The Business Day of Johannesburg, South Africa reports about SIMpill, the SMS-driven pill bottle that through a cell phone reminds patients to take their meds:
A local doctor has developed a pill bottle that uses cellphone technology to remind patients to take their medicines and warns them if they are about to take an extra dose by mistake.
The SIMpill device is aimed at patients on long-term medication for diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), HIV, epilepsy, diabetes and asthma, for whom missing even a few doses can have potentially life-threatening consequences.
For example, patients with infectious diseases such as HIV and TB may become drug-resistant, and epilepsy patients risk seizures if they skip pills, said SIMpill inventor Dr David Green.
The patented bottle contains an electronic chip that sends an SMS to a secure central server when the cap is removed. The SMS includes a unique pill box identification number.
If the SMS arrives too early or too late, the server sends a reminder to the patient’s cellphone, or one belonging to a family member or health-care professional. “Unlike alarm clocks, which often sit on the shelf and beep unnoticed, cellphones tend to be carried around,” said Green.
The patients’ pill-taking schedules were programmed into the tamper-proof pill bottles by the pharmacist who dispenses their medicines, said Green.
To see a diagram of how this device is working, please press here.
More at SIMpill website…