Just click it for home care
The elderly are more prone to various chronic and recurrent illnesses, requiring special care and multiple drug treatment. Many of them do not follow physician recommendations on their prescription and take incorrect doses or at the wrong time, change the frequency of doses or stop the treatment too soon. Such poor medication compliance is a public health concern as it can lead to adverse outcomes and increase disability and death.
Remotely programmed buttons alert for treatment schedules
The mission of the EU-funded Klikkit project was to improve compliance of the elderly with their care plans while living independently at their homes. “We developed a digital IoT health platform that can monitor and manage treatment behaviour remotely, reducing the workload of carers while maintaining high standards of care,” explains Cristiano Cairo, project coordinator and CEO of Klikkit. The Klikkit platform comprises a screen and discrete smart buttons, which can be attached to any element of treatment, from medication boxes and bottles to rehabilitation devices, water and nutrients. These trackers are programmed remotely to remind the elderly of their treatment schedule. Their hardware has been designed with tactility and alarm levels more suitable for the elderly. When the time is due, the screen first and the smart button after will start a nudging sequence, helping patients identify and locate what treatment they need to follow at that specific time. Once the patient completes and documents the task by pressing the button, the compliance information is visualised on the Klikkit dashboard, providing a complete overview in real time. This offers healthcare professionals the opportunity for timely support and intervention. One of the key advantages of the Klikkit solution is that it is easy to use and doesn’t require any technical abilities or logging in from the patient. The same applies for the dashboard for carers, which uses a simple user interface to display an overview of all treatment plans, completed and uncompleted tasks, tasks completed at the wrong time or other deviations from the schedule.
Klikkit delivers improved treatment compliance and patient management
The solution was tested in a large-scale pilot study in Portugal that showed a 38 % increase in treatment compliance for elderly and frail patients. Results also showed a 60 % reduction and optimisation of patient visits concomitant with fewer treatment errors and need for additional care. Healthcare professionals also benefit from the Klikkit solution as they can monitor their patients more efficiently with fewer home visits. Care organisations can counsel patients based on individual adherence to treatment schedules but also from combined data from different patients. Non-compliance to treatment plans has important economic consequences both due to medication waste and undesirable clinical outcomes associated with urgent care visits and hospitalisations. Therefore, implementation of the Klikkit solution will help reduce healthcare costs associated with non-adherence to treatment. Moreover, the project has already collected many senior citizens’ compliance data, which may be used to aid strategies and organisations that focus on longevity and healthy living. One example is the CHRODIS action that aims to help EU countries exchange good practices in tackling elderly care with a particular focus on long-term therapies for chronic conditions.
Keywords
Klikkit, elderly, medication, treatment schedule, treatment compliance, IoT, remote monitoring, patient management