We are in a world where technological advancement in gaining grounds in every sphere and every field of life. Just when we least expected, springs up another record-breaking innovation in medical technology.
According to the WHO, only about 50 percent of people with chronic conditions adhere to their medication regimen. Poor adherence is directly linked to poor outcomes and increased likelihood of hospitalizations.
Imagine yourself receiving a text message or phone call from your pill bottle, reminding you that you have just missed the pill you should have taken at some time, or you are about taking the wrong dosage. Sounds funny doesn't it? All that are more are what the Smart pill Bottle can do for you.
WHAT IS THE SMARTPILL BOTTLE ALL ABOUT?
The Smart pill bottle, made by AdhereTech, is a high-tech pill bottle that comes with the addition of lights, speakers, 3G and LTE (Long Term Evolution) capabilities, and sensors that measure humidity and how many pills are left in the bottle. It has a 45-day-long battery, which can be recharged when it runs low. The idea is that pharmacists could provide the bottles to patients, who would use them for a month and then swap them out for a newly charged bottle when they pick up refills the following month.
HOW THE SMARTPILL BOTTLE WORKS.
These bottles automatically measure if patients are adherent to their pills, and all data is wirelessly transmitted and analyzed in real-time. If a dose is missed, AdhereTech reminds the patient via automated phone call or text message – and on-bottle lights and chimes. Additionally, the system can solicit feedback from patients via text or phone call, determining why the dose was missed. The bottle does this because it has a wireless CDMA chip that sends a small amount of data, measuring when the bottle was opened and how many pills were taken.
Every time it’s opened, the bottle will take stock of how many pills it has inside by measuring the capacitance, or stored charge, along its walls (these sensors never touch the medication). When a pill is removed, the capacitance reading decreases because there are fewer contact points and less pressure along the bottle’s walls. This is similar to the way an iPhone or Galaxy detects how someone is moving his finger along its touchscreen. That information gets sent to AdhereTech’s servers via a cellular network. The company knows your medication regimen based on information supplied by a pharmacist. If the servers don’t receive a time-stamped capacitance measurement when you’re supposed to take your pill, this will trigger an alarm to remind the patient to take his medications.
WHY THE ADHERETECH SMART PILL BOTTLE IS BENEFICIAL.
The AdhereTech smart pill bottle is more than just a technological advancement, it comes with lots of packages, which can help reduce to a very large extent, the rate of hospitalization of patients who most times forget to take their medications at the right time and in the right dosage.
* Smart pill bottles both work to increase patient medical adherence and engage patients to better manage their own health. It also notifies caregivers at the ideal time to give their patients their medications.
* The bottles can tell when doses are missed, remind patients by texts and calls, as well as sound notifications from the bottle itself. It also collects feedback on missed doses. The system works equally well for landlines and cell phones.
* If patients are treading internet-less territory, their AdhereTech bottle could still remind them they need to take their medication. Even if the connection to 3G or LTE is poor, the bottle is still able to transmit its bite-sized 1-kilobyte readings to the company servers without a problem.
* The AdhereTech bottles are used just like normal bottles & require zero set up.
* Improve Clinical Trials: Secure dashboard monitors all patient activity in real-time to reduce the time & cost of trials, and all information is automatically populated on the secure dashboard the moment it happens.
* The AdhereTech smart pill Bottles are FDA-registered Class I medical devices & system is HIPAA-compliant.
According to Josh Stein, CEO of Adheretech, the bottle will just act as a meter that transmits data. Its 32-kilobyte memory isn’t big enough to store what pills it contains or what your medication schedule is. But AdhereTech plans on future improvement on the bottles. The bottles should be available at selected pharmacies for specialty drugs for conditions like cancer, HIV, pulmonary hypertension and rheumatoid arthritis, and so on.
For more information on the AdhereTech smart pill bottle, visit WIRED
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