“Smart pill” reminds patients to take their medication
Despite the alarms set on smartphones or reminders from healthcare providers, patients often forget to take or refill their prescriptions. To combat patient’s forgetfulness, researchers at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center have developed a reminder sent by the pill itself.
Built by Proteus Digital Health, the pill is comprised of a small sensor that alerts patients when they have forgotten to take their medication. Activated in the stomach, the sensor sends signals to a wearable patch that decodes the message and projects it into the user and physicians app.
“We know from a data perspective that when we write prescriptions, a good number of those prescriptions either don’t get filled or don’t get taken by people,” said Tony Perry, vice president of Rush’s ambulatory transformation program. “The ‘click in the head’ was that this is a behavioral tool that was meant to help people help themselves, and that really seemed like a neat opportunity.”
Read the full article at the Chicago Tribune:
Cara joined TriMed Media in 2016 and is currently a Senior Writer for Clinical Innovation & Technology. Originating from Detroit, Michigan, she holds a Bachelors in Health Communications from Grand Valley State University.