Pill Bottle Monitors Doses Tiny Computer In Cap Beeps When It’s Time To Take Your Medicine

A tiny computer embedded in the caps of drug bottles is designed to solve one of medicine’s most vexing problems - patients who don’t take their prescription medication.

The SmartCap, made by Aprex Corp. in California’s Silicon Valley, beeps when it’s time for a person to take his or her pills and counts how many times the cap is removed each day and when. The information is shown by a digital readout on the cap.

The system also includes a computer modem attached to a telephone that would allow the company to keep tabs on when a patient takes the drugs. If a dose is missed, Aprex will call the next day with a reminder.

The system known as Dosing Partners is being unveiled today and will be marketed to insurers and health care plans as a way to cut costs and make patients healthier.

“We’re not big brother. We’ll only take volunteers. And we’re not their mother, we’re not going to nag. What we’re going to do is empower people to be successful with their medication taking,” Janice Wohltmann, Aprex chairwoman and chief executive, said Wednesday.

Pharmaceutical experts were mixed on the idea, balking at its $75 a month average cost and noting that other less sophisticated dosing reminders have failed. Still, they said it had potential.

Numerous medical studies have shown patients’ failure to take drugs costs the health care system tens of billions of dollars a year, resulting in unnecessary medical tests, surgeries and deaths.

“The leading cause of kidney transplant rejection in the United States is that patients don’t take their immunosuppressant properly,” Wohltmann said.

“A kidney that’s rejected can cost almost a quarter of a million dollars.”

The reasons for not taking drugs vary: forgetfulness, disease denial, side effects or cost. Aprex is targeting patients who need to take drugs for long periods, often several times a day.