A company called GemaTouch has developed a new way for doctors to track their patient's medication. Too often, patients have more medications than they can keep track of, that have to be taken in different doses on completely different schedules. Not only do they have to keep up to date with their dosage, but they also have to keep track of how the drugs affect them, and what side effects they may or may not be causing. Figuring out which medicine works and which doesn't is a tough task that requires a lot of control and organization.
GemaTouch has created what it dubs the Gema Kit, which is a pack of stickers with built-in sensors that patients attach to pill bottles. By simply waving a smartphone or tablet at the sensor, the patient is instantly connected to an online reporting portal, where they can check in that they are indeed taking their medication. In addition, the user can also report their current symptoms, what side effects they have noticed and their overall mood.
Image via GemaTouch
This information is forwarded to the doctors, who can then determine the effectiveness of their treatment, and make any changes if necessary. If a patient is forgetting to take their meds, the app will also inform the doctors so that they can remind their patients how important it is to take them.
Patients who tell their doctors that they're taking the medications that they're forgetting to take cause doctors to prescribe the wrong medications, so the Gema Kit provides a reliable way for doctors to find out what's actually going on.
Joanna Rogerson, one of the chief creators of the Gema Kit program and company CEO, developed this product to help doctors provide cancer treatment. She believes that it will reduce the amount of time and labor spent to help these patients, noting the trend in cancer treatment from moving out of the doctor's office and into the patient's homes. “Basically the nurse calls the patient at set intervels to check in,” she says, explaining why doctors are losing their monitoring capabilities and forcing costs to rise, “it's very labor intensive.”
Of course, such a product has use for more than just cancer patients. GemaTouch could help those who suffer from mental illness or depression as well, since those patients often skip their dosages. According to Rogerson, “The hadware doesn't change, we can link it to any passive surface, like fabric or plastics. The user experience will be different, to reflect different motivations and drivers.”
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey
