![]() "It reminds them of the illness and they'd rather not be reminded of that."Īny medication can have negative side effects, and some cost a lot, he says. "Patients in many cases don't like taking medicines every day," Volpp points out. Or maybe, just maybe, the main problem isn't forgetfulness. What's going on? Volpp says it could be a problem with the study's design, or with the devices. Shots - Health News More People Are Making Mistakes With Medicines At Home Neither one seemed to help patients stay on top of their medication. One was pretty basic and the other, higher-tech. Let's recap here: We've looked at two large studies of pill bottle reminder systems. "The expectation was that we would see a large increase in medication adherence - and that would then translate into a significant reduction in hospital readmissions and lower health care costs," Volpp says.Įven with the glowing pill bottle, the cash and the alert, many people didn't take their meds. In addition to the high-tech pill bottles, the people in the study received a cash reward if they took their medicine on time and were given the option of having the bottle alert someone if they skipped a dose. Kevin Volpp, a physician and health economist who directs the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Health Incentives, studied more than 1,000 patients with heart failure who were each given the GlowCap pill bottle, an Internet-linked device made by firm Vitality. Just how well do these fancier pill bottles work? Stein says his company's data suggest AdhereTech was able to increase patients' adherence to their medication regimen by an average of 24 percent.īut a large-scale evaluation of smart-bottle technology, published online in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine last month, showed results that were far less encouraging.ĭr. A lot of those patients don't have Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, so we need something that works right out of the box." "We work with an average patient population that's 70 years old. "Other devices will require patients to set up a device, or download apps and integrate everything," Stein says. Miss a dose? A chime goes off, and then the patient or a caregiver can get a phone call or text message. When it's time to take a pill, a blue reminder light pulses. Sensors in the bottle detect when the cap is twisted off and how much medication is removed. "Our system is automatically getting data sent from each and every bottle 24/7," Stein says. Some such bottles are for sale online - others are being handed out by pharmacists. More than a dozen companies have developed Internet-connected bottles and caps that can send email and text message reminders to take pills, or even alert a caregiver if, say, an elderly parent forgets to take medication. ![]() Why not? One of the possible explanations, Choudhry says, is that the device's reminder wasn't powerful enough.Įnter the army of "smart" pill bottles. "Unfortunately we found no effect whatsoever," he says, in comparison to adults who used a regular pillbox. It starts counting each time you open it so you can see how long it's been since you last took a pill.Ĭhoudhry expected a slight improvement in pill-taking among those who used the bottle with the digital cap. He enrolled 50,000 patients who were taking daily cardiovascular medications or antidepressants in a randomized trial and gave them one of three tools: a pill bottle with toggles to mark whether they'd taken their medication that day a standard, daily pillbox (with a compartment or compartments for each day) or a digital cap that functions like a stopwatch. But people who used the cap as part of a research study weren't any better at taking their medicine as prescribed. Keeping track of how long it's been since your last pill might be easier with a "TimerCap" on the bottle.
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