Link → [Compliance] Technology and aging by category - Prime Time: A New Look At Aging
From the post:
Medication compliance technologies
These technologies have monitoring, reminding, dispensing features and combinations thereof. Most of these technologies are stand-alone and are targeted at the seniors or the caregiver. Simple monitoring is offered by QuietCare. Intel and Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) (www.orcatech.org/index.php) have prototypes of monitoring and reminding systems and Honeywell HomMed has a medication monitoring and reminding system as part of the telemedicine suite. The Med-eMonitor from Informedix (www.informedix.com) incorporates reminding and educational information/ instructions. The MD2 (www.md2.com) and CompuMed (www.compumed.com) products have the dispensing functionality but may require a professional caregiver to perform the loading and programming. Most products have usability/ user interface issues for elderly users. Many products can be found on the Internet (e.g. on www.epill.com).
These devices have the potential to improve health outcomes and reduce cost of care, and to provide peace of mind to informal caregivers, but are generally not reimbursable. There is some preliminary evidence of their effectiveness in improving medication compliance, but more objective evaluation studies, aiming to evaluate their impacts on health outcomes and the cost of care, are warranted.
