This document proposes a digital medicine box to help elderly patients adhere to their medication schedules. The proposed box would automatically dispense pills at scheduled times and track adherence. It would connect to a mobile app to provide medicine information and notifications. The app would allow doctors, family members, and pharmacists to monitor the patient's adherence and exchange information. The goal is to integrate medication taking into the patient's lifestyle through personalized alarms, community support features, and two-way communication between all parties involved in the patient's care.

1. NEW MEDIA INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE MEDICINE NON ADHERENCE
Sponsor: Honeywell Technology Solutions

2. This project tries to understand the need for design and technology intervention to help elderly patients adhere to their medication schedule.
NEED

3. 1
3
1 Sudden change in health can
be a lot to grasp for the elderly 2 New impositions/ limitations
on his everyday activities. 3 Increase in the number of medicines.
Gets a lot of attention from family and
caregiver.
ELDER
Age: 75
SUDDEN FALL
Admitted in hospital
Doctor visits CHANGE IN
LIFESTYLE
Family alert &
worried
Physically restricted
Suddenly dependent
Can’t go for walk
Spike in medicines
being taken
Continuous
changes in
medicines
As time
moves on
Emergency medications increase
Short term medication
Long term medication
TYPES OF MEDICATIONS:
2

4. 5
6
4
Different types of medications:
Long term, short term, emergency medication.
5
Miscommunication and misinterpretation of multiple doctor feedback.
6
Stops taking all medications after he feels a little better. Can lead to adverse effects.
Elder starts recovering
Multiple medicines
& lifestyle restrictions remain
Consults multiple doctors for follow up
Mixes up advice
Increased anxiety
Additional costs
Too many worry calls
More tests
Prolonged treatment
& illness
Domestic help to monitor
Starts feeling a little better,
stops taking medicines
Too much of attention, which can lead to agitation
Doctor 1
Feedback
Multiple instructions
Leads to lack of clarity and miscommunication
Doctor 2
Feedback
Attention from family reduces
Responsibility on spouse increase
ILLHEALTH RELAPSE

5. 19

6. is a product and engineering innovation company.
Looking for new insights in the medication adherence market. which may be potential business opportunities.
HONEYWELL TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
COMPANY INTEREST

7. HONEYWELL PRECEDENTS
HOMMED
Care Provider Systems:
Remote monitoring systems aimed at improving communication and transfer of information.
Patient Devices:
These are monitoring systems to collect vitals information
and communicate to the doctor/caregiver.
Sense of security
Device to call caregivers and family in case of emergency or to know more about medication
Lifestream Mobile Devices:
Relationship:
Hospital- Patient
Relationship:
Hospital- Patient- Financer
Relationship:
Hospital- Patient
Relationship:
Patient- Doctor- Family

8. PRECEDENT STUDY
TABLET TRANSACTIONS
REMINDER SYSTEMS
DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY
AESTHETIC APPEAL
INVOLVES SOCIAL CIRCLES
GAMIFICATION TO BUILD INTEREST
ENHANCES FEEDBACK EXPERIENCE
GLOW CAP
VOCERA
SKYPE
PHYSICAL
TREATMENT
GAMIFICATION
VOICE BASED SYMPTOMS TRACKING
FEEDBACK/ MONITORING LOOP
PHILIPS MED DISPENSER
MAYA
WIRELESS BOX

9. 39

10. INPUTS FROM THE ELDERLY
TRIVENI
Strip Identification
Language barrier
Anixety and fear of change
RANGESA
RAGHUNATH
VIJETA
Does NOT like being reminded
Leaves medicines as soon as she feels a little better
No schedule, medicines not kept properly
Has a caregiver; less efforts are put in by him to manage
Medicines are integrated into lifestyle by caregiver
(places of keeping, cut and kept, near bed stand)
Recognizes meds through: colour and shape of tablet
(The packaging of some tablets change frequently)
Keeps adding new medicines. Does not bother much about old medicines being wasted.
Throws away the previous batch, no one knows how many he has actually taken

11. UNDERSTANDING THE ELDERLY
Technology
Emotional
Learning Curve
Enjoyment
Contributing amongst friends gives them a sense of responsibility.
Some programs like Microsoft Word and mobile banking give them a sense of control
Have a lot of privacy concerns while sharing account information
Google & health
Like learning new things on Google
Allows them to search their illness
Can lead to extreme information that might scare them
Memories hold an integral place in their lives.
Associate all with good old memories
Small things give them a lot to cherish
Memories hold an integral place in their lives.
Associate all with good old memories
Once they learn something good, they try to stick to it
Pass on family traditions
Cherish media of their age
Like being in the safe zone
Pass on family traditions
Confusion leads to anxiety and resorting to older medium
Memory re-runs
Leads to frantic calls to family for help

12. - overlay medicine schedule on old lifestyle
- involve while planning to give a sense of responsibility
- acceptance of treatment
- accepting new technology(box)
- easy to access & does not attract
undue attention
ACCEPTANCE/ SEAMLESS INTEGRATION
LIFESTYLE
IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT
- abstraction of health status
- dynamic status
- mobile wallpaper
- living environment helps adhere
ENVIRONMENT INTEGRATION
ORGANIZING MEDICINES
- easy to move around
- simple to access medicines
- easy to identify which medicine to take
- easy to upload medicines
- easy to change
- more like a game
- source of information for medicines
- simple to identify if meds are taken
- associate medicine timing with activity
- open and carry box must be easy
PERSONAL
INDIVIDUAL
CONNECT & COMMUNICATE
MEDICINE TIMINGS
- integrate in lifestyle
- adjust to ongoing activity
- alarms that don’t startle
- personalize alarms
- snooze patterns
- overlay new with old sound cues
- visual & audio notifications
- must be heard in all activities
- multiple devices

13. OUTSIDE ENVIRONMENT
COMMUNITY SHARING
- discuss with fellow ill people
- involve friends circle
- incentive based sharing
- Facebook duo
- Twitter duo
- tag teams to use two boxes
COMMUNITY/ FRIEND CIRCLE
DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY
- check on adherence remotely
- don’t pester asking about medicines too often
- indicate when refill is needed
- too many snoozes and notify
- keep the dialogue going
- motivate the elderly
- schedule calls
- tips & important points from appointment
- doctor coordination
- medicine side effects & info
- communicate adherence level when needed
- list basic medicines that might be useful to patient
DOCTOR PATIENT INFO EXCHANGE
FAMILY/ CAREGIVER
EMERGENCY MEDICINE INFORMATION
APPOINTMENT INFO

14. REDEFINED PROJECT BRIEF
ORGANISING &
MONITORING
10K1Y 100mg * 40AKSHT:90DF *
10K1Y 100mg * 40AKSHT:90DF *
10KL
10KL
10KL
10KL
MOTIVATION COMMUNICATION INTERACTION WITH
TECHNOLOGY

15. CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

16. Concept exploration

17. This concept is to ensure that patients swallow their medicines. The glass of water has a cap which contains the medicines. The cap senses the TILT and LOAD on it to determine whether thepatient has taken the medicine or not. Cap Sensor: 10K1Y KSHT:90DF * 10KL T:0DF* K 10 0101 10K1Y 100mg * 40AKSHT:90DF * 100mg*T90DF*
PILL 1
PILL 3
PILL 5
PILL 2
PILL 4
PILL 6
MOTIVATION
& ORGANISING

18. PLEASE
TAKEYOUR PILLS
PLEASE TAKE
YOUR PILLS
OPPORTUNITIES BEING ADDRESSED:
1. making the process as simple and mindless as possible
2. enhancing the medicine taking experience
3. one point solution for all medicine related info
4. reduce the errors while extracting medicines
Box indicates when it is time to take medicine from it. It has an LED that glows to indicate.

19. FINAL DESIGN CONCEPT

22. PROCESS

23. After planning the
schedule
Patient gets medications
and prescription home
He opens the box to load the medicines
PROCESS FLOW: SETTING UP THE BOX

24. Ve
rify if loaded properly
The mobile application helps the patient load the cap on the correct bottle
Each bottle gets a cap, which is unique to each slot
The box then verifies each slot, bottle and cap. Only after complete verification is the schedule approved.
If not, a call is placed to the caregiver/ family member for assistance.
The bar code on the bottle is scanned by the mobile before loading.
The application helps the patient verify if the correct medicine has been loaded in the correct slot

25. BU
TTON TO DISPENSEKNOB TO DISPENSE 10KL 10KL10K1Y 100mg * 40AKSHT:90DF * Customized alarm tone alerts the patient that it is time for medicine
The patient has to press the button to dispense
The bottles dispense pills according to preset into the cup below
OR manually turn the knobs in front of the bottles where the LED is ON
PROCESS FLOW: TAKING MEDICINES

26. 10KL 10KL10K1Y 100mg * 40AKSHT:90DF *
The patient removes the cup and has the medicine
The adherence chart in the mobile application gets updated to show the patient the progress he has made
An alert is sent to the patients family/pharmacist

27. CONCEPT BREAKDOWN

28. Stores medicine bottles.
Dispenses medicines according to
medicine time and dose.
The digital interface communicates information to and from the box. This intformation is stored over the internet and can be accessed from any digital device.
PRODUCT:
INTERFACE:

29. The lids have unique grooves on the side to ensure each cap goes into the right groove.
The pills are dispensed as per the programming.
They are collected in the cup below.
Screen interface on lid.
Connects to the cloud database to obtain real time
information on medication.
Each medicine bottle has a cap. This cap contains rotating levels that dispense one pill at the time of dose.

