3. Pill Reminder Applications
Medisafe & My Pillbox
3
• “Medisafe” and “My Pillbox”
– Takes in drug description
– Customize shape & color of drug
• Gap
– Time for input
– Human Error
4. Read My Pills
What Is It?
4
• Optical Character Reader (OCR)
– Reads medical description and fills textboxes
– Camera to take photo for reminder
• Bridges Gap
– Reduces time
– Reduces human error
.
9. Scan My Pills
Original Idea
9
• Barcode Scanner
– Database
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
– Different pharmacies, different barcode
– Over-the-counter (OTC) medication
• Focus: long-term disease/conditions
10. Read My Pills
10
Current Idea
• Working around HIPAA
– Commonalities between medication
– Texts and Labels
• Includes OTC and prescribed
12. Smart Health
12
Research
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): 2012
– about 50% of adult population with one chronic disease/condition
– about 1 in 4 have at least two or more
• Non-Adherence: about 31%
– Forgetting to take medication is a large contributor
– Results of non-adherence:
• 125,000 deaths per year
• 80% increase of a chance of a heart attack
• Smartphones: more than 60%
– Already used for reminders and daily life
– Integral and simple solution to busy daily life
14. Platform & Languages
14
Android
“Read My Pills” was developed for the Android 4.0+, Jelly Bean. Currently, this application
can be run on about 68% of all the Android Phones, as this is one of the most current
versions. Testing for this application was run on Android 4.4, KitKat.
15. Languages & Technology
15
Android Studio
The development of this application was based in Android Studio 1.1.0. In Android Studio,
the body of the code was written in Java while the GUI was developed in XML. Android
Studio is similar to Eclipse, but provides more functions as it is used solely for application
development for Android devices.
16. Tools
16
Tesseract OCR
A main component to writing the code for “Read My Pills” was the use of “Tesseract OCR.”
“Tesseract OCR” is an open source code provided by Google Code which allows for
character reading. Many contributors have worked together to help improve “Tesseract” as
well as creating new libraries allowing it to read different languages correctly.
18. Participants
18
Usability Test
Due to time constraints, only five people were given the application to test out and play
with. Another eight people were given the opportunity to be shown a demonstration of the
application. Both groups were provided with tasks and asked to provide feedback. The
testers were chosen within the College of Technology, but varied in major, while the
observers were asked randomly. Here is the breakdown in majors for each group:
Observers:
• Computer Information Technology
• Computer Science
• Pharmacy
• Engineering
• English
• Chemistry
Testers:
• Computer Information Technology
• Computer Graphics Technology
• Organizational Leadership and
Supervision
• Engineering Technology
19. Tasks & Questions
19
Questions asked observers:
• What would you like to see
add?
• What do you think can be
improved?
• What did you like?
• What did you dislike?
• Does it seem easy to use?
Tasks testers performed:
• Try out the OCR
• Try the photo function
• Try to crash the program
• Did anything perform in an
unexpected way?
• Was the application easy to
use?
Usability Test
20. Results
20
Usability Test
• Overall Impression: Positive
• What Worked:
– Idea of OCR
– Camera for pill reminder
– Existing Functions
– User Friendly
• Flaws:
– lacking functions necessary for real world usage
– OCR showed inaccuracy in reading words
– Aesthetics
24. Lessons Learned
24
What I learned….
• How to program in Java
• How to work in Android Studio
• The existence of Google Code
• How to program basic XML
• How to find answers on the internet
25. References
25
Work Cited
• "Android." MediSafe Meds & Pill Reminder. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.medisafe.android.client&hl=en>.
• "Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion." Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 09 May 2014. Web. 23 Mar.
2015. <http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/>.
• "Department of HealthJohn J. Dreyzehner, MD, MPH, Commissioner." HIPAA: Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
<http://health.state.tn.us/hipaa/>.
• "Medication Adherence Resources." Improve Medication Adherence. N.p., n.d. Web.
19 Feb. 2015. <http://www.mts-
mt.com/Why_MTS/Medication_Adherence_Resources.aspx>.
• "Most Patients Forget to Take Their Medications ?" World of DTC Marketingcom. N.p.,
27 June 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://worldofdtcmarketing.com/most-patients-
forget-to-take-their-medications/focus-on-patients/>.
• "Supported Platforms." Tesseract-ocr - An OCR Engine That Was Developed at HP
Labs between 1985 and 1995... and Now at Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.
<https://code.google.com/p/tesseract-ocr/>.
• Wallskog, Kirsten. "A Talk with a Pharmacy Student." Personal interview. 04 Apr. 2015.
Most people who rely on pill reminder applications have to keep track of many different types of medication, whether it is for themselves or family member(s). Currently the number one application in the play store is “Medisafe”. “Medisafe” allows the user to enter in their drug information as well as customize a pill to reflect what they are currently taking. “My Pillbox” functions similarly to “Medisafe”, but a difference is that “My Pillbox” also has a pro edition which costs money. Both applications require manual input as well as customizing the shape and color of a pill to reflect the medication they are taking.
A detractor to these application though, is the time needed to spend inputting the drug information. Especially with individuals who keep track of their family member’s drug intake, time can be a bit tight. Another downfall to this could be mistyping medication into the application and not recognizing the medication when the alarm sounds.
“Read My Pills” is a similar application; however, it integrates an optical character reader (OCR). By using the phone’s camera, the OCR read the medical description and fill in the corresponding textboxes. Along with the OCR, the camera is used to take a picture of a pill, helping the user remember which medication to take.
With the OCR and the camera function, “Read My Pills” hopes to reduce the time it takes to input drugs as well as reduce the chance of entering in the wrong data
Originally, the idea was to have a barcode scanner that could scan medication’s barcode and search through a database to find the medication and fill in the proper textboxes with information needed. However, after talking with Kirsten Wallskog, a pharmaceutical student at Purdue University, I discovered that different pharmacies use different barcodes for the same drug. Because of HIPAA, those drug barcodes would remain confidential and I would not be allowed accessed to that database. The only barcodes I would be able to find were those for over-the-counter medication. Since the idea for this application would be to focus on those who take medication for chronic disease and/or illnesses, the barcode idea was thrown out.
Other ideas were thought of, but focus would still drift away from long-term medication takers.
“Read My Pills” was then thought of, with the help of Kirsten. The idea was the find something that was in common with all of the pill bottles and containers what would not be in any violation of HIPAA. Because the words are clear on the bottle, a text recognition application would be able to read in the words from any bottle, container, or box. This idea would also be able to incorporate over-the-counter medication as well as prescribed medication.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2012, about half of the adults in the United States (U.S.) have a chronic disease or condition and about one in four adults have two or more. With many chronic conditions, medication is required to stay healthy. However, 31% of those with chronic conditions do not adhere to their prescription for a multitude of reasons, one being forgetting to take their medication. In total, non-adherence results in 125,000 deaths a year and 80% chance of an increase of additional heart attack, among others.
With more than 60% of the U.S. already rely on their smartphone, creating a pill reminder application that fits well with busy lives can help reduce the number of people forgetting to take their medication.
Reduce technical terms
The results were inconclusive due to the lack of functions to test. Of what was provided, the overall response was fairly positive. The biggest concern, though, was the lack of accuracy the OCR had. Many times the application would add letters or characters to the words that were not there. Other times the application would read the words completely incorrectly. Lastly, there were a few times where the word was actually spell correctly.
Besides the lack of accuracy, most participants found the idea very nice and believed that the application was very user friendly. They also said that, if the OCR was more accurate, this method of inputting information would be extremely helpful and would reduce the time needed.
What gave me the idea of this product?
Why is CDC is 2012?
Why Android?
Why focus on COT?
