Information-driven pharmaceutical adherence packaging

Abstract

A prepackaged medication system and method is provided to increase patient compliance with prescribed medications. The system comprises providing patients with customized packaging for all of their prescription medications organized by administration timepoint. Since all medications for an individual patient may be packaged in a customized form, a listing of all medications and prescribing physician information may be provided to patients and maintained for reference and use by physicians in evaluating treatment regimens. The method comprises obtaining prescription data from a patient, entering the obtained data into a database, extracting and organizing the patient's prescription data, generating a customized packaging layout for all of the patient's prescription medications organized by day and administration timepoint, filling each medication container within the package with the appropriate medication(s) and shipping either directly to the patient or to the patient's pharmacy.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates generally to an information-driven prepackaged medication system, and associated methods designed to increase compliance with pharmaceutical prescriptions. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] Failure by patients to comply or adhere to prescribed pharmaceutical medication schedules is a major health care and economic concern. Noncompliance with prescription medication schedules results either in under-treatment or over-treatment and suboptimal health outcomes. Failure to adhere to prescription medication administration schedules is directly linked, by one estimate, to more than 125,000 deaths annually in the United States, while hundreds of thousands more patients endure prolonged recovery periods or never fully recover. [0005] The health impact of noncompliance also gives rise to large economic costs. For example, studies find that noncompliance costs than $100 billion in lo...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0025] Still another object of the present invention is to provide a customized prepackaged medication system and method that provides the patient with improved medical information about the medications provided therein as well as greater reliability in identifying particular medications.

[0026] Another object of the present invention is to provide a customized prepackaged medication system and method that allows the pharmacist additional time to consult with the patient instead of spending time repackaging medications.

Problems solved by technology

Failure by patients to comply or adhere to prescribed pharmaceutical medication schedules is a major health care and economic concern.

Noncompliance with prescription medication schedules results either in under-treatment or over-treatment and suboptimal health outcomes.

Failure to adhere to prescription medication administration schedules is directly linked, by one estimate, to more than 125,000 deaths annually in the United States, while hundreds of thousands more patients endure prolonged recovery periods or never fully recover.

The health impact of noncompliance also gives rise to large economic costs.

For example, studies find that noncompliance costs than $100 billion in lost productivity and unnecessary medical costs, more than $200 billion per year in unnecessary costs to health care payers, and more than $30 billion per year is lost by pharmaceutical companies.

A large proportion of patient noncompliance results from confusion with complicated medication regimens.

Patients often are prescribed several medications, any of which may be required to be administered in different dosages / amounts at several points over the course of a day, causing confusion in the most alert of patients.

In some cases, noncompliance results from error stemming from medication repackaging processes conducted by the patient or the patient's care giver.

Each packaging and repackaging process provides opportunity for mistakes, reducing adherence to treatment regimens.

However, neither of these processes address improving patient adherence and compliance, particularly when more than one medication is prescribed and / or at least one medication requires multiple doses each day.

In addition, the last step, repackaging by the patient, is most dangerous because of the potential for introducing significant error.

Some patients, particularly the elderly, become confused by the complexity of multiple medication regimens and / or lack sufficient manual dexterity, visual acuity and / or mental alertness to organize and repackage medications correctly and safely.

Primary disadvantages of this packaging system are that presently only one medication per blister pack is provided; it can be difficult for some patients to remove the medication contained therein, and such systems are not customizable to the individual patient.

Cassettes are reused, so there is a risk of cross-contamination from pills previously housed in the cavities.

Such cassettes are not designed to handle all medications for an individual patient, nor is there a method or system known that would accommodate such a customized approach.

Problems with such packaging systems are that the indicia and / or instructions are integrated with the packaging and not customizable to the patient.

So a patient may have several such packaging systems and in such a situation may be compelled to repackage, introducing error.

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