Four pharma companies test GlowCaps Vitality, developer of medication adherence device GlowCap, announced during a 2009 company wrap-up video that “four of the top pharmaceuticals companies have committed to distribute their medications for hypertension, transplants and diabetes in GlowCaps.”
Can technology address medication adherence? It’s a widely known statistic that between one-third and one-half of patients in the U.S. do not take their medications as instructed, which leads to poorer health, more frequent hospitalization, a higher risk of death and up to $290 billion each year in increased medical costs. Stacked against that figure, Novartis’ recent $24 million investment in intelligent medicine / medication adherence startup Proteus Biomedical is a pittance. Given the $290 billion in increased medical costs, Proteus’ prediction that its technology has a $100 billion market opportunity appears — almost — a bit low.
Japan: Startup launches wireless ECG service Wearable Information Networks Human Recorder, a Japanese startup, just brought a wireless ECG sensor service to market, according to a report in Japanese news portal Nikkei. WIN’s Human Recorder system collects data from a lightweight wireless sensor attached to the user’s chest that transmits data wirelessly to a mobile phone or PC.
AccuWeather offers up WeatherMD app Here’s an interesting twist for a smartphone application offering from a big brand: AccuWeather announced today the release of an iPhone application called WeatherMD, which helps users predict when symptoms their various medical conditions might be at their worst during the day because of weather.
Brian Dolan is editor of MobiHealthNews, the emerging wireless health industry’s daily monitor.