GlowCap: Courtesy of vitality

GlowCap Reminder Light. Courtesy of Vitality

GlowCaps use light and sound to signal when it is time to take medications, record when a pill bottle is opened, and wirelessly relay this information to compile adherence reports. These reports are emailed weekly to people using GlowCaps and their designated caregivers and doctors. If the bottle is not opened after a few hours, a call reminds the individual not to forget. GlowCaps also help with refills by connecting a patient to their pharmacy as pills deplete. The Internet connected GlowCap is now available for $99 on Amazon.com.

“GlowCaps’ keep caregivers in the loop,” said Vitality Chief Executive Officer David Rose. “Millions of Americans struggle to balance work, family and caring for our aging parents. GlowCaps are a simple tool to support a remote parent and keep them independent as long as possible. Proper medication adherence is perhaps the most critical piece of the remote care puzzle.”

According to AARP, 34 million Americans spend an average 21 hours a week helping elderly relatives.(1) When people cannot provide sufficient care for their loved ones, admission into assisted living programs is often the only solution. The World Health Organization claims 23% of nursing home admissions are caused by low adherence to prescription medications.(2) Nursing homes, which are often the only way to monitor and ensure medication adherence, costs on average $69,715 per year with a room-mate.(3)

Vitality’s products and services are designed especially for people challenged with managing chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and depression where maintaining high adherence to daily medications is critical for long-term health. The GlowCaps medication reminder solves this problem. Currently, Harvard Medical School, Duke Business School, and a number of major pharmaceutical companies are running their own randomized controlled trials to quantify the impact of GlowCaps on specific populations, conditions and therapies.

Source: Vitality press release

About Vitality
Vitality solves the billion-dollar adherence problem for pharmaceutical companies, retail pharmacies, and
healthcare providers. Vitality’s products and services motivate people to take their medications as
prescribed using social feedback, financial incentives, reminders, caregiver support, and automated
pharmacy refills. For more information visit: www.vitality.net

References:
1 Valuing the Invaluable: The Economic Value of Family Caregiving 2008 Update. AARP 2008.
2 Adherence to Long-Term Therapies: Evidence for Action. World Health Organization 2003.
3 MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home & Assisted Living Costs. MetLife 2008.
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Almost 20 million of the 62.5 million workers enrolled in employer-based insurance in 2008 had family plans, while about 11 million had employee-plus-one plans. The 31.5 million remaining workers had single-coverage plans.

AHRQ’s 2008 private-industry data also showed that:

    * Nationally, workers enrolled in family plans last year contributed an average of $3,394 toward the cost of their premiums, compared with $2,303 for an employee-plus-one policy, and $882 for a single-coverage plan.
    * Across all States, workers in Florida contributed the most for a family plan ($4,412) while Indiana workers contributed the least ($2,472); for employee-plus-one plans, New Hampshire workers contributed the most and Idaho workers the least ($3,005 and $1,736, respectively); and for single coverage, New Hampshire workers again contributed the most ($1,264) and workers in Hawaii the least ($451).
    * Employers paid the entire premiums for about 22 percent of workers with single-coverage plans, just 11 percent for workers with family plans, and 9 percent for those with employee-plus-one plans.

These data are taken from the Insurance Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a source of detailed information on employer-sponsored health insurance coverage and costs at the National, State, and metropolitan area levels.

For more information on the MEPS Statistical Brief #251, Employer-Sponsored Single, Employee-Plus-One, and Family Health Insurance: Selection and Cost, 2008, go to http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/Pub_ProdResults_Details.jsp?pt=Statistical%20Brief&opt=2&id=912. For MEPS summary data on employer-based health insurance, go to http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/quick_tables.jsp.

Source:  www.ahrq.gov

Dispose of Unused Meds Properly

Every year, the amount of medicines that are being produced and prescribed is increasing in volumes. In the U.S., the number of prescriptions rose to 3.7 billion in 2006 and the sales of over-the-counter medicines have increased by 60% since the 1990s.(1)(2) With these increases comes the concern of the fate and effects of these compounds in the environment. The disposal of unused medicine is a growing concern that involves a broad range of issues including human health, environmental health, water quality, solid waste management, law enforcement, and the healthcare industry. Both prescription and non-prescription medicines are of concern along with nutritional supplements, skincare products, and cosmetics. There are thousands of these products and all are specifically designed to interact with biological processes. They can enter the environment when people dispose of them in their trash or toilet. They can also enter the environment after excretion or even by rinsing off the skin.

