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Thursday, August 23, 2007Confidant Inc. of Durham has partnered with packaging company MeadWestvaco to a develop a wireless tracking system that can monitor when patients take their medications. ....."If we can also capture information about patients' prescription adherence, we'll have an even fuller set of data for health-care providers to deliver quality care," said Thomas E. Wall, vice president of business development and marketing. Patients who deviate from their medication treatment programs risk complications and cost the health-care system about $177 billion a year, according to the National Council on Patient Information and Education. The new tracking product under development could save much of that money, Wall said. Nothing makes me happier than when my patients comply with my advice, but the last thing I want to do is put my nose in their medicine cabinets. It doesn't require much of a stretch of imagination, however, to envision a future in which third party payers (government and private) link patient compliance to benefits pay-outs (or premium costs). It also doesn't require much of a stretch to imagine physicians in a world of pay-for-performance requiring patients submit to such monitoring. Let's hope common sense and the love of personal liberty prevails. posted by Sydney on 8/23/2007 09:15:00 AM 1 comments 1 Comments:If you want to support your patient's adherence, refer them to http://www.intelecare.com and have them sign up for free medical reminders via email, text and voice message. We have over 3.2M users receiving reminders everyday. By Alex Sicre, at 4:46 PM |
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