WAM – It’s Wireless Aided Medication

29th October 2009

There is a lot wireless automated medication system vendors can do to enhance the usefulness of their products such as automatically updating personal electronic health records with medication plans and compliance data.

Pill boxes have been around for some time and are sometimes taken for granted. Even in their most basic, stand-alone, format they can save the healthcare provider a great deal of time and money. A carer, usually a family member, can load the box with a week’s supply of medication from which the patient, usually an elderly parent, takes the tablets when required. The pill box is an entry level medication compliance management system and some vendors take this compliance management a step further by adding a simple alarm system. This is what Medimax are offering their customers.

Once a sensor and some basic intelligence has been built into the pill box it is also possible to add the wireless communications needed to support remote monitoring and non-compliance alerts. IBM were touting this sought of technology about five years ago and MedMinder’s Maya have launched a pill box equipped with wireless technology that updates the company’s central computer with data on the patient's dosage activity. This information is available, over the web, for caregivers who can also receive immediate email or text messages notifications and weekly reports.

The caregiver can program Maya and customize preferences remotely via the Internet. They can also call MedMinder who will do this for them. At the patient's home, there is no need for a computer, phone line, wireless router or any other form of Internet access as the Maya talks directly to the central computer via a wireless network.

While pill boxes are designed with the elderly patient in mind they are used by carers and often purchased by family members, usually daughters, who are caring for elderly parents. These ‘alpha daughters’ are looking for ways of making their lives easier as they are often balancing a career with family commitments. There is quite a lot wireless automated medication system vendors can do to make their products more attractive to the alpha daughter market. One of these would be to enhance the back office application that runs on the central server to update a personal electronic health record with medication plans and compliance data. This would allow the alpha daughter, and their parent’s GP, to access both diagnostic and medication data on a single screen.

Medimax
MedMinder’s Maya
Wireless Healthcare report – eHealth and the Elderly Consumer