Normally, the patient calls the pharmacy for a prescription. Now, the prescription is doing that by itself. GlowCaps, a prescription bottle cap made by Vitality, has assumed control for medication compliance.
The bottle cap fits prescription bottles, but has uses cellphone technology to tap into wireless networks. Once connected, the pill bottle does everything imaginable to remind patients to take their pills.
There’s lights — plenty of them. The bottle cap really does glow and make noise to remind patients. Plug-in units wirelessly connected to the bottle cap can be placed anywhere there’s a wall socket. Oh, and it will call you, too, if you forget. The company calls this “Reminders Ramp from Subtle to Insistent.” (Add “relentless” to that.)
Ultimately, GlowCaps tallies compliance and sends reports to caregivers and physicians. Not surprisingly, studies show that constant nagging to take one’s medications works.
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
Here’s a new video game from Zombie Cow Studios that could help educate teenagers about sexual and reproductive health in a colorful way.
Elizabeth Boskey, Ph.D., About.com’s Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) guide, writes in her blog post entitled “It’s Only A Game“:
When I first saw the announcement for Privates, I found the concept vaguely appalling — condom-hatted soldiers (privates) swarming into people’s body parts (privates) to shoot at all the nasty invaders one can find there. However, the second I watched the trailer I was instantly converted to a fan. Privates was clearly designed by people who were paying attention in sex-ed class. The epithelium looks like epithelium! There are bacteria that I can recognize from what I’ve seen under my microscope and sperm that look like sperm. The whole thing is brilliantly designed and, although it’s only a game, the amount of thought and effort put into it fills me with awe. By funding the development of games like Privates, Channel 4 is showing some amazing innovation in their commitment to educational entertainment.
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
Some universities have more cachet than others. On the West Coast it’s Stanford that has the reputation as the best. Then there’s Oxford, Yale, and MIT. I would wager that in most people’s minds the creme de la creme is Harvard, where you find the best of the best. If Harvard is involved, a project gains an extra gobbet of credibility. Brigham and Women’s Hospital also has similar reputation in U.S. as one the hospitals associated with only Harvard and the New England Journalof Medicine (NEJM) — premier university, premier hospital, premier journal.
So if Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital are offering continuing medical education (CME) for acupuncture, there must be something to it, right? A course called “Structural Acupuncture for Physicians” must have some validity. Read more »
Although people are generally proud of their dental hygiene, undoubtedly many have had root canals that have been plugged using traditional fillings. The procedure is far from being everyone’s favorite pasttime, as only true masochists can enjoy having high speed drills working their teeth and hot glue guns filling them.
A team of French researchers has been working on a new approach that uses nanostructured and functionalized multilayered films to help regenerate teeth and fill in cavities with little pain but all the gain. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
Mark Hyman, a proponent of so-called “functional medicine” promoting himself over at the Huffington Post (an online news source that essentially allows dubious medical infomercials to pass as news) has posted a particularly egregious article on personalized medicine for dementia.
In the article Hyman distorts the modern practice of medicine, the current state of genetic science, and the very notion of “disease.” It is, as usual, a fine piece of medical propaganda sure to confuse many a reader. Hyman starts with some standard epidemiology of dementia –- it’s a common and growing disorder –- but then descends quickly into distortion and pseudoscience. Read more »
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Normally, the patient calls the pharmacy for a prescription. Now, the prescription is doing that by itself. GlowCaps, a prescription bottle cap made by Vitality, has assumed control for medication compliance.
Although people are generally proud of their dental hygiene, undoubtedly many have had root canals that have been plugged using traditional fillings. The procedure is far from being everyone’s favorite pasttime, as only true masochists can enjoy having high speed drills working their teeth and hot glue guns filling them.
