The MedDispenser Improving Medication Compliance for the Elderly

1. The MedDispenserImproving Medication Compliance for the Elderly Group: Ashley Hammann Darnita Mims Connie Saelzler Annie Suarez Advisor: Richard Fries, Datex Ohmeda

2. The Elderly and Medication Regime Adherence When a patient is asked to take a medication 3 or more times a day, less than 50% of patients can comply with those instructions. The more medications added to a patient’s therapy, the lower the chance of a patient taking all the medications correctly.

3. Need for a Device In order to improve the efficacy of medication regimes, medication must be taken: • At the correct times • In the correct dosages • According to pharmacist advice Therefore, a medication dispenser with the ability to ensure medication is taken correctly is needed.

4. Purpose The MedDispenser will: • Dispense the correct medications at the correct time in the correct dosages • In order to avoid over- dosages, forgetfulness, and drug side effects from incorrectly following pharmacist’s and doctor’s directions

5. Proposed Design • Each medication will be distributed into separate slots of a container • The prescription definition will be saved in the device’s memory • The correct medication and dosage will be dispensed at the correct time • Each prescription type will be allotted a separate level in the tower

6. E-Pill Med-Time Dispencer • Dispenses medication up to 4 times per day • Lockable and tamperproof • Expensive: $249.00

7. E-Pill MD.2 • Dispenses medicine up to 6 times per day • Calls the caregiver automatically if meds are low or not taken • Not Portable • Expensive: $799.00 + $29.95/month

8. E-Pill CompuMed • Automatically dispenses up to 4 times / day • Skipped doses accumulate • Expensive: $895.00

9. Automatic Vitamin & Pill Organizer • Holds up to 28 doses • $69.95 • Comes with Alarm and the ability to schedule the time • By Sharper Image

10. Pros & Cons Table

11. Disadvantages of Present Medicine Dispensers • Expensive • Not able to accommodate a month’s worth of multiple daily doses • Some not portable • Skipped doses accumulate • Have to be refilled daily, weekly or bi-weekly

12. Current Patents • Currently there are many patents out for an automatic medicine dispenser dating as far as back as 1977 • Our design would be different enough not to infringe on an existing patents • Examples

13. QFD Diagram

14. Past Work • Creation and distribution of a Potential Customer Survey • Creation and distribution of a Health Care Provider Survey • Meeting with Philip E. Johnston, Pharm. D. at the Department of Pharmaceutical Services at VUH • Collection of both surveys • QFD Diagram • Compilation of health care and patient survey • Innovation workbench

15. Current Work • Further research into more concrete design specifications • Researching patents • Researching competitors • Design specifications defined • Build/Draw MedDispenser • Designsafe • Keep trying to get in contact with Mr. Fries

16. Future Work • Computer model including user interface • A critique by healthcare providers • An actual prototype of the device • Figure cost for producing the machine • The cost for each individual machine