Studies conducted by the New England Healthcare Institute show that as many as half of all Americans don’t take their medications on time or in the right amount. This oversight leads to an extra $290 billion in healthcare costs related to overdoses and underdoses of prescription medications. Not-for-profit health plan provider Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and MedMinder Systems, based in Newton, MA, have added a stiff dose of technology to the old-fashioned pillbox in an effort to increase patient compliance with medication routines.

Maya is not your granny’s pillbox. This book-sized wireless contraption comes complete with 28 individual medication cups that light up when the patient is scheduled to take a dose of medicine. A non-response to the lighted indicator within minutes of a scheduled dose will trigger an escalating effort on the part of the box to get the patient’s attention. The options include an audible alarm, an email alert and even a phone call (What?! No spoonful of sugar?), all of which can be directed toward the patient or another party.

The system operates from a medication schedule that is entered into the company’s Web site by the patient or a caregiver and is designed to benefit the elderly and chronically ill. The companies have partnered to test MedMinder’s ability to slow chronic kidney disease, a condition that currently affects 26 million Americans and for which there is no cure. Treatment normally includes dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Video courtesy of MedMinder