It's like flipping a coin with your health. Despite the fact that their medications could save or extend their lives, the average patient fails to follow their pill prescription half the time. The reasons behind this failure are varied--ranging from simple forgetfulness to confusion about the medication to ambivalence about their health--but the problem costs an estimated $290 billion in emergency-room visits and other avoidable medical expenses in the United States alone, according to the New England Healthcare Institute. Large organizations have been trying to tackle this problem for years. Drug-store chains send paper reminders in the mail--to little avail. HMOs have tried calling patients daily--but they found this labor-intensive solution way too expensive.David Rose, founder of the Cambridge based startup Vitality, had an altogether different idea: to build reminder technology right into the pill bottle itself.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Technology Review: Message from a Bottle
Author: Emily Singer
