The MedDispenser Improving Medication Compliance for the Elderly Group: Ashley Hammann Darnita Mims Connie Saelzler Annie Suarez Advisor: Richard Fries, Datex Ohmeda

The Elderly and Medication Regime Adherence When a patient is asked to take a medication 3 or more times a day, less than 50% of patients can comply with those instructions. The more medications added to a patient’s therapy, the lower the chance of a patient taking all the medications correctly.

Need for a Device In order to improve the efficacy of medication regimes, medication must be taken: At the correct times In the correct dosages According to pharmacist advice Therefore, a medication dispenser with the ability to ensure medication is taken correctly is needed.

Purpose The MedDispenser will: Dispense the correct medications at the correct time in the correct dosages In order to avoid over- dosages, forgetfulness, and drug side effects from incorrectly following pharmacist’s and doctor’s directions

E-Pill Med-Time Dispencer Dispenses medication up to 4 times per day Lockable and tamperproof Expensive: $249.00

E-Pill MD.2 Dispenses medicine up to 6 times per day Calls the caregiver automatically if meds are low or not taken Not Portable Expensive: $799.00 + $29.95/month

E-Pill CompuMed Automatically dispenses up to 4 times / day Skipped doses accumulate Expensive: $895.00

Automatic Vitamin & Pill Organizer Holds up to 28 doses $69.95 Comes with Alarm and the ability to schedule the time By Sharper Image

Pros & Cons Table

Disadvantages of Present Medicine Dispensers Expensive Not able to accommodate a month’s worth of multiple daily doses Some not portable Skipped doses accumulate Have to be refilled daily, weekly or bi-weekly

Current Patents Currently there are many patents out for an automatic medicine dispenser dating as far as back as 1977 Our design would be different enough not to infringe on an existing patents Examples

Proposed Design Each medication will be distributed into separate slots of a container The prescription definition will be saved in the device’s memory The correct medication and dosage will be dispensed at the correct time Each prescription type will be allotted a separate level in the tower

Picture of One Level for One Medication

QFD Diagram From Customer Surveys

QFD Diagram From Health Care Provider Surveys

Past Work Creation and distribution of a Potential Customer Survey Creation and distribution of a Health Care Provider Survey Meeting with Philip E. Johnston, Pharm. D. at the Department of Pharmaceutical Services at VUH Collection of both surveys QFD Diagrams for both surveys Researching patents Researching competitors

Current Work Further research into more concrete design specifications Build/Draw MedDispenser Designsafe Keep trying to get in contact with Mr. Fries

Future Work A critique by healthcare providers An computer prototype of the device Figure cost for producing the machine The cost for each individual machine Flash Presentation of working design

Conclusions & Recommendations Pharmacists would need compensation in order to fill a medicine dispenser May increase cost of product Cost of dispenser should be $15 - $20 for consumer Improvements to be made on design: Addition of compartments for liquid medications or any other medication not available in a pill form