DISPLAYS INCORPORATED IN MEDICATION MONITORS TO:
1) Assist the patient in adhering to the medication regimen &
2) Permit the caregiver to retrieve the adherence record and critical clinical data.
Ideally the data in medication monitors should be downloaded to a computer or PDA where it can be displayed in many different ways. To achieve this an input/output connector should be part of any monitor. On the other hand, when computers or PDAs are not available or not functioning, inexpensive display(s) that are built into the monitor will be needed to retrieve the compliance record. These might be based on a liquid crystal display (LCD), incandescent lamps or light emitting diodes (LEDs) that are made part of the monitor. LEDs have largely replaced incandescent lamps as indicators because of their greater reliability and lower power requirements; and for simple displays they are less expensive than LCDs. Thus, they are probably the best display to build into compliance monitors.
There are multiple ways that these displays could be used to provide the needed information. Furthermore, there are several different types of LED displays. The material that follows presents examples of how different LED displays could be used. Other ways of using LEDs can probably be developed. The final choice of the optimal display and optimal way of using the display will depend primarily on how much data is needed and how easily the data can be understood. The red/green LED described below is probably the most easily understood.
Means by which the patient and caregiver can activate the display.
1) The patient could activate the display to answer questions that will assist the patient in following the treatment regimen by depressing a button.
2) The caregiver could activate the display for more detailed information by using the same button and entering a code, like one of the characters in the Morse code. Alternatively, the device could be equipped with a second button for the caregiver to activate the display.
Note: The device could be equipped with a beeper or flashing light to remind the patient to take medication. One way of using a beeper would be to have it beep every 15 minutes from 8:00 PM to midnight, if the patient hadn't taken mediation that day. However, if the patient was not at home, a family member might remove a dose to turn off the annoying beeper or flashing light which increases the chance that the patient might fail to take the dose. For this reason, and because of the cost, it would probably be best not to use a beeper and instead use an LED to answer the patient's question, "Did I or did I not remove medication today?"
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DISPLAYS INCORPORATED INTO COMPLIANCE MONITORS
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