Scriptmate: A patient-centered mobile system for geriatric prescription medication management

Dimagi, Inc., Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY Elderly patients are the largest consumers of prescription and non-prescription medications and have been reported to account for $887 million in treatment costs for medication errors likely due to altered pharmacokinetics, polypharmacy, decline in cognition, and lower health literacy. As a result of this confluence of issues that affect the aging population, medication management tools designed to accommodate the particular needs of older adults can be greatly beneficial. While there have been many advances made in mobile health technologies to assist with aspects of medication management such as adherence reminders and access to drug labeling information, few products are designed to enable facile identification and verification of a patient's prescribed medications. The innovation proposed in this Phase I SBIR addresses this gap in medication management tools designed for older adult patients. We will use a combination of innovative mechanical and software engineering techniques to build the Scriptmate system, which will be designed to assist older adult patients with easy identification and verification of medications using a pill scanner and facilitate medication consolidation, and access to medication information via patient-facing mobile application. The goal of this Phase I SBIR is to assess the feasibility and usability of Scriptmate. Three substudies will be conducted with older adult patients and pharmacists using a user-centered design framework to address the project goal: a formative assessment (N=20), prototype walkthrough interviews (N=10) and one-on-one usability testing sessions (N=10).