This is another massive case of healthcare noncompliance (in this instance, the advice not being followed is that of dermatologists on preventing and detecting skin cancer), which can be summed up in the words of Dr Darrell Rigel, a professor of Dermatology at New York University Medical Center, “Over the years we’ve been somewhat successful with that message, but some people won’t change their behavior no matter what we do.”
An Interview with Kristin Reikert, PhD at the 23rd annual North American CF Conference, focusing on negative impact of nonadherence in CF and the lack of awareness on the physicians’ part of the likelihood of noncompliance on the part of their patients
According to the blurb, This Wi-Fi bottle cap glows and pulses with light when it’s time to open your pill vial, plays a melody if you miss the appointed hour and triggers an automated reminder by phone or text message if you’re two hours late. The caps work in tandem with a night light, with a built-in wireless radio receiver and transmitter.
And, it’s only $100 at Amazon.
This appears to be the latest iteration of the Glowcap model featured in an earlier post on this blog.
From New gizmo reminds you to take your medicine : Health : The Buffalo News
Holly Kennedy: Did you take your medication today?
Daniel Connelly: No, I thought Id come here instead.
From P.S. I Love You (2007)
An alternative compliance-enhancement method: threat of jail. In this scene from “Parks and Recreation,” a visiting official from the Parks Department of Venezuela explains how problems are handled by his regime. The final example is the case of patients who make dental appointments but are no-shows.
Proteus - Proteus ingestible event markers (IEMs) are tiny, digestible sensors made from food ingredients, which are activated by stomach fluids after swallowing. Once activated, the IEM sends an ultra low-power, private, digital signal through the body to a microelectronic receiver that is either a small bandage style skin patch or a tiny device insert under the skin. The receiver date- and time-stamps, decodes, and records information such as the type of drug, the dose, and the place of manufacture, as well as measures and reports physiologic measures such as heart rate, activity, and respiratory rate.
The IEM is manufactured on silicon wafers, and is extremely economical to produce, costing a few cents per sensor in large quantities.
Excerpt: To learn more about adherence, a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins and University of Pennsylvania Schools of Medicine gave glaucoma patients a prostaglandin eyedrop medication at no cost and monitored use with an electronic device. “Eighty-six of our 196 study patients (44 percent) took their medication less than 75 percent of the time. A combined analysis found the most important factors were age (younger and older patients were less adherent), African-American ethnicity, and poorer overall health.
Excerpt:
Key Points
