Note: I had stopped writing posts in 2017. Slowly getting back into it in 2024, mostly for AI.
CoverMyMeds is a company in a brilliant niche. ePA - Electronic Prior Authorizations. Usually a doctor's prescription reaches pharmacy, which informs patient when to pick it up. If the drug needs the insurance company's authorization, it's up to the Pharmacist to...
Currently there are a number of hardware-based solutions in the market that aim to help the patient take the right medication at the right time. The conventional options of boxes, organizers, dispensers, watches etc have been there for the longest time. The last few...
Jitterbug Wireless is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) founded in 2006. They offer simplified mobile hardware and service targeted towards baby boomers, with the value proposition being the opposite of a feature-rich phone. Few big, buttons and great customer...
As I've written before, medication adherence is an undeniably critical problem for the healthcare system. Most startups in this area have taken the approach of finding novel ways to remind or monitor the patient about medication, with the assumption that the problem...
Drug safety surveillance (more formally, pharmacovigilence) is a serious and complex issue. Once a drug is FDA-approved and on the market, it needs to be constantly monitored for long/short-term side effects. That process is currently rigid: once observed...
Asthmapolis is brainchild of David Van Sickle a researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison. The basic idea is to equip inhalers with a GPS tag to determine when and where was it used by the patient. When such individual (de-identified, of course) medication data is...
Of all the consumer healthcare device ideas, this may be the most ingenious one. In August 2009, Massachusetts-based Vitality announced availability of GlowCaps- a web-enabled $99 cap for prescription bottles that helps remind patients to take their medications on...
Zume Life is a San Jose start-up that is planning to develop its own dedicated device to allow individuals to keep track of and manage their own care regimen. It's target users are individuals with complex care requirements- taking a multiple medications, specific...
NLM may not be known for Health 2.0 efforts, but this one surely qualifies for one. Pillbox.nlm.nih.gov is a fantastic tool that lets users identify medications by the way they look. A beautiful Adobe Flex powered interface enables selection of various physical...
RememberItNow is an online medication reminder service. Once you enter the pill information (what, when) it can send email/text reminder messages at the right time. Also included are some features around access control , scheduling, charting, journal etc. The site was...