BETA project- use case

digiPILL

General Description

digiPILL is a digital pill reminder and dispenser with a user friendly interface for seniors. It has a built-in alarm system accompanying a digital file of the patient’s medication information. Added features include : electronic record of when pills are taken; electronic transfer of patient’s medication history to doctor, pharmacy, and family; reminder for refill or doctor appointment; automated phone call to user or family member when the doses are missed; access lock with facial recognition; and automatic organization of the medication during refill.

Medication is one of the many concerns for seniors. Many of them rely on their medications for their health. All of the functions performed by the device exist to reduce the risk of medication errors for seniors such as missing doses, taking medicines at incorrect time, or taking the wrong pills.

Scenario

James is a 72 years old man who lives by himself and is 2 hours away from his daughter’s house. It is a nice sunny morning and James decides to sit in the backyard and enjoy the nice weather. Few moments later, he falls asleep on the chair. It is noon time and James is supposed to take his medication. digiPILL is beeping loudly in the house every 5 minutes twice when the doses are missed but he can't hear it. Finally it stops and a few minutes later the phone rings. James answers the phone next to him; it's an operator calling to remind him his missing doses. He gets up and goes inside the house to take his noon medicine. He turns off the “missing pill sign” on digiPILL, and a message from the doctor's office pops out with a sound to remind him that his appointment is today at 3:30 pm. He confirms the message. digiPILL records and shows the medication information while he takes them.

Two hours later, James is at the doctor's office. The doctor connects James's digiPILL profile to his computer and notices he needs to refill his medications in 2 days so the doctor sets the alarm on James's digiPILL for refilling. He also prescribes James high blood pressure medication on digiPILL so he can pick it up at the pharmacy where the pharmacist also has an access to digiPil. After James gets his prescription, he goes home and scans the bottle on digiPILL. James confirms the medication information and pours the pills into digiPILL, it automatically organizes the medicine for him. James is now happy and secured that he’ll never miss any medication or doctor appointments.