An Enhanced Medication Monitoring Program

Summary

The goal of the Enhanced Medication Management Program (eMMp) being developed by MedMinder Systems, Inc. is to increase the ability of frail elders to adhere to complex medication regimens for chronic conditions. Adherence will facilitate effective self-care and decrease personal and societal costs associated with disease progression and loss of independence. Multiple studies have shown that more frequent personal follow-up is the most effective way to maximize medication adherence, but such personal care is too costly to translate well to real life in a world of limited healthcare resources.

Currently available "smart pillboxes" are too expensive, too limited in the number and types of medications delivered, and too technically complex for the large majority of senior citizens. The eMMp is designed to deliver prompts and reminders to the user, to be remotely programmable by caregivers, to allow the option of using pre-filled medication trays, to provide electronic adherence reports to family/caregivers and to provide personalized reinforcing phone calls from professional caregivers, all at a modest cost. The in-home ReMinder will use a familiar pillbox layout (4 doses/day for 7 days) and allow easy removal of medication cups by elderly, rheumatic fingers. Installation will require only an electrical outlet (no modems or dedicated phone lines). Once plugged in, the built-in pager will continuously download remotely programmed visual and/or aural prompts and reminders from a central server (RemoteMind). It will continuously upload the date and time when each medi-cation cup is removed and when weekly refill is carried out, enabling remote adherence monitoring, alerts to caregivers, and follow-up intervention(s) from personal and/or professional caregivers as needed.

The hypothesis to be tested in this 2 year SBIR Phase I work plan is that the eMMp will significantly im-prove adherence and clinical outcome (blood pressure control) in a population of frail elderly who are hyper-tensive. SBIR Phase II will determine the minimum level of intervention needed to achieve sustained medication adherence and control of blood pressure in a larger group of hypertensive elders.

Conditions

• Medication Adherence
• Hypertension

Interventions

DEVICE

MedMinder System

Participants will receive a fully activated reminder unit as well as at least one call per month from a counselor.

DEVICE

MedMinder System - deactivated

Participants will receive a one-way reminder unit that will remotely transit information on medication adherence

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Narrows Institute for Biomedical Research

  collaborator OTHER

• MedMinder Systems Inc.

  lead INDUSTRY

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

55 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-09-30

Primary Completion

2013-05-31

Completion

2013-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations