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A Smart Pillbox To Improve Medication Compliance

Posted by kdawson on from the you-talkin-to-me dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "A major challenge in public health is that people do not take their medications, a phenomenon known as 'medication non-adherence.' In the US alone, it is estimated that this accounts for 10% of all hospital visits and costs the healthcare system $100 billion per year and $60 billion to the pharmaceutical industry. Now, an MIT research team thinks it has a solution to this problem that will save lives worldwide. They've developed the uBox, a convenient, palm-sized, intelligent pill dispenser, 'which reminds a patient when it is time to take his medication, records when a patient has taken a dose, and prevents a patient from double-dosing.' The first large-scale trial with 100 uBoxes is scheduled to begin in May in Bihar, India, in a 6-month long tuberculosis treatment program."

5 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. And How Does The Pillbox Know... by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And how does the pillbox know that you actually took the pill, as opposed to taking it out of the pillbox so that it will quit nagging you?

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
    1. Re:And How Does The Pillbox Know... by dotancohen · · Score: 5, Funny

      And how does the pillbox know that you actually took the pill It should wear a condom if it's not sure.
      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    2. Re:And How Does The Pillbox Know... by truesaer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Medication non-compliance is usually due to forgetfulness rather than intentionally not taking it (they can't force you anyway). So really just alerting/reminding you is probably all they want to do.

  2. Already exists by CrystalFalcon · · Score: 5, Informative

    How is this better than the already-in-trials Cypak box, which also reminds the patient to take the pills, registers the time/date taken per pill, transfers results over RFID to doctors, etc, has the added advantage of looking exactly like an ordinary pharma blister pack?

  3. Great, too bad it's illegal by AK+Marc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Based on my understanding of US law, carying a controlled substance (anything that requires a prescription) in anything other that the official bottle it came in is a federal crime. All such daily and weekly pillboxes are illegal. My father was stopped and threatened with arrest when one such item was disovered, he had to rummage through his cary on luggage to find enough pill bottles with appropriate names and descriptions such that they let him through (though they noted that just having them out of the appropriate container was illegal). How do such pill boxes deal with the legal issues? If you take one on a trip and don't bring the bottle with the appropriate documentation, should you be subject to arrest?

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    Learn to love Alaska