Scriptmate: A patient-centered mobile system for geriatric prescription medication management

PROJECT SUMMARY Elderly patients are the largest consumers of prescription and non prescription medications and have been reported to account for $million in treatment costs for medication errors likely due to altered pharmacokineticspolypharmacydecline in cognitionand lower health literacyAs a result of this confluence of issues that affect the aging populationmedication management tools designed to accommodate the particular needs of older adults can be greatly beneficialWhile there have been many advances made in mobile health technologies to assist with aspects of medication management such as adherence reminders and access to drug labeling informationfew products are designed to enable facile identification and verification of a patientandapos s prescribed medicationsThe innovation proposed in this Phase I SBIR addresses this gap in medication management tools designed for older adult patientsWe will use a combination of innovative mechanical and software engineering techniques to build the Scriptmate systemwhich will be designed to assist older adult patients with easy identification and verification of medications using a pill scanner and facilitate medication consolidationand access to medication information via patient facing mobile applicationThe goal of this Phase I SBIR is to assess the feasibility and usability of ScriptmateThree substudies will be conducted with older adult patients and pharmacists using a user centered design framework to address the project goala formative assessmentNprototype walkthrough interviewsNand one on one usability testing sessionsNPROJECT NARRATIVE Patient misunderstanding of prescription medication label instructions has been found to be one of the main root causes of medication errors that can lead to ADEsWhile this is an issue that affects patients of all agesolder adult patients with multiple morbidities and complex medication regimens are at greatest riskOur proposed systemScriptmateuses a combination of mechanical and software engineering to directly address a gap in medication management innovations todayallowing older adults to easily identify and verify medications and consolidate medications on a schedule based on key health literacy principlesResults of this project will have implications for the care of aging adults with increasingly complex medication regimensand potentially for other sub populations with reduced physical and cognitive abilities