Elderly Medication Adherence Monitoring with the Internet of Things

With the growth in elderly population in Singapore, healthcare expenditure and prevalence of age-related illnesses are expected to increase. Non-adherence among the elderly is a common issue that leads to adverse health complications, particularly among those with chronic conditions. However, existing studies typically focus on identifying predictors of medication adherence, and provide neither user-friendly nor actionable solutions that can be easily adopted by the elderly. In this paper, we use the Internet of Things to monitor medication adherence and detect changes in medication consumption patterns among the elderly, thus enabling timely interventions by caregivers to take place. Sensor-enabled medication boxes are deployed in the residences of ten elderly participants for more than four months, since Jul 2015. Preliminary results indicate that our solution can effectively monitor medication intake patterns, and identify elderly who are non medication-adhering.