Development of a Low-Power IoMT Portable Pillbox for Medication Adherence Improvement and Remote Treatment Adjustment

Abstract

Patients usually deviate from prescribed medication schedules and show reduced adherence. Even when the adherence is sufficient, there are conditions where the medication schedule should be modified. Crucial drug–drug, food–drug, and supplement–drug interactions can lead to treatment failure. We present the development of an internet of medical things (IoMT) platform to improve medication adherence and enable remote treatment modifications. Based on photos of food and supplements provided by the patient, using a camera integrated to a portable 3D-printed low-power pillbox, dangerous interactions with treatment medicines can be detected and prevented. We compare the medication adherence of 14 participants following a complex medication schedule using a functional prototype that automatically receives remote adjustments, to a dummy pillbox where the adjustments are sent with text messages. The system usability scale (SUS) score was 86.79, which denotes excellent user acceptance. Total errors (wrong/no pill) between the functional prototype and the dummy pillbox did not demonstrate any statistically significant difference (p = 0.57), but the total delay of the intake time was higher (p = 0.03) during dummy pillbox use. Thus, the proposed low-cost IoMT pillbox improves medication adherence even with a complex regimen while supporting remote dose adjustment.

El Internet de las Cosas Médicas (IoMT): Una Revolución Tecnológica aplicable a la Gestión de la Diabetes Mellitus Tipo 1

“…Los equipos médicos interconectados para la supervisión de la atención sanitaria se conocen como Internet de las Cosas Médicas (IoMT). Los dispositivos IoT sanitarios utilizan sensores automatizados y Machine Learning (ML) para facilitar la supervisión sanitaria sin intervención humana [11]. Mediante el uso de diversos dispositivos médicos, la tecnología IoMT permite a los pacientes y a los médicos recopilar, evaluar y transferir a distancia datos médicos a través de una supervisión de la salud en tiempo real, wearable y personalizada [12].…”

Implementation of the IoT-Based Technology on Patient Medication Adherence: A Comprehensive Bibliometric and Systematic Review

“…Remote patient education (Chavez et al, 2020;Karagiannis et al, 2022;Roh et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2014); interactive patient education (Chavez et al, 2020;Karagiannis et al, 2022;Roh et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2014); mobile applications (Fathillah and Chellappan, 2022;Roh et al, 2021;Roumaissa & Rachid, 2022),…”

“…Watch (Ma et al, 2018), mobile app (Fathillah & Chellappan. 2022;Roh et al, 2021;Roumaissa & Rachid, 2022;Silpa et al, 2022), and web server (Ishak et al, 2018;Karagiannis et al, 2022;Sherif et al, 2020;Silpa et al, 2022) A system consisting of a watch, mobile app, and web server to track medication adherence.…”

AAL and Internet of Medical Things for Monitoring Type-2 Diabetic Patients

“…The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is a subset of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology comprised of interconnected medical equipment for healthcare monitoring. IoMT devices, also known as healthcare IoT, integrate automating, interfacial sensors, and machine learning to provide human intervention-free healthcare monitoring [ 44 ]. IoMT technology links patients and physicians through medical devices, providing remote access to gather, analyze, and send medical data via a secure network.…”