Internet Connected Pill Caps are Making Their Way onto Patients’ Meds
Whether you’re an outpatient, visited by home health nurses or convalescing in a nursing home, it’s not uncommon to forget to take your meds without prompting from caregivers; that’s why attentive care from your physicians and nurses is so appreciated—but what happens in those instances where you, and you alone, are responsible for remembering to take your medication? Wouldn’t it be great if lights flashed, and the pill bottle emitted sounds as a reminder?
Well, groundbreaking Internet connected pill caps are doing just that.
Vitality, a corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts has created a smart cap for pill bottles that communicates, not just with the patient, but with the patient’s loved ones, his pharmacy and his doctors. It’s called GlowCap, and it’s changing pharmaceuticals and the way we approach them for the better. Watch this video and keep reading.
GlowCaps are fitted to bottles of medications by the pharmacy; when the patient brings them home, GlowCaps work in conjunction with a wall socket plug-in that lights up and beeps when it’s time to take medicine. If the flashing light isn’t enough to prompt the patient, she gets a missed dose “reminder call” from GlowCap, or refill call when the meds run out. The efficiency doesn’t stop there.
GlowCaps speak to the consumer’s competitive nature, by sending monthly reports that show his or her success rate adhering to the pill-taking schedule. That’s right. Patients get a score, and studies show they take pride in keeping it high; their loved ones are also kept in the loop via e-mail—more importantly, so are the patient’s doctors, home health nurses, outpatient center and nursing homes caregivers; monthly-automated reports from GlowCap are a universally shared score board of patient compliance.
As a result, patients are completing full courses of medication, getting healthier—not to mention better at implementing prescription drugs more seamlessly into their daily routine. Because current statistics report that about half the U.S. population takes at least one prescription drug, GlowCaps seem both timely and necessary fixtures in the home health nursing and outpatient center scene today.
According to research from the Boston based Center for Connected Health, a controlled study of patients, grouped as those who used electronic pill bottles and those who did not, GlowCap users scored 27% higher in medication compliance. The study offered a financial incentive for exceeding the monthly adherence goal of 80%. Researches got what they wanted and then some, with patients reporting up to 98% compliance using GlowCaps.
The study, which is ongoing at the Center for Corporate Health, is hoping to see lower blood pressure readings and increased patient satisfaction when it publishes those results this Fall. The Center has no financial stake in the GlowCap company, Vitality; researchers there are simply gratified and encouraged by the interim results of their study, and share Viatlity’s common goal of helping patients become more adherent to their medications and care plans.
And why wouldn’t a home health agency, physician outpatient centers, nursing homes and hospitals everywhere want to see their patients improve in this area? Non-adherence to prescribed medications is estimated as a $300 billion loss for the U.S. Healthcare System annually, and has been the focus of studies and product innovations for years.
That’s why smart pill caps are a smart idea, making headlines that catch the attention of those in healthcare careers and healthcare employers. You can read more about Vitality by visiting their site and see for yourself how a spoonful of ingenuity helps the medicine go down.
Footnote: Research cited in the Vitality Corporation Press Room has been further validated by positive feedback from top news sources, and confirms that high adherence saves care costs—which is why leading health agencies might want to get involved with GlowCaps. For each additional dollar spent on high cholesterol medications, there was $5.10 saved in healthcare costs, and $3.98 saved in patient compliance with high blood pressure meds. Since the GlowCap costs just under $5 to make, it’s a cost effective tactic for the healthcare employers and agencies comprising today’s competitive healthcare marketplace.