SPENCERPORT, N.Y. -- A local medical professional is taking an innovative approach to help stop prescription drug abuse.

Afton Heitzenrater is a physician assistant in the Emergency Department of Rochester General Hospital, where she sees firsthand the aftermath of the opioid epidemic.

“I see an opioid overdose at least once a shift,” Heitzenrater said.

But before it was a widely talked about topic, she was noticing one of the causes while working in a surgeon’s office six years ago: prescription drug abuse. In one day, she took eight calls from those asking for refills — all who had prematurely finished their prescriptions.

“At the time I received those multiple phone calls, I had lost a cousin to a prescription overdose,” Heitzenrater said.

Since then, with the help of her husband, uncle and the Robrady Design Company in Florida, she’s been working on a solution.

“[This device] is PILL. It’s an acronym for Prescribed Interval Limit Lock," Heitzenrater said. "It is a smart blister pack that controls the time between two doses of opioid medication.”

With the device, which would replace a prescription bottle and costs only $2, users would be unable to access more than prescribed, stopped by a timer.

“When it hits the timer of zero, you can rotate the back to the next pill or tablet or capsule,” Heitzenrater said.

Becky Baker, the director of the local drug abuse awareness group SOARS, lost her son to an overdose in 2016. She likes the idea.

“It may be a very good thing, a very, very good thing, when it comes to the children or elderly," Baker said. "As far as people, I think people first prescribed an opiate, I think it may curb the appeal.”

With the transparent device, Baker especially likes the fact that all pills are visible, which could discourage pill theft.

“My son was taking medication from his father. We had no idea," Baker said. "Maybe if we had that device, it may have stopped him.”

With an investor secured and clinical trials in the works, Afton hopes PILL will be on the market within a year.

“I think if we can save one life with this, the last six years will be worth it,” Heitzenrater said.