Breaking News – – Reminding people to do stuff, helps make them do stuff…
I always am happy to read articles with yet more proof that we are all exactly in the right industry and on the right track! Medication Compliance is one of the leading drivers to assisted living. Any months that we can save of supervised care can save thousands of dollars. We must, as a country, embrace enabling remote monitoring technologies to save money, encourage independence and prompt health/wellness and good decision making. We use technologies every day (I certainly use an alarm clock to get up in the morning) and my google calendar sends me text message reminders about my appointments so I don’t miss them. All we need to do is provide this information to the seniors and individuals that need these prompts/reminders in an effective and user-friendly format. It sounds like Memotext has hit the nail on the head!
GrandCare Systems is also working towards this common goal, to help individuals help themselves. To maintain independence, encourage healthy choices and keep them socially connected to family (video chat, emails, reminders, calendar appts, pictures, videos, music, games, etc.) in a user-friendly format (no computer skills necessary).
GrandCare can prompt a Loved One (via their TV screen or telephone) to take meds, eat, take vitals (BP, Weight, Pulseox, glucose), perform activities, etc. and also alerts family members if certain parameters were met (meds not accessed, door opened during the night, excessive motion, wandering motion, someone didn’t return to bed during the night, vitals were not taken, etc.).
Thanks Mobihealth News and Memotext for the below article: http://mobihealthnews.com/11146/automated-dosing-reminder-study-finds-increased-adherence/
Automated med reminders boost adherence
By: Brian Dolan | Jun 8, 2011 12:34pm EST
Tags: American Glaucoma Society | Express Scripts | glaucoma medication adherence |Memotext | Microsoft HealthVault | NEHI | text message reminders |
Amos Adler, President, Memotext
Glaucoma, the world’s second leading cause of blindness, has a number of effective therapies to help those afflicted. Despite these solutions, non-adherence rates for those treatments are reported to be between thirty-seven and fifty-nine percent. Luckily, mobile health professionals are working on ways to solve this issue. One such company, Memotext, has been developing adherence technologies and may have proof that its solution will improve those statistics.
Memotext and Microsoft’s recent study (funded by Microsoft and conducted by Johns Hopkins University) measured the efficacy of using the Memotext adherence solution combined with Microsoft’s personal health tracking platform HealthVault. Patients received some combination of text message reminders and IVR messages to remind them about their medication regimen.
When patients used the combined technologies, researchers found adherence to daily glaucoma therapy increased from fifty-one to sixty-seven percent. The control group, with no intervention, saw no change in adherence. The preliminary results from the automated dosing reminder study, which followed 429 patients, were presented at the March 2011 annual meeting of the American Glaucoma Society, as well as at the 2011 Mobile Health conference held in May at Stanford.
Of course, glaucoma isn’t the only disease where patients need help adhering to therapies. According to a recent study by Express Scripts, Americans might be wasting as much as $258 billion annually by not taking their prescribed medications. Another study, by NEHI, found that poor adherence is causing problems that cost $290 billion in unnecessary spending each year.
Last week, MobiHealthNews reported that two members of Congress introduced bills to allow Medicare reimbursement for more increased adherence solutions like text message reminders.
For more on Memotext’s study, read the full release: http://mobihealthnews.com/11146/automated-dosing-reminder-study-finds-increased-adherence/
