Methods and systems for medication monitoring

Inventors

Jenkins, Barry L.

Assignees

Continuous Precision Medicine

Abstract

A method of determining whether a patient has taken a dose of medication. The method includes including a first-pass tracer substance with at least one dose of the medication. The first-pass tracer substance is detectable in a body of the patient using a sensor. In addition, the first-pass tracer substance has a short half-life at the site of detection in the body. Further, processing circuitry determines that the patient has taken the dose of medication when the first-pass tracer substance is detected using the sensor at a time after a scheduled medication administration.

Core Innovation

The invention relates to systems and methods for medication monitoring and dosing management that determine whether a patient has taken a dose of medication. A first-pass tracer substance is included with at least one dose of the medication, where the first-pass tracer substance is detectable in a body of the patient using a sensor and has a short half-life at the site of detection in the body. Processing circuitry determines that the patient has taken the dose when the first-pass tracer substance is detected using the sensor at a time after a scheduled medication administration.

The method increases confidence in dose-taking determination by correlating sensor detection with visual evidence. The processing circuitry records at least one image of the patient taking the dose of the medication at the scheduled medication administration, and an increased probability that the patient has taken the dose is determined when the first-pass tracer substance is detected by the sensor and the detection correlates with the at least one image.

Additional embodiments expand the determination by using multiple tracer strategies and multi-sensor detection. A second first-pass tracer substance can be included with at least one second dose of the medication, a unique indicator of the dose is recorded, sensor detection results are matched to the unique indicator, and a negative result is output when the detection result and the unique indicator do not match. Further embodiments include a long half-life tracer substance detectable using a second sensor, detecting both short and long half-life tracers at a plurality of times, and determining an increased probability of adherence when the number of short-half-life detections corresponds to the number of scheduled doses during a detection period while the long half-life tracer is detected at least a predetermined number of times.

Claims Coverage

The partial content includes three independent claims. Across the independent claims, inventive features center on short half-life tracer substances at a detection site, sensor detection at times after scheduled administration, and probability-of-adherence determination with additional correlation or matching logic.

Across the independent claims, inventive coverage focuses on determining dose-taking and adherence using tracer substances detectable by sensors at times tied to scheduled administration. Confidence is increased either by correlating tracer detection with recorded images, by recording and matching a unique indicator for multiple tracer-containing doses with negative-result mismatch output, or by combining plurality-time detection of a short half-life tracer with plurality-time detection of a long half-life tracer across first and second sensors to evaluate adherence probability based on detection counts.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications