Non-adherence varies from medication to medication and, until now, non-adherence and potentially fatal drug-to-drug and drug-to-lifestyle interactions were nearly impossible to prevent. Today, Medisafe, a medication adherence platform, has announced a feature that tracks individual usage patterns to help predict and plan for medication non-adherence pitfalls before they happen.
Medisafe’s new feature, Safety Net, powered by IoT technology company Neura, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide Medisafe users with free “smart” reminders that are perfectly timed to everyday life, such as when you wake up, before you go to sleep, and more. The feature will help personalize medication reminders and management for each individual user, helping to address the problem of non-adherence, which costs the US healthcare system more than $290 billion a year.
In developing it’s AI strategy, Medisafe is working with industry leaders such as Professor Dan Ariely, a renowned expert in behavioral economics and author of New York Times bestseller Predictably Irrational. Safety Net is one of the pillars in this strategy. Safety Net is activated when a Medisafe user’s routine becomes incompatible with his/her pre-scheduled medication reminders. For example, if a user has a notification schedule for 10pm and he/she begins a new pattern of going to bed at 9:30pm, Safety Net might insert additional reminders at 9pm. Similarly, if a user’s morning reminder is set for 7am to coincide with breakfast or before he/she leaves for work on weekdays, and he/she wakes at 9am on weekends, Safety Net might add a 9:30am reminder on Saturday and Sunday. Safety Net works dynamically, continually looking for changes in a person’s habits and making adjustments accordingly.
“Safety Net acts like a guardian angel, predicting pitfalls that could throw someone off course on his or her medication schedule, leading to a potentially dangerous, or even life-threatening situation,” stated Jon Michaeli, Executive Vice President of business development and marketing at Medisafe. “Life is hectic, schedules are always changing, and our behaviors are forced to adapt. But it’s easy to forget all of the implications that these changes may have on our daily lives along the way. Safety Net is just another step we have taken to ensure our users never miss another dose of their medication.”
Medisafe plans to introduce AI-driven functionality in the months to come using data gathered on its own platform as well as through its industry partners.
