Now you don't need a pill to remember your pills
Somewhere between one-third and one-half of all Americans take their medication at the wrong time, or at the wrong dosage, or simply forget altogether, according to a New England Healthcare Institute study released earlier this month (PDF).
Maya's retail price is $77.50 plus a $29.95 monthly subscription fee.
(Credit: MedMinder Systems.)MedMinder Systems to the rescue. The wisely named Newton, Mass.-based start-up is one of several companies working to develop the ultimate smart pillbox. Approximately the size of a textbook, "Maya" (the wisdom behind the box's nickname remains elusive) holds 28 small plastic cups that can be designated separately for different pill types and detailed regimens.
When a pill is due to be taken, a white light flashes beneath the specific cup, a friendly little "take me now!" reminder whose calm insistence bears some resemblance to Hal 9000. If the wrong cup is lifted, a low-level siren that ideally won't cause cardiac arrest informs the patient of the potentially egregious mistake.
If the cup has not moved in a half hour, Maya goes from Hal-like flashing to beeping, and her beeping grows louder and more insistent over time. Finally, depending on how the patient or person designated to help with the pills has programmed her, Maya actually calls by telephone or pings a designated e-mail in-box. And if this nagging doesn't cut it, a weekly or monthly report details how many doses the patient has missed so that improvements can be made.
The Boston Globe profiled this gadget over the weekend (price tag is $77.50 plus a $29.95 monthly subscription charge), and the accompanying video is worth a watch. You kind of have to see Maya to believe her.
I wonder what the pillbox will look like when I reach the age I need one. I keep hearing Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" drone on as mini DayGlo strobe lights make the pills look happy and alluring. I'd probably be forever indebted to its priceless advice, although I'd surely miss the simple days of Maya and her Hal 9000-like insistence as well.
Elizabeth Armstrong Moore is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Ore. She has contributed to Wired magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and public radio. Her semi-obscure hobbies include unicycling, slacklining, hula-hooping, scuba diving, billiards, Sudoku, Magic the Gathering, and classical piano. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
Interesting concept though
This may be a great system for cancer patients as well. I had been sorting hundreds of pills per week at some points. And actually having a web based method of determining how to set up a pill box with medications with different times and doses is much easier than juggling pill bottles. And usually I set up the pill box for a week at a time, and likely it will be the caregiver that once a week would set up this box. And for months I used spreadsheets to organize it all.
I had been hoping and working on trying to set up an integrated approach to do something like this, but glad someone has done it. Another aspect if this was done right is that patients have to list what prescriptions they are taking to their doctors. I hope that this system uses open standards so that the information can be sent electronically to the doctors. And there should be a way to have pharmacies send the prescription info directly into this system.
Daniel Bennett
Also note that, even after programming, this is only as good as the person who loads it up every week.
Now, if all pills were individually bar-coded/RFID tagged, the benefits of something like this could start to outweigh the risks.
- by September 3, 2009 8:23 AM PDT
- I like the idea of the care giver being alerted if the medication is not taken. They can then check up on the person to make sure everything is OK.
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(8 Comments)I hope the are working on bringing the monthly price down. I do not think Medicare would cover this.