ScanAlert: Electronic Medication Monitor and Reminder to Improve Medical Adherence

Patients medication adherence deems essential to achieving favorable health outcomes. However, poor medication adherence accounts for wasted funds in medical costs and high morbidity rates. Electronic medication monitors have been developed to approach this issue by providing a means to collect patients nonadherence rates. Nonetheless, there is a lack of direct intervention in a patients life to ensure his/her medication adherence supported by confirmation of an external source. This paper presents an Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID)-based electronic medication monitor and reminder that may communicate to a physician directly via e-mail. An RFID reader and a modified RFID tag were used to validate patients consumption of the prescriptions. Modified with rubber and aluminum to be scanned on only one side, the tag would attach underneath the prescription bottle, so the user would be incentivized to open the prescription bottle, take the medication, and scan the caps interior tag over the reader. A buzzer reminds the user to consume medication thirty minutes prior to and at the scheduled time. The user has a one-hour window after the first buzz to scan the tag. If scanned, the device will recognize consumption and deactivate until the next scheduled intake; if not scanned, the device will send an e-mail to a care taker, physician, or database to record nonadherence. Results of the hardwares power consumption indicated that the device would last about 3 hours on a 9V 500mAh battery.