MobileReminder: A Camera Phone Based Medication Reminder for Older Patients

描述(申请人提供)：不坚持用药是当今医疗保健面临的最严重问题之一。老年患者往往很难记住什么时候服用哪种药物，服用多少。由于老年人更容易出现记忆力丧失、精神错乱、视力障碍和药物不良反应，确保适当的药物治疗是一个具有挑战性的目标。尽管存在一些专用设备，但它们往往存在重大缺陷。我们建议通过开发一种非侵入性、紧凑、廉价、轻便和便携的解决方案来解决这些问题，该解决方案将多种药物提醒服务与现有硬件集成在一起。在这个SBIR项目中，应用媒体分析公司(AMA)提议与史密斯-凯特尔韦尔眼科研究所的研究人员合作，展示MobileRMinder的技术可行性，这是一种基于软件的附加套件，它使用现有的可拍照的智能手机来提供增强的药物提醒和验证功能。该软件可以预装在照相手机中，也可以简单地从网站下载。我们的方法通过将自动条形码读取功能集成到软件中来考虑老年低视力患者的特定需求。我们的技术将照相手机变成了个人条形码扫描仪，患者可以通过简单的条形码扫描来注册和验证服药情况。因此，该方法避免了过度进入，这对视力低下的老年患者来说是极具挑战性的。与Med-on Time、ALR和e-Pill MED Timer等现有设备相比，我们基于拍照手机的解决方案将提供以下优势：1)拍照手机已逐渐成为所有年龄段的人的必需品，不需要特殊硬件；2)MobileRminder可以提供音频、视觉和振动警报，因为所有这些都内置在拍照手机中；3)拍照手机易于编程，提供了灵活性，可以轻松适应患者的特定需求；4)集成的网络功能允许通过现有协议进行远程监控和配置选项；5)集成的条形码读取功能允许患者通过简单的条形码扫描来登记、移除和验证药物；6)可以设置跟踪，以便用户知道何时服用药物，或者可以在去医生办公室时监控依从性，或者通过网络连接由家人远程监控；最重要的是，如果成功，该设备将为单一设备上的低视力解决方案提供一个新的统一平台。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Non-adherence to medication is 1 of the most serious problems facing health care today. Older patients often find it difficult to remember when to take which medication, and in what quantities. Since older individuals are more disposed to memory loss, confusion, visual impairment, and adverse drug reactions, ensuring proper medication is a challenging goal. Although some dedicated devices exist, they often have major drawbacks. We propose to address these problems by developing a non-intrusive, compact, inexpensive, lightweight and portable solution, which integrates multiple medication reminder services with existing hardware. In this SBIR project, Applied Media Analysis, Inc. (AMA) proposes to collaborate with researchers at The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Institute to demonstrate the technical feasibility of MobileReminder, a software based add-on suite which uses existing camera enabled smart phones to provide enhanced medication reminding and verification capabilities. The software may be pre-installed in the camera phone or simply downloaded from the website. Our method considers the specific needs of older patients with low vision by integrating automatic barcode reading capabilities into the software. Our technology turns a camera phone into a personal barcode scanner which can allow patients to enroll and verify the medication-taking by a simple barcode scanning. The approach therefore, avoids excessive entry which is extremely challenging for older patients with low vision. Compared with existing devices, such as Med-On Time, ALR, and the e-pill MED Timer, our camera-phone based solution will offer the following advantages: 1) camera phones have been gradually becoming a necessity for people at all ages, and no special hardware is needed; 2) MobileReminder can provide alarms with audio, visual and vibration as all these are built in camera phones; 3) Camera phones are easily programmable, providing the flexibility to easily adapt to patients' specific needs; 4) lntegrated networking capabilities allow remote monitoring and configuration options via existing protocols; 5) Integrated barcode reading capability allows patients to enroll, remove and verify the medication with a simple barcode scan; 6) Tracking can be set up so that users know when medication was taken, or adherence can be monitored at visits to the doctors office or remotely by family through network connections; and most important, 7) if successful, this device will provide a new unified platform for low-vision solutions on a single device.