DOSEGUARD: AN IOT-ENABLED SMART DRUG DISPENSER FOR IMPROVING MEDICATION ADHERENCE AND REAL-TIME MONITORING

Abstract

Medication nonadherence is a tremendous health problem, especially in resource limited settings, where there are no explicit automation and real time tracking of medication with traditional methods of medication management. However, these methods are based on patient self-reporting, using which they can miss doses or make errors. An IoT enabled, smart medical dispenser, which automates prescription retrieval, medication dispensed and adherence monitoring is introduced in this paper. Real time prescription verification is used for dispensed medication to each patient via RFID technology. As such, a load cell sensor is incorporated to verify whether or not each tablet is dispensed to reduce the chances that doses could be missed. This system is in contrast to traditional methods that lead to real time location that reduces the chance of errors in dosing. The system has a cloud-based dashboard, which enables the remote monitoring of patient adherence by healthcare professionals or caregivers. This is especially beneficial for the underserved community and government hospital, where access to medical supervision is not as frequent as you would expect. It integrates IoT, RF ID authentication and cloud-based adherence tracking which helps in reducing human error, improve patient safety. Ultimately, it is a scalable and low-cost solution that will be equally simple to implement in both home and clinical settings making it an effective tool for improving medication adherence and resulting health outcomes in resource limited environments.