30. Easy to move around
Simple to access medicines
Compact & closed
Auto dispense
Digital screen shows information about medicines being taken such as: name, illness, quantity, side effects
Button on screen
LED indicates which knob to turn
Manual dispense
Kept on table/ hung on wall
ORGANIZING MEDICINES
Identify which medicines are being takenBUTTON TO DISPENSEKNOB TO DISPENSE 10KL 10KL10K1Y 100mg * 40AKSHT:90DF *

31. Everytime the patient snoozes or does not take the dose within the time frame, the box records skipped dose.
An alert is then sent to the patient’s phone via SMS/call and to the caregiver.
Load sensor:
Snooze sensor:
Simple to identify if medicines are being taken
Each bar code can be scanned on the box to get medicine information.
Important info about the medicine is also accessible through the interface.
Source of information for medicines
Can identify how many pills of each medicine are left in the bottle.

32. Allow room for adjustment in medicine timing
Kept at places of easy access
Multiple platforms
Alarms need to increase gradually in volume, so as to not startle
Multiple media alarms: audio and visual alarms
If the alerts are available on multiple devices, then chances of the elder hearing them are higher.
Personalized alarms such as video clips, sounds, fav songs from family and friends can be assigned as alarms.
CONNECT & COMMUNICATE
Integrate in lifestyle
Alerts
Personalize
alarms
.
Green to indicate

33. DOCTOR PATIENT INFO EXCHANGE
Appointment information
The box allows the elder to access information from the doctor’s appointment.
Doctor coordination
Sharing of files between different doctors can be
initiated through the interface.
Medicine side effects
Relevant information for each medicine is stored in
the application.
The elder can also make an emergency call to his
doctor/caregiver.
Communicate adherence level
Single button to send the medicine adherence
report to anybody.
Weekly reports are sent to pre assigned family
members and caregivers.
Missed dose alert is sent immediately to the
caregiver and elder
DOCTOR
PHARMACIST
PATIENT

34. Emergency
FAMILY/ CAREGIVER
ACCEPTANCE/ SEAMLESS INTEGRATION
Pharmacist and patient plan medicine schedule according to the current lifestyle of the patient
involve while planning to give a sense of responsibility
acceptance of treatment
accepting new technology(box)
Remotely follow adherence level
Automated indication when refill is needed
Immediate alert when dose is skipped
Reminders to call elder & motivate them
The interface has an emergency button on every screen for the patient.
This button directly connects to the emergency helpline or any emergency contact that the patient has listed.

35. INTERFACE DESIGN

37. Default screen on application
Alarm indicating ‘Time of Medicine’
The alarm customised and personalised.
Example: Video of grandchild asking grandad to
take medicine.
The page also has a SNOOZE button and a DISPENSE button

38. Snooze Screen: Allows the user to postpone the medicine timing by a specific time frame.
More Information screen: This screen allows the user to call specific people for more information on medicine. It also provides the user with additional information on medicines.
Has provision to send report to family.

39. Setting up new medicines: The application connects with the cloud to download new medicine schedule.
The user just has to scan the barcode on the medicine bottle/strip to identify the medicine.
The application indicates which slot the bottle of medicines is supposed to go into.

40. Follow same procedure for all medicines.
Follow same procedure for all medicines.

41. After all the bottles are placed. The application verifies the bottles using a barcode/colour scanner.
Only after all the medicines and bottles are verified, does the application approve the new medication schedule.
Any abnormalities and a call is placed to the caregiver for assistance.

42. FUTURE STEPS
This proposal is the first step to a large number of solutions that can be proposed to develop medication friendly ecosystem for the elderly. Some of the ways in which the above concept can be further devleloped are:
Box improvements:
Modular Box
Cutting Medicines3
Adjustable bottle caps
The box can have additional provisions for attachments such as BP monitors, Sugar monitors.
The box connectivity:
Wearable electronics
Activity adjustable alarms