Safe medicine management

We live at a time in which we are fortunate to expect to live a long life, but this also means that greater demands are placed on healthcare services. One aspect is the correct dosage and use of medicines.

In addition to medication for minor ailments, dietary supplements have become an integral part of people’s lives as health awareness increases. For the elderly, long-term medication is of special importance. Be it medicines to lower blood pressure or blood sugar levels, the relevant medicines must be taken regularly and in the right combination. The physician prescribes a combination of medicines and determines the dosage and the way in which they must be used or taken.

The challenge of taking pills correctly

In reality, however, patients often forget to take their medicines or take them at times other than what the doctor has told them. Additional tablets are taken or others are not taken at all. Patients usually do not make a note of these things and when they come in for a check-up, the physician has no way of knowing what happened.

Once your vision and dexterity is impaired, taking medicines becomes a challenge. Unfortunately, mistakes can also happen in hospitals and retirement homes, which are often short-staffed due to austerity measures. The remaining personnel is under a lot of pressure, leading to slip-ups when dispensing medicines.

ivii offers visual guidance for dispensing medicines

KNAPP’s subsidiary ivii specializes in intelligent image recognition systems and has stepped up to this challenge.

How does that work?

A touch screen guides the nursing staff through the process. The dosage, type of intake, number of tablets to take and time of administration are coordinated with the dispenser and are displayed. An integrated special camera detects the tablets and monitors whether they are placed in the correct compartment. If an error occurs, a warning message is displayed and the error is corrected manually. ivii Remedy Scan documents the entire process electronically.

ivii Remedy Scan can easily be installed in a hospital’s or any other healthcare facility’s pharmacy storage system and therefore does not require any additional space.

„ivii Remedy Scan helps to prevent overdosing and underdosing medicines in hospitals and healthcare facilities. The patients can trust that no errors occur when they take their medicines. In doing so, strain is taken off the nursing staff and they can be sure that the correct amount of the respective medicines that the doctor has prescribed are administered.“

Martin Micheli, business partner for ivii Remedy Scan

Advantages:

• Medicines are taken correctly
• Underdosage or overdosage are prevented
• Possible consequences of incorrect dosage of medicines are prevented