Download Pocket PC as an Aid to Prescription Drug Compliance

Pocket PC as an Aid to
Prescription Drug Compliance
Kelly Ellis
Outline
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Background
Goals
Typical Use
Problems
Potential Features
Some Background…
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33% of U.S. adults who take drugs on a regular
basis reported that they are often or very often
noncompliant with their treatments. (Harris
Interactive, 2005)
Some possible reasons: forgetfulness (forget to take
or refill), can’t afford the medication, dislike the
medication.
Forgetfulness is especially a problem in cases like
those of transplant patients, in which there are often
more prescriptions to keep track of.
Goals
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To remind the patient when and how to take
their medication.
To allow for easy review of the drug regimen
by the patient.
To allow the doctor or nurse collect data
pertaining to the patient’s compliance.
Typical Use
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The nurse practitioner
or doctor will be
presented with the title
login screen.
In order to enter the
regimen onto the PDA,
they will select the Staff
option.
Typical Use
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The nurse or doctor
needs to log in to
continue.
In the future, he/she will
be authenticated.
For now, this creates a
relationship between
the staff member and
the patient’s
prescription record.
Typical Use
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In order to establish
who the regimen is for,
the staff member will
enter the patient’s
name and ID number.
Typical Use
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A combo box control
lets the staff member
select how many
prescriptions are to be
entered in the regimen.
Typical Use
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The staff member enters the
information one drug at a time.
Information includes: name of
the drug, dosage, starting date
and time, how often to take,
and additional information.
The combo box control allows
the staff member to select from
the given list or to manually
enter his/her own information.
Typical Use
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After all of the information has
been entered, the waiting
screen will come up.
This screen is all the patient
sees between medications, but
they do have the option to
review their regimen by
selecting “View Regimen” from
the Options menu.
Typical Use
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If the patient wants to review
the regimen, they can use
the Next button to scroll one
medication at a time.
Information displayed
includes the name and
dosage, starting time,
interval between dosages,
and the time they are next
scheduled to take the
medication.
Typical Use
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When the time comes for the
patient to take a particular
drug, they are notified with a
beep from the Pocket PC and
an information screen.
The patient uses a simple
stylus tap to either comply or
skip.
Potentially the skip button
should allow the patient to
postpone the reminder.
Typical Use
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Back at the hospital or
doctor’s office, the staff
member can log in and
view the patient’s
compliance data.
If someone else tries to
view this information
without the correct
username and password,
they will be notified and the
application will fall back
into the waiting phase.
Typical Use
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A screen will allow the caregiver to view the
medication the patient took and when. It will
also notify them of any medicine the patient
skipped.
Currently, this display part of the application
is not fully functional, although the data
storage element is working correctly.
Some Problems…
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Debugging using the emulator for the Pocket
PC was difficult, and debugging using the
Pocket PC itself was nearly impossible.
Problems with the emulator: although the
clock on the emulator displayed the correct
time, DateTime.Now on the emulator would
always be one hour off.
The emulator timer and clock ran a lot slower
than the system or Pocket PC clocks.
Potential Additional Functionality
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Up-to-date information for a larger group of
medicine could be accessed via a database
stored on a machine or on the web.
Patients could postpone taking medication by
a user-defined amount of time.
With the correct password, patients could
edit their own regimen.
Doctors and nurses could view the
compliance data in an easy to read format.