Compliance monitoring system using screen printing technology based on conductive ink

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Hoshi, Kenji^{a; *} | Kawakami, Junko^a | Aoki, Sorama^a | Hamada, Kouji^b | Sato, Kenichi^a

Affiliations: [a] Information Science Center, Tohoku Pharmaceutical University, Miyagi, Japan | [b] Chiba-Hokusoh Hospital, Nippon Medical School, Chiba, Japan

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Kenji Hoshi, Ph.D., Information Science Center, Tohoku Pharmaceutical University, 4-4-1 Aoba-ku Komatsushima, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. Tel.: +81 22 727 0056; Fax: +81 22 727 0205; E-mail: hoshi@tohoku-pharm.ac.jp.

Abstract: We developed a compliance monitoring system that electrically detects which drug among the multiple prescribed drugs a patient has taken and the date of drug-taking by a patient to prevent the patient from missing doses and taking drugs incorrectly at home. A conductive pattern is screen printed using conductive ink (silver paste) on the surface of a calendar-type pill organizer containing medications for as long as 1 week (4 times per day × 7 days, 28 doses) to create a sensor for detecting the opening of a pill organizer. Whenever the patient opens the pill organizer and removes a dose of the drug (pill), information about which of the 28 locations is opened and the date of opening are recorded in nonvolatile memory. This system is applicable to patients who take multiple drugs, for whom recording of drug-taking behavior is reportedly difficult. Specific benefits are that the user needs no additional manipulation to use the system: the user can take the drug from the pill organizer according to usual procedures.

Keywords: Medication compliance/adherence, electronic compliance monitoring, conductive ink, pill organizer, microcontroller

DOI: 10.3233/THC-2012-00701

Journal: Technology and Health Care, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 541-550, 2012