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Technology
Intelligent packaging to cut medical costs
A pilot-study with patients has demonstrated that effective compliance monitoring and significant cost savings can be achieved by using intelligent packaging solution with outpatients.The study was conducted at Kuopio University Hospital, Finland, with patients receiving opioid substitution treatment. During the four weeks of the study, the patients visited the clinic at weekly intervals and received their medication for six days in a Pharma DDSi package. The patients’ compliance with their regimens was monitored using the package, which recorded the time of removal of the tablets from the package and stored information on the patient’s subjective symptoms each day. The data was monitored at the clinic during the weekly visits and the information was incorporated into the therapeutic conversation with the nurse. The study among the patients at different stages of treatment showed a reduction in treatment costs of nearly 40%.
Several advantages for compliance-monitoring
“The Pharma DDSi packaging solution seems to provide several advantages for compliance-monitoring in opioid substitution patients and was accepted positively by our patients and staff,” says Dr. Ulrich Tacke who led the study. “According to present clinical practice at our hospital, new patients in substitution treatment have daily appointments for supervised drug administration. Cost-savings of up to EUR 500 per patient each week would occur if the daily attendance for supervised drug-administration were to be entirely replaced by take-home medication using the Pharma DDSi package.”
The Pharma DDSi package includes a locking mechanism and its size and inner design can be modified for various blisters or other inserts. In the pilot-study, the package was considered easier and safer than the traditionally used sachet, since blisters could be left intact. Treatment staff as well as patients regarded the locking system as a significant improvement. Data evaluation showed that the majority of patients (67%) took their medication regularly as prescribed. The low variability in registered time cues seemed to confirm good compliance; yet it is quite impossible to control events after the tablet has been taken out of the package.
Amending treatment of outpatients
“In our discussions with doctors and treatment staff, we constantly encounter a strong will to discover new ways of treating patients effectively. The pioneering study by Dr. Tacke and his team shows how intelligent packaging can amend the treatment of outpatients,” says Sari Häkli, Sales Manager at Stora Enso Carton Board. “Non-compliance endangers treatment, increases the street supply of diverted drugs and undermines the reputation of treatment services. Pharma DDSi provides the market’s most advanced solution to these problems. As we saw in the study, the treatment staff at the clinic can focus on the patients instead of drug administration, and besides, there is a huge potential for cost savings.”
In the next phase, Dr. Tacke and Stora Enso are planning to arrange compliance-monitoring on a daily basis, using the Pharma DDSi package together with data readers at patients’ homes and transmission of information in real-time, which would enable treatment staff to contact the patient within hours of any irregularity in administering the drugs.
