wide and weighs 2.5kg. With these dimensions, it is clear that the Medical Dispenser does not pose any space problems for our customers.

Medical Dispenser’s pharmacy software is a fantastic tool for managing patients in the automatic MDS service, whether they are institutionalised in a nursing home or live at home. Our software is the result of continuous collaboration with pharmacists, so it is a software made for pharmacists and by pharmacists.

The software follows the complete circle of care for a patient: record, drug treatment, preparation, delivery, return and compliance. In addition, it includes a wide range of functionalities such as category work, needs calculation, patient inventory management, auditing and traceability.

Yes. More and more software are being integrated with Medical Dispenser in the different countries where it is available. Contact your usual software provider and ask them if Medical Dispenser is already integrated with their software or if it will be integrated soon.

If not, suggest that they talk to us, and we will get to work on the integration so that it is available as soon as possible.

The Medical Dispenser software requires a PC with the following characteristics:

• Windows XP, Windows7, Windows8 or Windows10 operating system.
• Minimum screen resolution of 1024×768.
• Printer with the capacity to print on DINA A5 paper
• 1 GB RAM memory
• 400 MB free hard disk space
• RJ45 Ethernet network connector in case of direct connection to machine
• Ethernet network connection for PC

• The doctor has a tool to monitor the treatment of his patients.
• They also have information on all the medications taken by their patients.
• Improves communication and collaboration with the pharmacist
• Receives information on medication incidents

Primary care doctors play a key role in the adherence of their patients.

They can identify patients’ problems with their medication and prescribe the personalised dosing service offered by community pharmacies.

It is very important that doctors are aware of this service and recommend it to patients who need it, in the same way that they prescribe physical exercise, for example.

• They achieve optimization in prescribing, dispensing and administering medication to their patients.
• Greater safety (reduction of preparation and administration errors).
• Economic savings by outsourcing the preparation service.
• Reduction of nursing time in medication management.

• Improved patient compliance rates
• Decrease in the number of DRP and medication errors
• Reduction in primary care visits and hospital admissions.
• All of this leads to huge savings for the health system
• In addition to increased patient satisfaction and improved patient health and quality.

Fagor Healthcare S.Coop. is a cooperative belonging to MONDRAGON CORPORATION, which, through the development and sale of its products, aims to improve people’s health and quality of life.

Bureau Veritas Certification has certified that the Fagor Healthcare Management System has been audited and found to comply with the requirements of the ISO 9001:2015 standard.

The management system is applied to the design, manufacture, and marketing of systems for improving patients’ adherence to treatment.

MONDRAGON is the fruit of the cooperative movement that began in 1956, the year in which the first industrial cooperative was created in the town of the same name in the province of Gipuzkoa. Today, it is made up of 268 entities, almost 75,000 employees and 15 R&D&I centres.

MODRAGON is the tenth Spanish business group with more than 50 years of history, and has become a world reference in cooperative work.

Our products are already marketed in the United States, Canada, Spain, Portugal, France, Chile, Panama, Ecuador, and the Czech Republic.

We are currently working hard to close new commercial agreements in other countries. If you are a healthcare agent: pharmaceutical laboratory, pharmacy equipment company, private insurance company, or any other agent with an interest in patient adherence to treatment, please contact us, we may be able to collaborate with you.