Overview of Electronic Adherence Solutions:
Electronic adherence measurement solutions use many different techniques to measure a medication event. A medication event is defined as detecting the date and time a dose is taken by the patient. Measurement techniques can be defined as Passive or Active. Passive techniques do not require the patient to do anything out of the ordinary in the normal process of accessing or taking their medicine. Active techniques require the patient to add extra steps to their normal workflow each time they take a dose.
Measurement Techniques
Passive Measurement Techniques
- Removal of Bottle Cap
- Expressing tablet out of a Blister Cavity
- Opening a flap on a Blister Card
- Dispensing of a medication pouch
- Detection of a tablet entering the acidic environment of the GI tract
- Actuation of an auto-injector
- Depression of a syringe plunger
- Discarding a used needle/syringe into a Sharps Container
- Actuation of an HFA inhaler
- Manually advancing a DPI inhaler to next dose
- Removal of an eye drop bottle from a storage container
- Removal of a cap from a dermatology tube
Active Measurement Techniques
- Depress a button associated with a medicine package
- Video image of swallowing medicine
- Video image of medicine in hand
Transferring Data to Database
Just as there are many techniques to measure data, there are many ways to transfer data to a database where it can be stored and analyzed. The decision to select the most appropriate data transfer option typically is made on the following three criteria.
- Speed of data transfer
- Cost of data transfer technique
- Patient burden to transfer data
For most solutions, program or study mangers can only choose 2 of the 3 options. For instance, a decision maker who wants to rapidly receive data (“real time”) and limit the burden on the patient should expect to pay at the high end relative to other solution costs. Alternatively, a decision maker who needs to stretch a budget might be willing to ask more of the patient (scan data from a package using a smartphone) or accept longer inter-data download periods (weekly or at every clinical site visit).
Data Transfer Options
- NFC
- Bluetooth
- Wireless SIM Card – Cellular Network
- USB cable to PC/Laptop
- Inductive Coupling
Combination of techniques:
- A/C Power hubs: use Bluetooth to collect data within a home; use SIM card to upload to cloud
- Smart Phone: use NFC to read data from a medicine package; use smart phone app to upload to cloud
- Smart Phone: use phone’s camera feature to measure data; use smart phone app to upload to cloud
- Medicine dispensers: Use barcode reading to read data; use SIM card to upload data to cloud
Electronic Adherence Measurement Suppliers
| Passive Measurement | Active Measurement | ||||||||||
| Oral Solid Bottle | Oral Solid Blister | Oral Solid Multi-Med | Oral Solid Ingestion | Injectable | Inhaler | Optical (Eye Drop) |
Dermatology Creams | Smart Phone Image | Push Button | Dried Blood Spot (DBS) | |
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If you have a suggested edit to this Table, please email it to Info@adherencemeasurement.org |
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