Take 2 a Day...Just Make Sure You Do!

There has been a sudden influx within the technology world on the number of products that have specifically been designed for the elderly.

Microsoft has released its “Seniors PC”, which includes a specially modified version of its operating system with big icons and graphics, with easy to use big buttons and specialist software which makes it easy for the user to interact with and not get too bogged down with all the technical lingo. It even includes an application to remind people to take their pills on time – providing they have their computer switched on and bother to check it.

Taking the issue of reminders for pills, this brings a further development with RFID. The idea is that every pill box receives an RFID tag which identifies the pills and the schedule of when that individual tablet should be taken. An alert is generated and the user is by some means prompted with a reminder (not necessarily directly from the computer terminal), but in the event of the patient failing to take the pill within a specific timeframe, the RFID tag will be able to wirelessly connect to a network and alert your local pharmacy or medical centre (or presumably this alerting will be outsourced to a call centre type service who will be able to make the decision to either attempt to telephone the patient or alert a mobile team out in the field to arrange a home visit).

Tagging medicine bottles and pill boxes is still quite some way off yet and for sure there are a number of privacy, tracking, health record discussions to be assessed and worked around, but with companies like Microsoft and Google already battling to hold people’s medical records online, surely its only a matter of time.