Smart cap with communication function

A smart cap for a medical container for the containment of solid medications having unique indicia. The cap is provided with an optical scanner configured with at least one locally contained or external data base having general medication identification data and optionally patient-specific information to scan and identify the medication (and optionally the dosage, specific formulations, manufacturing source, etc.) and to record and correlate information regarding patient medication usage (scanning of a medication is generally considered indicative of actual patient taking of the medication). The cap further comprises communication elements configured to transmit/receive usage through scanning of a unit dosage of the medication, to an external data base such as the patient's cell phone and or computer (such as with blue tooth or RF communication) or via a telephone call or internet transmission to a data base of a pharmacy or physician or other health care provider.