A Smart Pillbox To Improve Medication Compliance 145
Roland Piquepaille writes "A major challenge in public health is that people do not take their medications, a phenomenon known as 'medication non-adherence.' In the US alone, it is estimated that this accounts for 10% of all hospital visits and costs the healthcare system $100 billion per year and $60 billion to the pharmaceutical industry. Now, an MIT research team thinks it has a solution to this problem that will save lives worldwide. They've developed the uBox, a convenient, palm-sized, intelligent pill dispenser, 'which reminds a patient when it is time to take his medication, records when a patient has taken a dose, and prevents a patient from double-dosing.' The first large-scale trial with 100 uBoxes is scheduled to begin in May in Bihar, India, in a 6-month long tuberculosis treatment program."
And How Does The Pillbox Know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Costs ? (Score:2, Insightful)
Did they want to say brings ?
Re:And How Does The Pillbox Know... (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd love something that works (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:And How Does The Pillbox Know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably Third-World Only (Score:3, Insightful)
I feel bad saying it (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Costs ? (Score:5, Insightful)
And this is better how? (Score:3, Insightful)
If we cant make it an 'i-something or other' and give it an IP address its of no value? Sure, technology has its place, but sometimes just common sense is all that is needed. When a hammer is all you need, bring a hammer, don't re-invent it just for the sake of inventing.
Re:100 billion? Really? Just take your meds. (Score:3, Insightful)
Usually not, and in any case it can be a long time before anybody realises what the problem actually is, by which time damage may have been done. Also over medicating, or taking pills at the wrong frequency is also a major problem that this thing is trying to address.
Having said that, I don't think a hi-tech solution like this is a necessary answer for most people. We'd go a long way towards preventing these problems simply by printing readable labels on med boxes that are easily distinguishable for people with visual impairments or slight memory problems.
Re:I feel bad saying it (Score:4, Insightful)
And even if we stipulate that certain people don't "deserve" treatment, does that mean that the rest of us deserve the antibiotic-resistant strains of TB that result from people missing their doses?
-Peter
Memory is not the problem. (Score:5, Insightful)
This mentality is a lot more prevalent than I would have thought prior to working in travel medical insurances. The number of people who would get angry because we had to count them as treating a condition because they had a specific prescription on their history but they refused to take it was staggering. Somehow, it then becomes our fault that they have an exclusion because they were not complying with the prescribed treatment.
To get Dickens on it: Given that non-compliance is generating these costs, i'm guessing its also generating casualties, which means the tendancy will eventually be minimized across the gene pool.
Wish that helped my generations health costs though.
Protips: If you disagree with your doctor, that is what second, third,
Great, too bad it's illegal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:And How Does The Pillbox Know... (Score:2, Insightful)
Lots of people stop taking their meds because they don't like the side effects (but can't be bothered to mention it to their doctor because after all they don't feel so bad from their original condition when they are off the meds). Not because they "forget".
Re:And How Does The Pillbox Know... (Score:3, Insightful)
A Smart box (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Great, too bad it's illegal (Score:3, Insightful)
How come you people don't break out in derisive laughter when you hear your country described as the "land of the free"?
A technological solution to a behavioral problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
The batteries will never run out, the thing will never be badly programmed, the patient will never ignore it, nor forget it, and the workers checking up on them will always be diligent and honest. That's why it's gonna work!
I'd use this. (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyhow. Yeah. I'd actually use this.
Re:Costs ? (Score:2, Insightful)
The cost being talked about could largely be opportunity cost, as the people who aren't taking their doses of well-established, off-patent, one-dollar-per-dose medications will many times need a new prescription, once the ailment that wasn't cured comes roaring back. Multiply that by many of these types of drugs and many people abusing them, and you see that manufacturers are forced to put out bigger orders of these low margin items. If people would just take their meds properly, then the resources opened up can be put towards products that might just turn a profit, and allow the business to grow instead of just survive.
Say what you will... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Great, too bad it's illegal (Score:3, Insightful)
In Florida a man was given the minimum sentence of 25 years for having 56 viccodin, of the 80 he was prescribed, in a valid bottle. Because, in Florida at least, any more than 50 is automatic guilt in drug trafficking. Having a valid prescription is not an exception, and the defense attorney was not permitted to even mention his valid prescription to the jury. The judge ruled that since the law does not mention prescriptions, that knowledge would be distracting and irrelevant. As a convicted drug trafficker, his two condos, car, and boat were all seized by the state and sold. Since they were auctioned for pennies on the dime, he still owes them a big chunk of the $500,000 minimum fine for drug trafficking.
I think that's how House should end. He's at a conference in Florida. He gets busted with a bottle full of pills, in the proper prescription bottle. Doesn't matter. He had more than 50, he's guilty of drug trafficking. 25 years in prison. All his possessions are sold. According to their records he paid large amounts of money to Dr. Wilson, and received large amounts in turn. "But he was just paying me back, he borrows money all the time". Likely story Dr. Wilson, 10 years for money laundering, all your possessions seized too. The end. No opportunity for appeal, the law is clear.
Re:And How Does The Pillbox Know... (Score:3, Insightful)
- one-third of people will take it correctly
- one-third of people will try and take it correctly, but will get it wrong
- one-third of people won't even try to take it correctly (e.g. not finish a course, not pick up the prescription)
I am sure the numbers are not so round but this was the repeated teaching at medical school and beyond.
As you say, unnecessary prescribing is a pain in the arse too. Often it is done with good intentions but the manpower that would be required to review the original indication for a prescription, the ongoing need for it, whether (better or cheaper) more modern alternatives are there, new information regarding the safety of drugs and any other relevant factors makes it impossible on a large scale in practical terms. I am still waiting for an IT system in medicine that could semi-automate it (there are a number of things in medicine that could be revolutionised by proper IT but every system I have seen has been a kludge) as that would go a long way towards addressing issues like these.