Electronic system for wireless monitoring of patient medication adherence

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our objective is to provide patients and physicians with an effective new tool to increase patient compliance (aka adherence) to prescription drug regimens. Poor patient compliance diminishes patients' health, increasespreventable morbidity, and results in avoidable healthcare costs. Even in monitored clinical trials, compliance is often poor and interventions to improve compliance are expensive and have mixed results. For some patient populations, like those with HIV,poor medication compliance can result in a rapid decline in health, increased resistance of the virus to antibiotics, and premature death. We propose a wireless dosing reporting system that will provide physicians and caregivers timely and accurate medication reminder and compliance reporting. The system will be designed to take advantage of wireless technologies like Bluetooth and the cellular phone system to provide dosing data to a patient monitor at little expense to the patient. The outcome of the workwill be an electronic circuit that attaches to a standard medication container that can transmit dosing data to a patients' smartphone. A mobile phone application will collect the dosing data and transmit that information to a monitoring site in real time. Our company has dose reminding and recording circuitry that attaches to standard medication containers without interfering with the packaging or contents of the container. At dose time, a light prompts the patient to take their medication. The circuitryrecords the date and time of all dosing events as determined through algorithms designed to distinguish the difference between a dosing event and incidental movement of the container. We will extend the capability of the DoseCue circuitry to include wireless transmission of the dosing data stored in the circuitry's memory to a smartphone via Bluetooth communication. A mobile application installed on patients' phones will collect the dosing data from the circuitry at specific times and transmit the information to a central processing point, allowing for intervention in real time as needed. The system will be tested to verify ease of use, effectiveness in transmitting data wirelessly across the cell phone network, and accuracy of patient dosing data. The system provides real-time feedback of patients' home medication dosing to their doctor, caregiver, or other authorized person without requiring action by the patient (such as connecting to a computer via USB). By providing real-time warnings when a patient is not taking their medication as prescribed, a patient monitor can intervene before negative health effects occur. A completed wireless compliance system will benefit patient health and reduce healthcare costs. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Poor medication dosing results in a decline in patient health and creates an unnecessary burden to the healthcare system. The DoseCue Mobile system provides a simple, direct method for providing real-time oversight of patient dosing behavior. The ability to intervene when patient dosing is poor can directly improve treatment outcomes and prevent serious health problems while reducing healthcare costs for high risk patients.