2002

A remote controlled pill dispenser for telecare

A Remote Controlled Pill Dispenser for Telecare

A.E.Eggen, Assoc. prof., Institute of Pharmacy, University of Tromsø G.Hartvigsen, prof., Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine B.I.Olsen, M.Eng. student, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Tromsø

Abstract

Many senior citizens uses medications on a daily basis, and more than 25% of the senior population takes 4 or more prescriptions daily. As medication becomes an increasingly important part of everyday life, it is inevitable that controlling the timing and dosage of the medication becomes important. For many elderly, remembering what medication you are supposed to take and what you have already taken can be problematic.

A significant part of the medications that the elderly take is painkillers. An important subject with the prescribing painkillers, as with most medication, is that they are taken at the right dosage. If this kind of medication is taken in to large doses, effects as ‘immunity' and addiction can spoil much of the use of this kind of treatment. The important issue with painkillers is also that right dosage refers to time-intervals, that means that the patient does not take more medication than prescribed over a certain period of time. In most cases, medications are prescribed during infrequent visits to the doctor, and the patient himself is responsible for taking the correct dosage. For immobile persons, a visit to the doctor in order to get new medication or change existing prescription could be a real challenge. For some medications, a videoconference-based doctoral visit could be sufficient for ordination of e.g. painkillers.

A key tool for telecare and videoconference-based doctoral visits will be access to remote controllable pill dispenses. Based on updated health data, the doctor can adjust the medication or prescribe new medication, e.g., painkillers.

In the GRO project, we have studied the requirements for a remote controllable pill dispenser that could deliver painkillers on-demand. In the project we have used e-pill's MD.2 Automatic Medication Dispenser and Reminder System for tablets and capsules, for which we have developed a software tool that enable a medical doctor to remotely alter the dosage or prescribe a new medication.

The main goals of this project have been to: (a) help elderly with memory-problems to take their medicine at the correct time and in the correct dosage, (b) to help the caretaker to monitor the patients. In addition to these uses of the system, the IPD can have a positive effect on several aspects of the compliance problem. Being aware of that this is a complex problem, the solution with a pillbox that monitors the medication that the patient takes will have implications for the potential of missing/altering doses.

Our presentation will give an overview of current state-of-the-art technology within this field, discuss some potential benefits, and present the system being built for remote control of the MD.2 automatic medication dispenser

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