Jeremy Frank

A Digital Health Solution for Using and Managing Medications: Wirelessly Observed Therapy

Several approaches are currently used to assess medication taking. The most reliable method is directly observed therapy (DOT), which consists of a clinician observing and documenting the date and time of the patients swallowing each dose of medication. In some cases, this is done by video recording of the patient taking the medication. Other indirect methods for monitoring adherence include patient questioning, patient pill diaries, pill counts, daily weighing of pill containers, and prescription refill rates. Electronically documenting the date and time when the cover of a pill container has been opened is another option. Each of these methods, however, is limited in scope and provides only an estimated measure of actual drug intake, as none of them reliably record whether the patient has actually ingested the medication.