The “eSecMed” app: Secure medication through NFC-solutions for a longer, safer & autonomous life of seniors

INFuture Conference

12.11.2015

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The beginning The „eSecMed“ app

Numbers

50% of all chronically ill patients are compliant to treatment recommendations (WHO)

$100 billion per year estimated cost of avoidable hospitalizations

44% of men and 57% of women above 65 take 5 different medications each week58% probability of adverse drug effects for 5 different medications

10% of all medications worldwide are falsified (up to 50% in some countries) unexpected side effects (FDA)

63% of all compounds which were purchased from more than 100 online pharmacies were counterfeit or at least substandard (Counterfeiting Superhighway report)

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The beginning The „eSecMed“ app

Numbers

50% of all chronically ill patients are compliant to treatment recommendations (WHO)

$100 billion per year estimated cost of avoidable hospitalizations

44% of men and 57% of women above 65 take 5 different medications each week58% probability of adverse drug effects for 5 different medications

10% of all medications worldwide are falsified (up to 50% in some countries) unexpected side effects (FDA)

63% of all compounds which were purchased from more than 100 online pharmacies were counterfeit or at least substandard (Counterfeiting Superhighway report)

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The beginning

Technology

Information-and-Communication-Technology (ICT)-based solutions put themselves forward for countering the described situation.

Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled mobile phones

to facilitate data management and exchange

patient monitoring

with the additional benefits of

reducing time and errors

high availability of the technology

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The beginning

Resulting objectives

To increase the health adherence by application of NFC as a user-friendly technology suitable for seniors, to assist secure medication and to provide additional information for increasing acceptance, usability & compliance.

To minimize undesirable side effects and harmful interactions of drugs for seniors by the development of a NFC supported virtual medicine cabinet as a smartphone app for mobile devices.

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The beginning

Our team

RCPE: Research Center for Pharmaceutical Engineering

Insights in the pharmaceutical process- and product-development 

Pharma- Know How

NFC-RFID Technology

Mobile Solutions

eSecMed Infineon: producer of semi-conductors Development of an NFC-enabled smart-

blister

evolaris: competence center for mobile communication and innovation

Development of mobile application Execution of a user experience test

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Prototypical system

Thin perforated circuit board + NFC-chip attached to pill blister

Application retrieves data from the blister Expiration date Active substance Manufacturer Pill count (electrical resistance) Temperature (built-in sensor)

The „eSecMed“ system

What is it?

The „eSecMed“ app

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Virtual Medicine Cabinet supports patients in taking the right amount of medication

at the right time add different medicines by scanning the blister with the

smartphone (NFC enabled) or manually enter the prescribed dosage and time of day alert-function information on how many pills are left in the blister expiration date last documented intakes storage conditions (temperature)

The „eSecMed“ app

Features

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Documentation of intake Time and dosage is compared with prescription data

Check for adverse effects Scanned medicines are checked for adverse effects by

utilising a dedicated database

Check for authenticity of medications Also by means of a database, the genuineness of medications

can be proved (ePedigree data)

Daily reports Compliance nonconformities (dosage or time) are highlighted

Medi Buddies Daily reports can be shared with caregivers (emotional

support)

The „eSecMed“ app

Features

The study

Method

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Goals of the study

Evaluation in regards to usability of the application and usage barriers.

Focus is the usage of the NFC technology, blisters with NFC tag and an evaluation of the acceptance of NFC technology in the medical context.

Characteristics of respondents

10 persons (6 men, 4 women) aged between 52 and 69 years (mean: 58,5)

Medical treatment for a longer period of time within the last 12 months

Owner of a smartphone with experience in using it

Design of study

Semi-structured interviews, performance of tasks, observation

Duration: approx. 60 minutes

The study - method

Method

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Task 1: Add this medication to the virtual medicine cabinet

Task 2: Perform an authenticity check

Task 3: Push a pill out of the blister and document the intake

Task 4: Perform a check on adverse effects with two different medications

All of these tasks could be performed by using NFC

Respondents were NOT told how the tasks could be accomplished (at first)

The study - method

The tasks

The study

Results

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Once scanned, no major problems with entering the prescription data

Appreciation for amount of information provided

BUT:

None of the respondents was able to successfully scan the blister on the first attempt

Reasons:

Blister on top of smartphone

Short swipe

Cancellation of the scanning-process to read the info „Scanning in progress“

The study - results

Task 1: Add this medication to the virtual medicine cabinet

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Respondents expected the drug authentication in the medicine cabinet

Usage of manual input in order to find the function drug authentication

Information about the product is appreciated (esp. expiration date)

Nice-to-have feature Medicine is only bought at the pharmacy which is trusted

The study - results

Task 2: Perform an authenticity check

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One half embraced the speed and convenience

Other half insecure whether the documentation was completed or conducted successfully

Info message was displayed not long enough to read completely or was not noticed at all

Manual documentation was experienced to be tedious

The study - results

Task 3: Push a pill out of the blister and document the intake

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Respondents expected the feature in the medicine cabinet

NFC was not used right away

Once used the feature itself was reported to be helpful

Color codes was found useful (geen = OK, yellow = warning, red = caution)

For some respondents difference between warning and caution not entirely clear

The study - results

Task 4: Perform a check on adverse effects with two different medications

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Room for improvement Main menu too few options Menu navigation not intuitive (2 menues: “NFC” and “Manual input”) Scanning process takes too long Text partly too small No or unsufficient description of specific buttons

Appreciation App is easy to use Function: medicine cabinet Function: adverse effect Function: To give caregivers insight (Medi Buddies) Function: Documentation of the intake of medicine Utilisation of NFC technology for retrieving data from a pill blister

The study - results

Post-test: overall experience

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Although the target group knew about the existence of NFC technology, the majority was not familiar with alternative domains of NFC besides payment solutions.

Also handling this technology is still an unknown territory and causes respect.

However confidence increased rapidly after introducing users to the technology and the correct way of handling it.

Integrating the target group in the design and development process (“co-creation”) can eliminate the stated shortcomings.

The study - results

Conclusion

A glimpse

at the future

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Further miniaturization allows for an integrated battery data logging e.g. temperature and humidity sensing across the entire supply chain

to monitor transport conditions

Integration in fully automated primary and/or secondary packaging process

A glimpse at the future

The future…

Stefan Raschhofer, MScSmart Commerce Solutions

evolaris next level GmbHHugo-Wolf-Gasse 8-8A, 8010 Graz, AustiaSpittelberggasse 3 II/6, 1070 Vienna, Austria

T +43 316-35 11 11M +43 664 8414 415stefan.raschhofer@evolaris.net

www.evolaris.net

Thank you very much