Virtual Pill Case System for Medication Adherence Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pharmacy consumers, especially the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions, often struggle with medication adherence due to forgetfulness, missed refills, or misunderstanding dosing instructions, leading to reduced medication efficacy and increased healthcare costs.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that uses a mobile device interface with a virtual pill case, incorporating a pharmacy account module, search engine module, and communications module to monitor medication use, generate alerts for upcoming or missed doses, and provide personalized medication information through a networked computer system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a system provides comprehensive medication information and monitoring capabilities, then medication adherence improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into distinct functional modules: a virtual pill case module for organizing medications, a search engine module for retrieving medication information, a notification module for sending reminders, and a communication module for data transmission. Each module performs a specific function, making the overall complex system manageable and maintainable while providing comprehensive medication adherence support.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediate components such as a database for storing medication information, a notification server as a mediator between the mobile device and user, and a virtual pill case interface that mediates between the user and the complex backend systems. These intermediaries simplify user interaction while enabling sophisticated monitoring and information retrieval capabilities.
2Reliability
If the system monitors user activity and generates frequent notifications, then medication adherence improves, but loss of time increases due to processing and communication overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-calculating notification schedules, pre-fetching medication information when connectivity is available, and pre-processing user activity data locally on the mobile device. This reduces the time required for real-time processing and notification generation, as much of the computational work is done in advance.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile device performs self-service by locally storing medication schedules, autonomously monitoring user activity through device sensors and inputs, and generating notifications without requiring constant server communication. This autonomous operation minimizes communication overhead and processing delays while maintaining reliable medication adherence monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media that assist pharmacy customers with medication adherence are disclosed. A user interface on a user device includes a virtual pill case including prescription information about a medication. A processing device includes a pharmacy account module, a search engine module, and a communications module. The pharmacy account module receives a request to monitor a user activity, stores the request in a database, and initiates a data search operation, and transmits prescription information to the search engine module. The search engine module receives the prescription information, generates a search on a third party server, and receives and sends the results to the pharmacy account module. The pharmacy account module evaluates the results to retrieve updated medication information and updates the virtual pill case, determines a triggering event associated with the medication occurred, and generates a notification. The communications module transmits the notification to the user.