Monday, July 17, 2006

MD2 Personal Medication System

Filed under: Geriatrics

Even a spry young adult such as myself can use one of these, let alone grandma and grandpa. About a little bigger than a coffeemaker, the MD.2 Personal Medication System, marketed by ePill.com, is a little more helpful than the average pill dispenser.

This helps patients take their medication regularly so that it works effectively:

The unique home-based system, which has been around since 2000, dispenses up to 60 doses of any solid oral medication. The device, hooked up to a phone jack, even monitors compliance by calling the caregiver if medications are not taken on time.

"The other night, I was in the living room, and I fell asleep," Berry said.

"My daughter called and said, 'Did you fall asleep?' "

"It's great they keep track of me."

Caregivers can also log on to the Internet and track their family member's dispensing records so they can confirm that the machine is doing what it should.

While more expensive (and stylish) than your $5 plastic MTWThF pill case, at $850 dollars it provides an ensured system of drug delivery.

Product page...

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replies: 2 comments
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...Yeah, but where does the Diet Coke with Lime fit into the equation. Probably more synthetic substances in there than your average pill.


Posted by: TimO
on July 17, 2006 10:14 AM GMT

The IMD2 does work; my father-in-law has something like 99.6% on-time dosing through the four years he's had the device.

The system has serious weaknesses, though - nothing that can't be fixed in firmware, but nothing that the developers (IMD of Cedar Rapids, IA) have found to be a priority - unless you subscribe to the $30/month monitoring service, there's no way to get dispense reports out (yet the machine still makes a daily call to the developers, presumably helping them calculate their claimed on-time dose percentage) and the clock slips time a few minutes per month. It does require a landline The configuration options are very limited, resuling, in our case, in a device that requires refills more often than strictly necessary. Finally, the notifications of missed dose only occur after a dose is truly missed and locked away in a compartment - an option to start the notification process before the end of the dispense window, or the ability to command a dispense would be a beneift.

Overall, this is an excellent first-generation device, and provides a proof of concept/starting point for a truly knockout product that is more integrated with other telehealth technologies. It has been our fervent hope that IMD would move forward with enhancements, but these have never really materialized.


Posted by: Eric
on July 17, 2006 03:38 PM GMT