--- title: "AUTOMATIC MEDICATION MANAGEMENT AND PASSIVE REMOTE MONITORING TO ENABLE INDEPENDENT LIVING OF HEALTH" url: "https://maker.wiznet.io/mayuri/projects/automatic-medication-management-and-passive-remote-monitoring-to-enable-independent-living-of-health/" markdown_url: "https://maker.wiznet.io/mayuri/projects/automatic-medication-management-and-passive-remote-monitoring-to-enable-independent-living-of-health/md" type: "UCC: User Created Content" author: "Corey McCall" author_url: "https://www.cs.ucf.edu/~czou/research/McCall_HIM_Thesis.pdf" editor: "WIZnet" editor_url: "https://maker.wiznet.io/" original_author: "Corey McCall" original_url: "https://www.cs.ucf.edu/~czou/research/McCall_HIM_Thesis.pdf" published: "2022-10-12" language: "en" hardware: ["WIZnet WIZ811MJ"] likes: 5 views: 1403 comments: 0 source: "WIZnet Makers (https://maker.wiznet.io/)" --- # AUTOMATIC MEDICATION MANAGEMENT AND PASSIVE REMOTE MONITORING TO ENABLE INDEPENDENT LIVING OF HEALTH > A large percentage of healthcare patients fail to comply with their prescribed medication schedules. Original author: Corey McCall (source: https://www.cs.ucf.edu/~czou/research/McCall_HIM_Thesis.pdf) ## Components - **WIZnet WIZ811MJ** x 1 ([docs](https://docs.wiznet.io/Product/ioModule/wiz811mj)) ## Article INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND A large percentage of healthcare patients fail to comply with their prescribed medication schedules. This can result in hospital and nursing home admissions, serious injury, or death. It is difficult for some patients to adhere to a complex medication regimen, because it may be too complex, or the patient may be forgetful. The research presented in this thesis attempts to solve this important issue by developing an intelligent medication monitoring and notification system that can enable patients to follow prescribed medication schedules with minimal effort. This should enhance the lives of patients, and enable independent living. 1.1 Background and Motivation The research presented is done in response to two general problems in the healthcare system. The first is the inability of patients and healthcare providers to perfectly match medicine type, amount, and schedule with a patient’s requirement. Because of this, many patients are not taking their medicines as directed, leading to unnecessary disease progression, complications, lower quality of life, and mortality [3]. The second is the impending stress on the healthcare system. This stress is described in [4], by emphasizing that the growing ratio of patients to workers caused by the baby boomer population mushroom will likely cause the current healthcare system to fail within the next ten years. 1.2 Thesis Objective This thesis aims to provide a solution to the previous mentioned problems by developing a revised system based on previous research described in [1] and [2]. The revised system implements automatic medication management and passive remote monitoring to manage complex medication schedules for outpatients. This should prolong independent living, eliminate medication noncompliance, and reduce the burden on the healthcare system. 1.3 Thesis Roadmap This thesis proceeds as follows. Chapter 2 contains a literature review of relevant previous work. Chapter 3 describes the approach that is the basis of the research presented. Chapter 4 describes the design and construction of the prototype hardware and 5 the associated costs 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter contains a literature review of relevant previous work. The first section, Inhome Healthcare, describes the growing need for in-home healthcare. Section two, RFID in healthcare, describes the current state of RFID technology in the healthcare system. Section 3, In-home Medication Administration Devices, describes the current state of home-based medication devices. The final section is a summary that focuses on the gaps in previous work. 2.1 In-home Healthcare The growing need for in-home healthcare is best described in [4]. This article describes the need to scale the healthcare system by developing technology that will promote “aging in place,” the concept of allowing elderly healthcare patients to live at home during treatment. Providing healthcare to baby boomers is a “time bomb” that could cripple the healthcare industry in the near future. This is because it will be impossible to treat the high ratio of patients to workers using the current infrastructure-based healthcare paradigm. The article also describes the benefits of implementing more in-home technologies today. These include a reduction in cost compared to hospital-based healthcare and a reduction in the burden to caregivers. 2.2 RFID in Healthcare RFID is a technology that allows objects to be “tagged” with a small microchip that can be wirelessly identified by an associated reading device. The tags are small, inexpensive, and do not require a power source. When the reader is activated within a close proximity of the tag, the tag’s antenna harvests enough energy from reader’s transmission to respond with a signal indicating its unique identifier (UID). Some more advanced RFID tags can also store a small amount of data that can be accessed in the same way ![](https://maker.wiznet.io/upload/ckeditor5/704233387%5F1665582570%2Epng) 2.4 Summary The papers in this chapter describe the growing need for in-home healthcare devices, and the current application of RFID and remote monitoring technology in the healthcare industry. They also show that, considering the similar research that has been done, the research presented contributes valuable new knowledge to the field. 3: PROBLEM AND APPROACH This chapter describes the approach that is the basis of the research presented. The first section, Research Problem, describes the research problem, and the goal and contributions of this thesis. Section 2, Approach, is a description of how a prototype is implemented to solve the problem. The final section, Summary, is a summary of the problem and solution presented. 