Download The “eSecMed” app

The “eSecMed” app: Secure medication through
NFC-solutions for a longer, safer & autonomous
life of seniors
INFuture Conference
12.11.2015
The beginning
The „eSecMed“ app
Numbers
 50% of all chronically ill patients are compliant to treatment recommendations (WHO)
 $100 billion per year estimated cost of avoidable hospitalizations
 44% of men and 57% of women above 65 take  5 different medications each week
58% probability of adverse drug effects for  5 different medications
 10% of all medications worldwide are falsified (up to 50% in some countries)
 unexpected side effects (FDA)
 63% of all compounds which were purchased from more than 100 online pharmacies
were counterfeit or at least substandard (Counterfeiting Superhighway report)
2
The beginning
The „eSecMed“ app
Numbers
 50% of all chronically ill patients are compliant to treatment recommendations (WHO)
 $100 billion per year estimated cost of avoidable hospitalizations
 44% of men and 57% of women above 65 take  5 different medications each week
58% probability of adverse drug effects for  5 different medications
 10% of all medications worldwide are falsified (up to 50% in some countries)
 unexpected side effects (FDA)
 63% of all compounds which were purchased from more than 100 online pharmacies
were counterfeit or at least substandard (Counterfeiting Superhighway report)
3
The beginning
Technology
Information-and-Communication-Technology (ICT)-based solutions put themselves
forward for countering the described situation.
Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled mobile phones

to facilitate data management and exchange

patient monitoring
with the additional benefits of

reducing time and errors

high availability of the technology
4
The beginning
Resulting objectives
 To increase the health adherence by application of NFC as a user-friendly
technology suitable for seniors, to assist secure medication and to provide
additional information for increasing acceptance, usability & compliance.
 To minimize undesirable side effects and harmful interactions of drugs for seniors
by the development of a NFC supported virtual medicine cabinet as a smartphone
app for mobile devices.
5
The beginning
Our team

PharmaKnow How
NFC-RFID
Technology
eSecMed
RCPE: Research Center for Pharmaceutical
Engineering


Infineon: producer of semi-conductors


Mobile Solutions
Insights in the pharmaceutical process- and
product-development
Development of an NFC-enabled smartblister
evolaris: competence center for mobile
communication and innovation

Development of mobile application

Execution of a user experience test
6
The „eSecMed“ system
What is it?

Prototypical system

Thin perforated circuit board + NFC-chip attached
to pill blister

Application retrieves data from the blister

Expiration date

Active substance

Manufacturer

Pill count (electrical resistance)

Temperature (built-in sensor)
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The „eSecMed“ app
The „eSecMed“ app
Features

Virtual Medicine Cabinet

supports patients in taking the right amount of medication
at the right time

add different medicines by scanning the blister with the
smartphone (NFC enabled) or manually

enter the prescribed dosage and time of day

alert-function

information on how many pills are left in the blister

expiration date

last documented intakes

storage conditions (temperature)
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The „eSecMed“ app
Features

Documentation of intake


Check for adverse effects


Also by means of a database, the genuineness of medications
can be proved (ePedigree data)
Daily reports


Scanned medicines are checked for adverse effects by
utilising a dedicated database
Check for authenticity of medications


Time and dosage is compared with prescription data
Compliance nonconformities (dosage or time) are highlighted
Medi Buddies

Daily reports can be shared with caregivers (emotional
support)
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The study
Method
The study - method
Method
Goals of the study

Evaluation in regards to usability of the application and usage barriers.

Focus is the usage of the NFC technology, blisters with NFC tag and an evaluation of the
acceptance of NFC technology in the medical context.
Characteristics of respondents

10 persons (6 men, 4 women) aged between 52 and 69 years (mean: 58,5)

Medical treatment for a longer period of time within the last 12 months

Owner of a smartphone with experience in using it
Design of study

Semi-structured interviews, performance of tasks, observation

Duration: approx. 60 minutes
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The study - method
The tasks

Task 1: Add this medication to the virtual medicine cabinet

Task 2: Perform an authenticity check

Task 3: Push a pill out of the blister and document the intake

Task 4: Perform a check on adverse effects with two different medications

All of these tasks could be performed by using NFC

Respondents were NOT told how the tasks could be accomplished (at first)
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The study
Results
The study - results
Task 1: Add this medication to the virtual medicine cabinet

Once scanned, no major problems with entering the prescription data

Appreciation for amount of information provided
BUT:

None of the respondents was able to successfully
scan the blister on the first attempt
Reasons:

Blister on top of smartphone

Short swipe

Cancellation of the scanning-process to read
the info „Scanning in progress“
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The study - results
Task 2: Perform an authenticity check

Respondents expected the drug authentication in the
medicine cabinet

Usage of manual input in order to find the function drug
authentication

Information about the product is appreciated (esp.
expiration date)

Nice-to-have feature

Medicine is only bought at the pharmacy  which is trusted
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The study - results
Task 3: Push a pill out of the blister and document the intake

One half embraced the speed and convenience

Other half insecure whether the documentation was
completed or conducted successfully


Info message was displayed not long enough to read
completely or was not noticed at all
Manual documentation was experienced to be tedious
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The study - results
Task 4: Perform a check on adverse effects with two different
medications

Respondents expected the feature in the medicine cabinet

NFC was not used right away

Once used the feature itself was reported to be helpful

Color codes was found useful (geen = OK, yellow = warning, red = caution)

For some respondents difference between warning and caution not entirely clear
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The study - results
Post-test: overall experience


Room for improvement

Main menu too few options

Menu navigation not intuitive (2 menues: “NFC” and “Manual input”)

Scanning process takes too long

Text partly too small

No or unsufficient description of specific buttons
Appreciation

App is easy to use

Function: medicine cabinet

Function: adverse effect

Function: To give caregivers insight (Medi Buddies)

Function: Documentation of the intake of medicine

Utilisation of NFC technology for retrieving data from a pill blister
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The study - results
Conclusion
Although the target group knew about the existence of NFC technology, the majority
was not familiar with alternative domains of NFC besides payment solutions.
Also handling this technology is still an unknown territory and causes respect.
However confidence increased rapidly after introducing users to the technology
and the correct way of handling it.
Integrating the target group in the design and development process (“cocreation”) can eliminate the stated shortcomings.
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A glimpse
at the future
A glimpse at the future
The future…


Further miniaturization allows for an integrated battery

data logging e.g. temperature and humidity sensing across the entire supply chain

to monitor transport conditions
Integration in fully automated primary and/or secondary packaging process
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Thank you very much
Stefan Raschhofer, MSc
Smart Commerce Solutions
evolaris next level GmbH
Hugo-Wolf-Gasse 8-8A, 8010 Graz, Austia
Spittelberggasse 3 II/6, 1070 Vienna, Austria
T +43 316-35 11 11
M +43 664 8414 415
[email protected]
www.evolaris.net