Back in mid-November 2012, we provided coverage of a new cloud- and big data-based mobile healthcare application, MediSafe Project, a very timely mobile app and larger-scale project designed to assist users in tracking the medications they take and in ensuring that users take their proper doses at exactly the times they need to do so.
As we did then, we note now that we consider this particular mobile app to be a particularly important one, not only because of what the app itself aims to accomplish - which means that it is a statistical certainty (and we note this with absolutely no exaggeration what so ever) that lives will be saved.
For individual users, MediSafe Project is available as a free download in Google Play and the iTunes App Store, and it offers a complete ecosystem of patients, families, doctors, drug stores and pharmaceutical companies to solve the hazardous and costly problem of medication non-adherence.
One of the valuable aspects of the program is that if a user misses any dosage at any time the user's support ecosystem; family, friends, doctors, and so on will be alerted through the app's cloud-based services so that they can take immediate action to ensure the user adheres to the necessary requirements for any given medication.
“Medication adherence is a persistent and elusive problem, interrupting patients’ well-being, costing health providers and insurers billions annually and causing preventable deaths,” said MediSafe Project CEO, Omri ‘Bob’ Shor. “MediSafe Project’s involvement of patients’ loved ones and caretakers is proving itself a breakthrough in reducing the harm that comes from medication non-adherence.”
The most important aspects of the "project" side of the app are a) that it is cloud-based, with information being both stored and aggregated in the cloud (MediSafe was recently chosen as Microsoft’s “BizSpark Startup of the Day” and was part of Microsoft's Accelerator for Windows Azure cloud technology); and b) that there is a great deal of sophisticated behind the scenes analysis going on of the big data that is being gathered that will be able to pinpoint all sorts of very useful and lifesaving insights.
Now, approximately eight weeks into the initial launch of MediSafe Project (the name of the mobile app as well) the MediSafe team announced today that its users have reported a medication adherence rate of 81 percent. For Statins, the adherence rate climbs even further, to 84.25 percent.
Those numbers mean that MediSafe Project users have recorded taking their medication on time at a rate that is 31 percent higher than the World Health Organization’s estimated average medication adherence rate of 50 percent.
For cholesterol lowering statins, the adherence rate by MediSafe Project users recording their use is 34.25 percent higher than the general population. The implications are far-reaching for consumers’ health and healthcare providers’ costs, and important as well for pharmaceutical companies’ revenue in the $25-billion statins market (which includes Pfizer’s Lipitor, Merck’s Mevacor and generics).
So far, users of both the Android and iOS versions have visited the mobile medication reminder a total of 95,000 times per month. They've further recorded taking over 100,000 medication doses as directed. MediSafe Project's big data capabilities, that are in turn based on such usage, include providing pharmaceutical companies with anonymous aggregated patient demographics, adherence behavior data, geo-location information, physician trends and other important market metrics.
MediSafe Project was inspired by the accidental and potentially fatal insulin double-dose of brothers Rotem and Omri ‘Bob’ Shor’s diabetic father. Beyond this, the cofounders view MediSafe Project as a way to lower hospitalization and mortality rates, promote sustainable behavior changes that prolong health and decrease long-term healthcare costs.
We look forward to monitoring MediSafe Project and its progress over the next year. As we noted earlier, we believe the app will save lives in 2013. Mobility doesn't get more useful than that.
Edited by
Braden Becker