3.1 Research Problem This section describes the research problem, and the goal and contributions of this thesis. 3.1.1 Problem Description The research presented is done in response to two general problems in the current healthcare system. The first is the inability of patients and healthcare providers to perfectly match medicine type, amount, and schedule with a patient’s requirement. This problem is described in [9], [10], and [11], in which RFID technology is proposed as a solution to match patients with medicine in a hospital environment. RFID is the ideal technology for identifying patients and medicines, because RFID tags are inexpensive and can be read wirelessly by devices that interface directly with the HIS. This allows healthcare providers to receive accurate confirmation of medicine type and dosage before administering it to the patient. 3.1.2 Objective This thesis aims to provide a solution to the previous mentioned problems by developing a revised system based on previous research described in [1] and [2]. The revised system implements automatic medication management and passive remote monitoring to manage 17 complex medication schedules for outpatients. This should prolong independent living, eliminate medication noncompliance, and reduce the burden on the healthcare system. 3.1.3 Contributions The following contributions describe the goals of this research. • A system is developed that allows healthcare patients to comply with complex medication regimens without the active assistance of a caregiver. • The prototype device that is built to implement the system is designed in such a way that it is marketable to anyone who takes medicine on a regular predefined schedule. • All hardware and software design components associated with the device, including source code, are published so that the device can be reproduced and further development can be done. 3.2 Approach This section describes the solution system in terms of its concept and requirements. The implementation of the prototype is discussed in Chapters 4 and 5. 3.2.1 Concept In order to solve the previously mentioned problems, a solution system was developed. The system consists of a device that is meant to replace a patient’s medicine cabinet. The enhanced storage device is capable of administering medications in a way similar to a live caregiver, and is capable of contacting an actual caregiver if noncompliance is detected. It also allows the patient to add, remove, and access medications using only the assistance of the device. The system should effectively allow healthcare patients. 3.2.2 Requirements The following general requirements have been developed for the solution system in order to satisfy the thesis objectives. 3.2.2.1 Intuitive User Interface The device shall feature an intuitive user interface that behaves in a way that is similar to the way the patient normally manages medications. This is important because behavioral change requirements hinder adoption, and elderly people do not generally adapt well to high-tech devices. This is an issue with the device presented in [12], since it requires the user to change their behavior from using a medicine cabinet, to interfacing with a hightech “black box.” 4: PROTOTYPE HARDWARE This chapter describes the design and construction of the prototype hardware, and the associated costs. The first section, Concept, describes the overall concept of the prototype. Sections 2 and 3 describe the prototype in terms of system architecture and hardware. Section 4, Costs, is an analysis of development costs. Section 5, Assumptions, is a declaration of all assumptions made. The final section is a summary of the prototype hardware. Detailed hardware designs and a complete budget table are listed in appendices A and B respectively. 4.1 Concept A complete prototype has been developed (Figure 4.1) according to the approach described in Chapter 3. The prototype is a fully functioning device that a patient can use to easily manage their medications and prescription schedules. ![](https://maker.wiznet.io/upload/ckeditor5/704233387%5F1665582670%2Epng) ![](https://maker.wiznet.io/upload/ckeditor5/704233387%5F1665582696%2Epng) ![](https://maker.wiznet.io/upload/ckeditor5/704233387%5F1665582715%2Epng) Network Interface Unit The network interface unit receives text message information from the microcontroller and transmits it, through the Internet, to the patient or a remote caregiver. It also receives time information from an Internet time server in order to keep its clock synchronized. The prototype uses an NKC Electronics Ethernet shield (Figure 4.14), which easily interfaces the Arduino with a Wiznet WIZ812MJ Ethernet module over a serial peripheral interface (SPI) connection. This board was chosen because it is the only 36 compatible Ethernet interface available for the Arduino Mega. It is connected to the Internet through an active Ethernet line. It is connected to the microcontroller’s regulated power and SPI ports over 6 wires: Voltage, Ground, SPI SCLK, SPI MOSI, SPI MISO, and SPI SS. The board’s hardware schematic is given in [16]. ![](https://maker.wiznet.io/upload/ckeditor5/704233387%5F1665582755%2Epng) Conclusion The system that resulted from this research was designed according to previous work and research done on in-home healthcare, RFID in healthcare, and in-home medication administration devices. The novel features of the system, such as the hardware interface designed for the scale, the section divider mechanism used to position medicine containers, and the software protocols used to interface the system with the pharmacy 89 provide a significant contribution to the research that has already been done in this area. The availability of the published prototype hardware and software components will also valuable to researchers if a similar or subsequent system is developed --- Source: https://maker.wiznet.io/mayuri/projects/automatic-medication-management-and-passive-remote-monitoring-to-enable-independent-living-of-health/