The “eSecMed” app: Secure medication through NFC-solutions for a longer, safer & autonomous life of seniors
INFuture Conference
12.11.2015
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The beginning The „eSecMed“ app
Numbers
50% of all chronically ill patients are compliant to treatment recommendations (WHO)
$100 billion per year estimated cost of avoidable hospitalizations
44% of men and 57% of women above 65 take 5 different medications each week58% probability of adverse drug effects for 5 different medications
10% of all medications worldwide are falsified (up to 50% in some countries) unexpected side effects (FDA)
63% of all compounds which were purchased from more than 100 online pharmacies were counterfeit or at least substandard (Counterfeiting Superhighway report)
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The beginning The „eSecMed“ app
Numbers
50% of all chronically ill patients are compliant to treatment recommendations (WHO)
$100 billion per year estimated cost of avoidable hospitalizations
44% of men and 57% of women above 65 take 5 different medications each week58% probability of adverse drug effects for 5 different medications
10% of all medications worldwide are falsified (up to 50% in some countries) unexpected side effects (FDA)
63% of all compounds which were purchased from more than 100 online pharmacies were counterfeit or at least substandard (Counterfeiting Superhighway report)
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The beginning
Technology
Information-and-Communication-Technology (ICT)-based solutions put themselves forward for countering the described situation.
Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled mobile phones
to facilitate data management and exchange
patient monitoring
with the additional benefits of
reducing time and errors
high availability of the technology
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The beginning
Resulting objectives
To increase the health adherence by application of NFC as a user-friendly technology suitable for seniors, to assist secure medication and to provide additional information for increasing acceptance, usability & compliance.
To minimize undesirable side effects and harmful interactions of drugs for seniors by the development of a NFC supported virtual medicine cabinet as a smartphone app for mobile devices.
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The beginning
Our team
RCPE: Research Center for Pharmaceutical Engineering
Insights in the pharmaceutical process- and product-development
Pharma- Know How
NFC-RFID Technology
Mobile Solutions
eSecMed Infineon: producer of semi-conductors Development of an NFC-enabled smart-
blister
evolaris: competence center for mobile communication and innovation
Development of mobile application Execution of a user experience test
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Prototypical system
Thin perforated circuit board + NFC-chip attached to pill blister
Application retrieves data from the blister Expiration date Active substance Manufacturer Pill count (electrical resistance) Temperature (built-in sensor)
The „eSecMed“ system
What is it?
The „eSecMed“ app
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Virtual Medicine Cabinet supports patients in taking the right amount of medication
at the right time add different medicines by scanning the blister with the
smartphone (NFC enabled) or manually enter the prescribed dosage and time of day alert-function information on how many pills are left in the blister expiration date last documented intakes storage conditions (temperature)
The „eSecMed“ app
Features
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Documentation of intake Time and dosage is compared with prescription data
Check for adverse effects Scanned medicines are checked for adverse effects by
utilising a dedicated database
Check for authenticity of medications Also by means of a database, the genuineness of medications
can be proved (ePedigree data)
Daily reports Compliance nonconformities (dosage or time) are highlighted
Medi Buddies Daily reports can be shared with caregivers (emotional
support)
The „eSecMed“ app
Features
The study
Method
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Goals of the study
Evaluation in regards to usability of the application and usage barriers.
Focus is the usage of the NFC technology, blisters with NFC tag and an evaluation of the acceptance of NFC technology in the medical context.
Characteristics of respondents
10 persons (6 men, 4 women) aged between 52 and 69 years (mean: 58,5)
Medical treatment for a longer period of time within the last 12 months
Owner of a smartphone with experience in using it
Design of study
Semi-structured interviews, performance of tasks, observation
Duration: approx. 60 minutes
The study - method
Method
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Task 1: Add this medication to the virtual medicine cabinet
Task 2: Perform an authenticity check
Task 3: Push a pill out of the blister and document the intake
Task 4: Perform a check on adverse effects with two different medications
All of these tasks could be performed by using NFC
Respondents were NOT told how the tasks could be accomplished (at first)
The study - method
The tasks
The study
Results
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Once scanned, no major problems with entering the prescription data
Appreciation for amount of information provided
BUT:
None of the respondents was able to successfully scan the blister on the first attempt
Reasons:
Blister on top of smartphone
Short swipe
Cancellation of the scanning-process to read the info „Scanning in progress“
The study - results
Task 1: Add this medication to the virtual medicine cabinet
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Respondents expected the drug authentication in the medicine cabinet
Usage of manual input in order to find the function drug authentication
Information about the product is appreciated (esp. expiration date)
Nice-to-have feature Medicine is only bought at the pharmacy which is trusted
The study - results
Task 2: Perform an authenticity check
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One half embraced the speed and convenience
Other half insecure whether the documentation was completed or conducted successfully
Info message was displayed not long enough to read completely or was not noticed at all
Manual documentation was experienced to be tedious
The study - results
Task 3: Push a pill out of the blister and document the intake
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Respondents expected the feature in the medicine cabinet
NFC was not used right away
Once used the feature itself was reported to be helpful
Color codes was found useful (geen = OK, yellow = warning, red = caution)
For some respondents difference between warning and caution not entirely clear
The study - results
Task 4: Perform a check on adverse effects with two different medications
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Room for improvement Main menu too few options Menu navigation not intuitive (2 menues: “NFC” and “Manual input”) Scanning process takes too long Text partly too small No or unsufficient description of specific buttons
Appreciation App is easy to use Function: medicine cabinet Function: adverse effect Function: To give caregivers insight (Medi Buddies) Function: Documentation of the intake of medicine Utilisation of NFC technology for retrieving data from a pill blister
The study - results
Post-test: overall experience
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Although the target group knew about the existence of NFC technology, the majority was not familiar with alternative domains of NFC besides payment solutions.
Also handling this technology is still an unknown territory and causes respect.
However confidence increased rapidly after introducing users to the technology and the correct way of handling it.
Integrating the target group in the design and development process (“co-creation”) can eliminate the stated shortcomings.
The study - results
Conclusion
A glimpse
at the future
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Further miniaturization allows for an integrated battery data logging e.g. temperature and humidity sensing across the entire supply chain
to monitor transport conditions
Integration in fully automated primary and/or secondary packaging process
A glimpse at the future
The future…
Stefan Raschhofer, MScSmart Commerce Solutions
evolaris next level GmbHHugo-Wolf-Gasse 8-8A, 8010 Graz, AustiaSpittelberggasse 3 II/6, 1070 Vienna, Austria
T +43 316-35 11 11M +43 664 8414 [email protected]
www.evolaris.net
Thank you very much