Healthcare Technology Featured Article

July 10, 2014

MediSafe Expands its Medication Management Platform to Wearables


The field of wearable medical technology has been making breakthrough innovation in healthcare by introducing new levels of efficiency in an industry that is notoriously inefficient. Wearable technology is making it possible to provide care for patients outside of the hospital environment, with many new monitoring devices for diabetics, patients with cardiovascular conditions and others. The technology can monitor everything from glucose levels to heart rates, as well as ensure the accurate delivery of medication. During the Google I/O Developer Conference last month, MediSafe, a medication management platform, introduced an application for Android Wear Smartwatches to help users more accurately manage their medication regimen.

The application is designed to address a problem that is responsible for the hospitalization of hundreds of thousands of Americans each and every year: skipping or taking incorrect dosages of prescribed medication. The company points out, "Statistically, every 19 minutes an American dies because of medication non-adherence. Whether they are elderly, diabetic, or suffering from a temporary illness, adherence is critical to patients' health."

MediSafe is the first mobile health app on Google’s suite of Android Wear smartwatches. It provides an automatic, two-way sync medication reminder platform, with recorded medication doses to eliminate or dramatically reduce the errors patients commit regarding their prescriptions.

The application is automatically loaded on LG Android Wear, Samsung Gear Live, or Moto 360 smartwatches, if they have it on their Android smartphone or tablet. When it is time to take their medication, users receive reminders and can record taking the doses in one of two different ways:

One is "Shake to Take" in which users rotate their wrists left-to-right, and  second Swipe and Tap, which requires the user to swipe-left on their reminder and tap once to confirm.

Once these actions are performed, the information syncs automatically to the MediSafe app on their smartphones and tablets via Bluetooth. It can then be exported to their healthcare provider to be included in the patient’s medical record.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the average medication adherence rate for the general population is 50 percent, which means one in two people put themselves in danger. On the other hand, users with the MediSafe app have increased that number to 86 percent. So far the app has been downloaded more than 700,000 times, reminding users to take over 35 million doses.

"Android Wear brings MediSafe one step closer to patients – something central to our mission of connecting patients and healthcare providers for constant, two-way communication around medication management. We’re thrilled to be the first wearable medication management solution, and very grateful to Google for the opportunity to expand our platform to Android Wear, allowing us to further improve patients’ health outcomes," said MediSafe CEO Omri ‘Bob’ Shor.




Edited by Adam Brandt
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