The cost of medication non-adherence is, in some estimations, a $290-billion problem. To tackle it, at least in a small way, AdhereTech has developed a “smart” pill bottle that runs on a cellular network and beams reminders to a patient’s phone if he or she misses a dose. What elevates the device from a personal accountability lever into a behavior-analysis tool is the real-time adherence data it generates, which provides context that traditional 30-day-fill retrospectives lack. “This data hasn’t been collected—ever,” Langhauser says. The AdhereTech bottle has attracted interest, he adds, from patients, caregivers, drugmakers and organizations like the Walter Reed National Military Center and Weill Cornell Medical College. The first iteration of AdhereTech’s bottles has sold out; for version 2.0, the company is looking toward the wearables market for inspiration. Possible additions include visualization tools, which could help bolster patient engagement and adherence rates alike.
