Technological innovation is making it easier for patients to stay in the comforts of home instead of a hospital bed or nursing home.
Health care innovations are making it possible to get the same care you need at hospitals with smart devices, wearable computing and wireless systems.
Stefan Solvell, chief executive of E-Pill, a Wellesley, Mass.-based business that sells prescription reminders, said the use of technology in the home can not only eliminate the need for visiting nurse, but can avoid the need for hospitalization or dependent living.
E-Pill’s products do just that, according to Solvell.
Several of E-Pill’s products use technology to remind the elderly to take their medication.
One product, an automatic medication dispenser and patient reminder device known as the MD.2, uses a phone line to automatically call a patient’s caregiver or a family member if medication is not taken or if medication is running low. Once a caregiver receives the call he or she presses a number on the keypad to confirm that they have received the call.
If the device reaches voice mail, it will dial out a second number on the automated dial list.
A second product is the Beep N’ Tell product, a device that reminds people to take their medication. The device’s vial cap includes an alarm that beeps loudly when it’s time to take your medication and resets once you replace the cap.
The vial’s base includes a voice chip that allows the patient or a family member to record a message about the prescription such as “don’t forget to take with food or milk.”
Solvell began selling these products via the Internet after being frustrated with some of the medical statistics surrounding medication.
“Of all prescriptions written on a given day in the United States only one-third are taken the way the doctor recommends them to be taken,” Solvell said. “One-third is filled but taken on a regular basis.
“Of all medications filled, only half are taken.”
This is not just a problem for the elderly. A study reported in the New York Times showed that younger individuals forget more than the elderly because of their busy lives.
“We do know from a conducted study that 23 percent of all nursing home admissions are due to the fact that patients are not taking their medications as they should,” Solvell said.
Medication is only one treatment toward a healthy recovery, post-operation checkups and monitoring is also part of the equation.
Dr. Yvedt Matory, a cancer surgeon at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, started a business called HealthCareOnline because she was concerned with her patients’ comfort after surgery and once they returned home.
Because Matory felt that most patients prefer to be at home after surgery she developed the idea for an early discharge remote monitoring service for patients following breast or colorectal surgery.
The service would monitor patients at home using a remote connection checking everything from heart rate to breathing.
Home health care devices and services are a hot topic for large businesses alike.
Companies such as Siemens and GE Medical Systems have develop a slew of products in this market.
Although some incentives for using these products include independence and comfort, health care companies see a different incentive – lower cost.
“The cost for an elderly person at home is lower than a care facility,” Solvell said.
Although the incentives to move into a home health care environment are high, Solvell believes that it will a long time for health care facilities and organizations to change.
“Health care is very conservative,” he said. “It takes a long time to change things.
“Heath care, especially in Boston, is full of established procedures and to change those procedures to something more rational is a huge undertaking,” he added. “It will take some of the traditional health care (organizations) some time to adopt.”
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