An intelligent ‘pill robot’ ensures accurate and timely medication
A medication dosage solution has been integrated with a user-friendly primary-care record, greatly increasing citizens’ flexibility and involvement in their own care. In Hjørring Municipality in the North Denmark Region, Susan, an elderly woman living in her own home, is about to take her medication. She has several prescriptions and needs to take her medicines 4-6 times every day. Earlier, she was often confused by the many pills, sometimes forgetting to take some of
them, or getting them mixed up. She now participates in a project in which a ‘pill robot’ has been installed in her home – programmed with the dosage for her various medicines. The robot is integrated with the primary-care record, Columna Cura, and the Shared Medication Record, a database with updated medication information shared among patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals. Here they can find information about all the medicines that the patient receives through any prescription or pharmacy in Denmark. This means that when a doctor changes Susan’s prescription, the pill robot is updated in real-time. New medication is delivered to Susan’s robot within 24 hours after it has been prescribed. And if Susan forgets to take her medication, the robot will notify home-care services. As the solution is fully integrated, home-care professionals need only a single point-of-contact, the primary-care record. They can access it on a tablet computer, which makes it possible for them to document health-data on location. This makes it easier to involve Susan in discussions and decisions about her care. The solution has given Susan more flexibility in her daily life, as she no longer depends on home-care staff to provide the medication several times a day.