Meds-on-the-Go

What it does

It is an intelligent digital watch paired with a smart pillbox created to help the working elderly suffering from chronic illnesses to remember to take their medication on the go and avoid the negative consequences of forgetting.

Your inspiration

Our inspiration comes from the observation of the aging population in Singapore with the tendency to forget matters on a daily basis, made more prevalent with the fast-paced lifestyle in Singapore. Furthermore, they are not comfortable with current technology that would help them remember which is why they tend to avoid phone apps. What we hope to address is the forgetfulness in the timely consumption of medication for chronic illnesses due to the preoccupation of work-related matters in the working world, which otherwise, would impair the performance at work or activities in general.

How it works

When it is medicine time, the watch will first vibrate. The vibration is 30 secs long with 2 intervals. This 5 min cycle will proceed for up to 3 times. In order to stop the vibration, users press the audio button. The audio that plays from the watch is a personalised reminder that has the specific details of the medicine to take. After the audio is played, users are able to open the pillbox to take their medicine. This is done by the addition of a sensor within the pillbox that is able to detect when the open button in the watch is pressed. The pillbox comes in 3 sizes of height 1.5 cm and diameters of 3,4,5 cm. Designed in a cylindrical shape, it consists of two panels. The main clear main panel is connected to the sensor to detect when the user flips open the box and the second panel has a quadrant opening to access the medication. The latter is able to rotate in any direction to access each compartment of the round pillbox.

Design process

We saw the issue of the aging population in Singapore forgetting to consume their medicine becoming more prevalent and we took to the streets to find out why by conducting interviews with members of the public. With the insights gained from our sampling frame, we managed to successfully define our problem. We wanted the best design to tackle our problem and the result was numerous rounds of ideation, prototyping and testing. Our final prototype - the watch and the container, takes into account both the aesthetic appeal and the functionality aspect to suit the needs of the elderly. Our design stems from the idea of collaborating with hospitals to make the personalised audio recording for each user. When users collect medicine from the pharmacy, the pharmacist can introduce this solution. The pharmacist can record the specific audio reminder to take medicine. For example: the user can say “Take half of the round diabetes pills in 2nd compartment after lunch.” etc. The pharmacist will input the medicine prescription and recordings into the computer and transfer both from the computer to the watch through bluetooth. When users play the audio button, they can listen to their own voice and most importantly, it can be in any language and in any way they want!

How it is different

From our interviews, most elderly are aware of existing solutions but are not adept at using such solutions in their daily life. For example, they mentioned that while phone apps could be a viable solution for reminder, most felt that apps are too complicated. The watch aims to provide a user-friendly interface for users who are usually not at home and it only requires them to provide a single input in the form of a voice recording. Furthermore, we found that most existing solutions only remind users when they are at home. This is because people generally do not have the habit of bringing their pills out. The watch - container pairing simplifies taking medicine on the go. They will only need to refill their pills when it runs out. Moreover, our solution does its best to not only allow users to take their medicine with ease outside home, but it also ensures that they have taken their medicine as it will ring if the audio button is not pressed.

Future plans

We hope to bring our watch into the market where it can impact the aging-working population to persist in their daily endeavours in good health. Furthermore, we hope to make our solution suitable for more people. For instance, people who may not be old but are troubled with chronic illnesses and require lots of medicine. Besides that, although the elderly are uncomfortable with phone apps, it is undeniable that developing apps instead of a watch is less costly and convenient, as plenty of features are already in the phone. Hence, the next challenge would be developing an app that can replace the watch and convince the elderly to use it!

Awards