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Improving Medication Adherence


March 26, 2008


A group of 76 HIV patients achieved an 89.5% medication adherence rate—much higher than average--by using "smart" pillboxes from Rockville, Md.-based InforMedix Holdings Inc.

Average adherence to HIV therapy is less than 70%, and 20% to 33% of HIV patients miss at least one of their medications in any three-day period, according to researchers at the San Francisco General AIDS Division at the University of California San Francisco. The researchers released the results of their smart pillbox study at the Third International Conference on HIV Adherence held last week in Jersey City, N.J. Many of the participating patients also had mental illnesses.

The vendor's Med-eMonitor system is designed to monitor medication compliance and collect patient diary information. Each pillbox is about the size of a videocassette and stores and dispenses medications in five drawers. It uses an alarm to remind patients when to take each medication.

In the process, the Med-eMonitor captures various patient data, including what time they took their medication and how they felt afterward. Patients place the device in a cradle to upload the data and send it via telephone lines to a centralized database at a provider organization.

For more information, go to informedix.com.

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