MobileReminder: A Camera Phone Based Medication Reminder for Older Patients

描述（由申请人提供）：不坚持服药是当今卫生保健面临的最严重的问题之一。老年患者往往很难记住何时服用何种药物，以及服用多少药物。由于老年人更倾向于记忆丧失，混乱，视力障碍和药物不良反应，因此确保适当的药物治疗是一个具有挑战性的目标。虽然存在一些专用设备，但它们通常具有重大缺点。我们建议通过开发一种非侵入性的，紧凑的，廉价的，轻便的和便携式的解决方案，它集成了多种药物提醒服务与现有的硬件来解决这些问题。在这个SBIR项目中，应用媒体分析公司。(AMA)建议与史密斯-凯特尔韦尔眼科研究所的研究人员合作，展示MobileReminder的技术可行性，MobileReminder是一种基于软件的附加套件，使用现有的摄像头智能手机提供增强的药物提醒和验证功能。该软件可以预先安装在相机手机中，也可以从网站上下载。我们的方法考虑到特定的需求，老年患者的低视力，将自动条形码阅读功能集成到软件中。我们的技术将照相手机变成个人条形码扫描仪，可以让患者通过简单的条形码扫描注册和验证药物服用。因此，该方法避免了过度进入，这对于低视力的老年患者来说是极具挑战性的。与现有的设备相比，如Med-On Time，ALR和e-pill MED Timer，我们的基于摄像手机的解决方案将提供以下优点：1）摄像手机已逐渐成为所有年龄段的人的必需品，不需要特殊的硬件; 2）MobileReminder可以提供音频，视频和振动报警，因为所有这些都内置在摄像手机中; 3）摄像手机易于编程，提供了轻松适应患者特定需求的灵活性; 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）集成的条形码阅读功能允许患者通过简单的条形码扫描登记、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，或者可以在访问医生办公室时或通过网络连接由家人远程监控依从性;最重要的是，7）如果成功，该设备将为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.