Tag: medication

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Health and Wellness Robots/Drones

Pillo lets you rest easy about taking your pills

Forgetting to take one’s pills can lead to major health problems, especially when those medications are for life-threatening health issues including heart disease.

patent-claimedPillo is a connected pill-dispensing robot that recognizes individuals in the family and helps people of all ages to better manage their health. In addition to dispensing medication, it can answer users’ health and wellness questions and connect a person directly with healthcare professionals. Because Pillo has been designed to be intelligent, its functionalities grow as it learns about the user and his or her family.

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Connected Objects Health and Wellness

OneCare Dori helps the elderly remember to take their pills

Dory is the famous fish who suffers from memory loss in two funny Disney Pixar movies. But, in real life, there’s nothing funny about memory loss –- especially when it comes to the elderly forgetting to take their medications to keep them healthy.

OneCare Dori is a device that works in conjunction with an Android and iOS app to remind elderly people when it’s time to take their pills and do other important things. It also provides real-time alerts to their families and other caregivers. The basic service allows caregivers to use the app to schedule reminders in an interactive voice call format that the elderly person can either receive via a landline or mobile phone call. Caregivers can also monitor in real time the status of each reminder, as well as the answers given by the elderly person to each reminder.

 

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Connected Objects Health and Wellness

VV-Box is the voice of reason reminding loved ones to take pills

There have been a growing number of connected pill boxes in recent months that remind people to take their medications on time.

VV-Box is yet another medication-tracking pill box. But one thing that sets it apart from at least certain rivals, like Liif, is that VV-Box features a customized voice reminder. A personal greeting can be recorded, allowing people to remind their loved ones by voice to take their medicine.

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Podcasts

Backerjack Podcast #23: Collapsible Drones and Medication Minders

In Episode 23 of the Backerjack Podcast, Steve and Ross check out some of the latest products seeking funds and preorders, including:

  • Lumma, a pill sorting and dispensing device that reminds people to take their meds and alerts if they don’t.
  • Photokite Phi, a soft drone that runs on a tether for easier control and folds up into a tube for easy portability.

We also mentioned a few other products we wished we had more time for, including the Passfort password entry accessory and the OrbMi home messaging device.

Download the episode or listen below, subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and subscribe to the Backerjack Daily Digest to make sure you catch all the gadgets we’re covering. Also check out Steve’s great work on Apple World Today!

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Connected Objects Health and Wellness

Lumma sorts and dispenses pills, reminds you to take your meds

editors-choiceFor those who need to take a daily pill or want to consume a daily multivitamin, keeping track of their medication is not a big deal. But as they age, many people have to deal with multiple prescriptions of drugs taken on many different schedules. That can be particularly challenging for seniors who experience memory lapses.

patent-claimedOne of the most ambitious and flexible consumer products to tackle the problem of medication management, Lumma is designed to sit on a counter top. It can sort and dispense a month’s worth of up to 12 different kinds of pills and its dispensing chute has been designed to accommodate a pill box for trips. Using its touchscreen, companion app, e-mail or text, it can remind users to take their medications at the appropriate times and set off alerts when they miss a dosage.

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Connected Objects Health and Wellness

Insulin Angel medication tracker watches blood sugar, keeps insulin usable

Diabetes is a common but serious disease, requiring constant vigilance on the part of the diabetic in make sure their medication is stored and used at optimal temperature. If not, it can spoil and be rendered ineffective. What’s more, keeping the medication close is of utmost importance, because losing it puts users in a precarious situation.

The Insulin Angel is a product designed to alleviate the common worries associated with diabetes by incorporating a temperature and proximity sensors into one compact, tab-like device. The Bluetooth-enabled device works in tandem with an iOS or Android companion app to keep users constantly informed about their medication’s temperature, send timed alerts as to when to administer the medication, as well as to facilitate a wireless leash to make sure users never leave their it behind.

The companion app’s medication database currently contains information on a wide range of popular insulin medication, as well as a few asthma and rheumatism medications too — with an expanding library in the works. A single Insulin Angel runs $50, and the $55,000 campaign is looking to ship the product in August of this year.

Despite its name, Insulin Angel can be used with a wide range of temperature sensitive medication no matter the affliction, an incredibly handy utility for sufferers around the world. This makes it a much more broadly capable but ultimately less focused product when compared to something like Amiko, designed specifically for asthma sufferers and as a result benefits from its narrow focus.

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Connected Objects Health and Wellness

Hi Pills reminds you to take your medicine

hipillsPills, prescriptions, and vitamins are all things often work best when taken on a regimen, either at certain intervals of the day or with meals. Still, the more there are to take, the easier it is to get confused or simply forget. Hi Pills is a pill dispenser box that connects to iOS or Android devices. It pushes an alert to the mobile device reminding users which pills to take and when. Additionally, an alert can be sent to that person’s caretaker if the pill box is not opened at that time, prompting follow-up care. Hi Pills and its app will launch in October 2014 for backers who pledge £59.

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Connected Objects Health and Wellness

PharmAssistant keeps patients taking their prescriptions on time

The Premise. When being prescribed medication that needs to be taken regularly, it can be easy to get distracted and forget to take it on time. Add to that special instructions or medications that shouldn’t be taken together and it becomes more than a matter of keeping an eye on the clock.

The Product. PharmAssistant is a solution for people who need reminders on when and how to take different medications. The technology behind PharmAssistant relies on two key components: a smartphone with the PharmAssistant app, and the SmartBottle with a Bluetooth cap alarm. After programming which medications need to be taken and how often into the app, the app will send a blinking light and sound alarm to the cap of the bottle of the medicine, which will continue to go off until the bottle is opened. Additionally, a monitoring service is available that will send an alert to a third party’s phone such as a family member to notify them if a dosage has been skipped. While this service will have a small monthly fee, the bottles will continue to work without a subscription.

The Pitch. Using an animated sales pitch, the PharmAssistant team provide a somewhat over-the-top look at how hard it can be to keep medications straight. Backing up their product with shocking statistics on medication-related deaths in the United States alone, PharmAssistant sticks to the facts, explaining very simply what the product offers for both patients, family members, and even pharmacists. PharmAssistant needs $20,000 to complete the app, test the product, and then begin production.

The Perks. All of the PharmAssistant SmartBottles are expected to be delivered in December of this year. They range in price from $60 for two to $135 for six, and each set comes with a free three month minimum sample of their monitoring service.

The Potential. The intentions of PharmAssistant are noble, trying to make it easy to remember to take medicine or supplements for people every day, but the execution here is lacking. With the exception of the alarms on the SmartBottles themselves or the monitoring service add-on, there’s nothing here that isn’t offered by a simple, first-party phone notification. Programming in the extra instructions and the kinds of medicine do little when without the SmartBottles, all that would be printed with the prescription bottles anyhow. There are some good ideas with PharmAssistant, but the benefits probably won’t be enough to give this product a lasting appeal.