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Can be paired with presorted medication to form a sequence of what to administer and timing
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Possible App Medicine Tracker, with scannable programming for timetable and reminder
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Possible foldable sachet for day use carry and leave the booklet at home
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Medication information and dosage to guide proper administration
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Timetable hardcopy tracker for daily dosage and non daily dosage
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Possible iteration of different pages
Inspiration
Inspired by the complexity of which elderly often forget to take medication, asking for help at home to read text and confusion of when to take them. Modern day medication are built to help clinics and pharmacy to keep track logistically and dispense efficiently but in the process of this, it lost sight of its main beneficiary: the patients. Therefore our team aim to provide a better solution to tackle this long standing problem of medicine adherence which causes productivity loss and facility burden when patients have to revisit the pharmacy to get clarification on their prescribed medication.
What it does
The medical adherence booklet promotes the users to self manage and administer medicine properly by providing clear instruction, education on medication, dosage quantity and a personalized tracking of medication intake. The empowerment of users to take medicine responsibility into their own hands; which they desire. The booklet can also potentially solve issues regarding refills, adjustment to medications and provide a quantifiable tracking for the medicine dispensary. When patient are taking their medication therapy accurately and to their full term, medication studies can be better studied and refined, this also results in healthier patients and reducing the risks of readmission due to prolonged conditions or side effects due to forgetting medication or double dosage respectively.
How we built it
We brainstormed through the research, forming up existing solutions such as smart pillboxes, medication sorter and dispensers and app trackers. We crafted up different variations of ideas that could be of use to this problem and listed out their pros and cons, thinking about feasibility and time to market. We chose to approach the lower tech solution to formulate this solution as it requires less changes to the ecosystem, promotes better healthcare for patients and even to those who are not tech-savvy and requiring additional tools to manage selfcare.
Challenges we ran into
We ran into challenges within the team where our pharmacists are heavily invested in the idea of a smart cloud network pill dispenser to help with the problem of efficiency faced by them and the other idea where we have the medical booklet to help assist the patients. Although in both ideas the stakeholders includes the healthcare workers: the pharmacists, the main stakeholder: the patient is neglected by smart pillboxes and sorters as the technology adoption by all patients can be costly and potentially foreign. The medical booklet will involve a readjustment of pharmacists and their work flow but overtime as the medical booklet hammers out the main problem, medicine adherence, there will be down stream benefits that lessen workload for the pharmacists and facilities allowing for better healthcare and predictability in pharmacists work, reducing burn out.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud to have settled the alignment of the solution before heading into the deadline where our team took the effort to ideate both solutions and pinpoint the potential limitations that could plague each solution that was created. In a risk adverse environment such as healthcare, innovation is treated with caution and small steps are often the norm. Instead of changing the entire ecosystem with a market disrupter involving tech heavily, we chose to embrace innovation through careful design and user centric decisions.
What we learned
We have been brought together through this project with many backgrounds; Designers, Pharmacists, Developer. We learnt many insights from how different teammates approach the subject and where our concerns and focus lies. Designers are trying to understand the problem while producing an innovative solution while pharmacists value objectivity and efficiency. We share many ideas, conflicts of interest and most importantly we learnt from each other's perspective. We get to peek into the minds of different professions and come together to share a vision: To improve healthcare and reduce burnout.
What's next for AdheraCare
Developmental phases which require designing of formfactor, medication housing for the booklet, deciding on how often the supplies will be given and all the while keeping sustainability and scalability at heart. User testing and scenario testing where medication is swapped and iterated by practitioners. How will the product function in a real world setting and how will companies approach to provide this customizable packing service. What the patients that take AdheraCare thinks and if the product is actually effective at what it sought to achieve. An lastly if a companion app is possible in the future.
Built With
- chatgpt
- figma
- miro
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