Cell phones are everywhere. Studies have shown that 91 percent of America's population carries one. We don’t just use them to make calls or play Angry Birds or check our e-mail anymore, though. More and more, they’re becoming healthcare devices that will let us become more healthy—if we let them.
What would you say if they reminded you to take your medication? That’s one of the biggest concerns of the healthcare industry. Would you believe a whopping 50 percent of the two billion prescriptions filled each year are not taken correctly? Or that only one-third of patients take all their medicine, one-third take some, and the other one-third never fills their prescriptions at all? Well, it’s true. And it doesn’t just affect the person not taking the medicine. It hurts all of us. Poor compliance is a cause of failed medical treatment and drug-resistant conditions, according to Medical News Today.
To try to prevent this, Janssen Healthcare Innovation, part of Johnson & Johnson's stable of companies, has launched Care4Today Mobile Adherence, a two-way messaging platform, mobile application and website designed to help consumers manage their medications, according to a story by Eric Wicklund.
But instead of hearing some perfectly-modulated yet sterile voice telling you to take your meds, the platform lets users create their own reminders to take medications and refill prescriptions and manage healthcare appointments.
"Medication non-adherence is a huge problem in healthcare today," said Dave Tripi, a founding partner of San Diego-based Janssen Healthcare Innovation, which was formed roughly two years ago when J&J reorganized its healthcare channels.
Tripi adds that the consequences of so many people not taking their medication properly cause 3.5 million hospitalizations, 125,000 deaths and an estimated $290 billion in avoidable annual medical spending, every year, Wicklund reported.
Configured to work on any phone or other device with Web-browsing capabilities, Care4Today enables the user to manage his or her medication regimen in real-time, rather than once a day, a few times or simply when it's convenient.
“That's an important distinction to Janssen officials, who note that many people aren't taking their medications because they simply forget, or they're too busy or preoccupied,” Wicklund noted.
Tripi pointed out in the story that Care4Today works for any medication including vitamins, is not limited to J&J products, uses advanced encryption standards, and allows the user to tailor outgoing messages to be specific, generic or discreet.
In the future, enhancements targeted at allowing users to see graphical representations of their medication history and communicate with their providers via e-mail will help to make this “a disease management platform," Tripi told Wicklund.
Edited by
Jamie Epstein
