Gizmos & Gadgets: Smart Pill Bottle Glows and Chimes to Remind You to Take Medication

March 23, 2016 – For an aging population that is dependent on medications, DoseSmart combines a smart pill bottle with a smartphone application to ensure you never miss taking a pill. Designed to work with Apple’s iPhone, the dispenser glows and chimes each time a patient is scheduled to take medication. The pill bottle fits into a pocket or handbag and incorporates a rechargeable battery and a standard micro-USB port with plug-in cable. A single charge is enough to last 30 days. When near empty the smart pill bottle can automatically alert the local pharmacy to prepare a refill ensuring the patient is never caught without medication.

Currently in the United States, prescription non-compliance impacts patients negatively every day. Almost half of patients do not or forget to take medication as directed. It leads to 125,000 estimated deaths in the United States every year and costs the healthcare system $275 billion. DoseSmart along with its iPhone app and web interface presents a potential way to reduce lives lost and healthcare cost impacts.

The smart pill bottle can be used by individuals or can be incorporated into clinical trials for new medications. The app works with iOS 8.0 or higher and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It includes alarm and reminder settings that can fire texts, emails or telephone calls.

The web interfaces provides reporting and analytics for clinical trials and medical research. A trial team can be alerted anytime a participant misses a scheduled dose. The team can then communicate a reminder to the participant. Not a bad way to ensure some degree of accuracy in your clinical data.

To use the system including the smart pill bottle and app, a patient or medical worker starts with the scheduler inputting medications to be taken, frequency, and time of day for dispensing. The user can set the type of mobile app reminders they would like to receive. Once medication is taken a simple tap on the “take” button logs the action maintaining a complete history which can be shared with a medical support or clinical trial team.

For an aging population of which I am a member, there are lots of devices already in the market to organize and schedule the taking of pills. You can buy compartmentalized pill carriers that act as weekly schedulers but that doesn’t ensure that you will actually take the medication you need when you need to take it. With DoseSmart it may prove to be the best reminder system available on the market to date.