Pillsy has introduced a medication adherence solution that uses a "smart pill bottle" to ensure that the patient takes their medicine as directed. The bottle senses when it is opened and closed, and communicates via Bluetooth with a mobile app running on an Android or iOS device. The system reminds the patient when they forget to take a dose, warns them when they try to take a double dose, and permits sharing the information with family or friends.
Pillsy addresses a serious problem. Many patients (particularly the elderly) fail to take medications as directed. Reportedly, 125,000 people die each year because they did not take their medications as prescribed.
However, there is no perfect solution to this problem. Pillsy can detect when the pill bottle is opened and closed, but it can't ensure that the patient ingested the medication. (An elderly patient might open a bottle, get distracted, and forget whether they took the pill.) Plus, many patients take multiple prescriptions, so they need to work with multiple bottles -- Pillsy does not sell a smart weekly or monthly pill keeper.
Pillsy will probably work well for some patients, but not for others. Younger patients may just need a daily reminder. Older patients with short-term memory problems may need to be prompted to perform each step: Get the container, open it, take out today's dose, swallow the pill(s), confirm the dose was taken, and close the container.
There are dozens of pill reminder apps on the market. According to Mobile Health News, Pillsy's competitors include Medisafe, AdhereTech, PillDrill, AiCure, and Catalia Health.
Medisafe is an Israeli company that has developed an adherence platform consisting of a wireless pill bottle, smartphone app, and cloud-based infrastructure. The firm claims to have 3.5 million patients and caregivers on its platform. Medisafe recently raised $14.5 million in series B funding.
AdhereTech is another company using wireless smart pill bottles. The bottle can light up and/or generate an automated phone call as reminder. The battery can run for over six months before it needs to be recharged.
PillDrill offers a smart pill organizer that reminds the patient to take their meds, records that a dose has been taken, and enables the patient to indicate how they are feeling -- all by scanning the pill containers and a Mood Cube using the PillDrill hub. The hub sells for $199. The pill keeper contains removable pods for two or four weeks' worth of meds. The hub communicates with family members via Wi-Fi. The patient does not need to have a smartphone, but Android and iOS apps are available. The firm also offers scannable tags that can be used with original pill bottles.
AiCure has developed an artificial intelligence platform that visually confirms medication ingestion using a smartphone. The firm touts its solution as helping to reduce clinical trial failures (AiCure says 30% of clinical trials fail).
Catalia Health sells the Mabu personal healthcare companion. The unit features a touchscreen, accepts voice input, asks the patient how they feel, and can send reminders to their phone for when they are away from home.
