Beeping Pill Bottle Gets National Test

It glows. It beeps. It will even call you on the phone. The GlowCap high-tech pill bottle and its maker, Vitality Inc., are getting a boost in a national test run to see if the product really helps people remember their meds.

Drug benefits manager Express Scripts Inc. is testing the electronic bottle with some of its members who have high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Here's more from the St. Louis Business Journal:

The GlowCap, which is manufactured by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Vitality Inc., is an Internet-enabled pill-bottle cap that tracks when patients open the bottle to get their medication. If a patient fails to take his or her medication on time, an LED light on the cap will start blinking as a reminder. If more than an hour passes, the GlowCap will begin beeping, first quietly, then building in volume. If the medication still is not taken, an outbound phone call will be placed to a number provided by the patient, whether that is a reminder to the patient himself or to a family member or caretaker.

The GlowCap also tracks real time data about when the medication is taken. This data can be transmitted to a provider—such as Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager—to track. A report also can be generated to update patients on how regularly they are taking their medications.

Bob Nease, chief scientist at Express Scripts, said the failure to take prescriptions as prescribed is a growing national problem. Hospital admissions due to nonadherence to prescribed medication costs the nation $100 billion annually, he said.

“Research shows far and away the biggest component in that is flat out forgetting to take your medication or procrastinating about getting refills,” Nease said.

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