An In-home Advanced Robotic System to Manage Elderly Home-care Patients' Medications: A Pilot Safety and Usability Study.

Abstract:

PURPOSE:We examined the safety profile and usability of an integrated advanced robotic device and telecare system to promote medication adherence for elderly home-care patients. METHODS:There were two phases. Phase I aimed to verify under controlled conditions in a single nursing home (n = 17 patients) that no robotic malfunctions would hinder the device's safe use. Phase II involved home-care patients from 3 sites (n = 27) who were on long-term medication. On-time dispensing and missed doses were recorded by the robotic system. Patients' and nurses' experiences were assessed with structured interviews. FINDINGS:The 17 nursing home patients had 457 total days using the device (Phase I; mean, 26.9 per patient). On-time sachet retrieval occurred with 97.7% of the alerts, and no medication doses were missed. At baseline, Phase II home-dwelling patients reported difficulty remembering to take their medicines (23%), and 18% missed at least 2 doses per week. Most Phase II patients (78%) lived alone. The device delivered and patients retrieved medicine sachets for 99% of the alerts. All patients and 96% of nurses reported the device was easy to use. IMPLICATIONS:This trial demonstrated the safety profile and usability of an in-home advanced robotic device and telecare system and its acceptability to patients and nurses. It supports individualized patient dosing schedules, patient-provider communications, and on-time, in-home medication delivery to promote adherence. Real time dose-by-dose monitoring and communication with providers if a dose is missed provide oversight generally not seen in home care.

journal_name

Clin Ther

journal_title

Clinical therapeutics

authors

Rantanen P,Parkkari T,Leikola S,Airaksinen M,Lyles A

doi

10.1016/j.clinthera.2017.03.020

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2017-05-01 00:00:00

pages

1054-1061

issue

5

eissn

0149-2918

issn

1879-114X

pii

S0149-2918(17)30202-3

journal_volume

39

pub_type

杂志文章