Pfizer collects about $10 billion a year from its cholesterol-lowering Lipitor, making the treatment one of the best-selling drugs ever. But if every patient took every Lipitor pill as prescribed, that number would leap to $17 billion. Enter GlowCap, a wireless, Internet-connected bottle cap, that uses light and sound to alert users and phones home if you forget.
Vitality GlowCaps from Vitality on Vimeo.
If the GlowCap remains unpopped after two hours, a patient will receive an automated call that asks a series of questions on why he or she missed the dose.
The GlowCap has an embedded computer chip that communicates with a cellular-connected nightlight, which sends information on bottle cap removal to Vitality, a connected health company, over AT&T’s 2G network. The nightlight’s low-frequency RF is activated when the unit is plugged into the wall. Patients can be notified via a glowing light, a tune, automated calls, text messages or e-mails. The reminders can be repeated for up to four doses a day.
Vitality and Varolii, developed the technology. The cap is embedded with a light that flashes orange when a user is supposed to take the medication. If a cap is not removed within an hour an alarm will sound that gradually escalates “from a three-note arpeggio to an 11-note arpeggio,” Vitality President Josh Wachman said.
Patients and their doctor can receive a weekly e-mail and monthly print out detailing the days in which a patient has remembered or neglected to take the medication. The small Telit GE864-QUAD chip make the GSM/GPRS module in the nightlight one of the smallest
The device, which can be bought on Amazon.com for $99, comes with the night light that connects wirelessly to AT&T’s cellular network, a bottle cap and a six-month subscription to the service. After six months, subscriptions cost $15 a month.
Connected Health is a term used to describe a model for healthcare delivery that uses technology to provide healthcare remotely. Machine to Machine (M2M) devices are expected to increase by 36 percent this year. Utilities, health care and securities industries are expected to lead the charge to a total of 2.1 billion “connected M2M devices” by 2020, according to research from Analysis Mason. Of the 2.1 billion connected devices in 2020, 1.3 billion will be in the utilities sector, 45 million will be from the security sector, and 28 million devices are expected in the automotive and transport sector.