Recent studies have identified a wide range of these pharmaceutical chemicals in rivers, streams and even ponds nationwide.(3) Studies have also shown that, even at low concentrations, some of these compounds are harmful to aquatic organisms, affecting reproduction and development.(4) A United States Geological Survey (USGS) study analyzed 139 streams in 30 states and found 82 different organic wastewater contaminants, including pharmaceuticals and pesticides. 80% of the streams they sampled had at least one organic wastewater contaminant, 75% of the streams tested had more than one contaminant, 50% had seven or more, and 24% had ten or more.

How Do Meds Enter Our Water?
Once they have been discarded or excreted, pharmaceutical chemicals enter surface waters and groundwater through several pathways:

• Effluent from plants that treat household, industrial, and hospital wastewater

• Septic systems

• Runoff and/or groundwater from uncontrolled landfills or landfill leachate sent to waste water treatment plants

• Controlled industrial discharges

• Commercial animal feeding operations and aquaculture

• Surface application of manure and biosolids

The long-term impact of medicine disposal on our health and the environment is not fully known at this time. However, with the increase in medicines each year, the quantities of these chemicals reaching our waterways will increase unless we take action.

What Can Be Done?
The issues surrounding medicine disposal are complex. Improper disposal of unwanted medicines can pose a risk to children and pets. For example, medicines placed in the trash without taking precautions to secure the container, make the medication unpalatable, or disguise the content, are often accessible to children and pets, sometimes resulting in unintentional poisonings. And medicines disposed with their original labels intact can result in identity theft and drug theft. This is an especially important issue for the elderly, who are the biggest consumers of prescribed medicines.

So How Do You Dispose of Unused Medicines?
In early 2007, both the American Pharmacists Association(5) and the Office of National Drug Control Policy(6) issued guidelines for medicine disposal, following on the heels of several states providing advice to their citizens. The two main components of both sets of national guidelines are:

1. Don’t flush medications down the toilet and instead,

2. Remove labeling from packaging and dissolve solid medications, mix with unpalatable items (kitty litter, coffee grounds, etc.) and seal in a bag before placing in the trash. Disposal to trash is considered by some organizations to be an interim solution because medicines placed in landfills may ultimately reach wastewater treatment plants and local streams and rivers. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant believes that currently, the best disposal solution is incineration of medications in a regulated incinerator. There is, however, a very long list of hurdles to overcome before a national disposal plan can be implemented that is protective of humans, pets and our environment. These hurdles include identifying safe and convenient medicine collection pathways and determining who will pay for this service.

Learn More With Resource Kit
A resource kit has been created to help communities design, establish and implement safe and proper collection programs. Included in the kit are several examples of pamphlets, fact sheets and education materials that have been developed by communities and states as they wrestle with this complicated issue. The recommendations and advice vary because jurisdictions are finding different ways to deal with the fact that only interim solutions are available currently. You can access the kit here: Unwanted Meds.

Watch A Video: One Way To Properly Dispose of Unused Medicines

The good news about this issue is that it touches upon so many different aspects of our lives that there is no end of partners to join with to educate and reach out to the public. This issue impacts the elderly through drug and identity theft issues, accidental poisoning, and health care costs. It matters to the police because prescription drug abuse by teenagers is on the rise. Concerns for the safety of children and pets also can drive behavioral change. And for all of us, our health depends on the health of our environment, including rivers and streams and the creatures that live in them.

Sources:
1. Ann Pistell, Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Presentation at Northeast Water Science Forum, August 9, 2007.

2. “IMS Intelligence.360: Global Pharmaceutical Perspectives 2006”, IMS Health Report, February 22, 2007. http://www.imshealth.com/ims/portal/front/articleC/0,2777,6599_40183881_81567488,00.html

3. Kolpin, Dana W., et al. “Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in U.S. Streams, 1999-2000: A National Reconnaissance.” Environ. Science and Technology.Vol. 36 no. 6 (2002): pp. 1202-1211.
4. For example, see Nash, Jon P., et al. “Long-Term Exposure to Environmental Concentrations of the Pharmaceutical Ethynylestradiol Causes Reproductive Failure in Fish.” Environmental Health Perspectives. 112.17 (2004): pp. 1725-1733.

5. These guidelines were issued in cooperation with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and can be found online at http://www.aphanet.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=News_Releases1&CONTENTID=7481&TEMPLATE=/C M/ContentDisplay.cfm
6. Office of National Drug Control Policy

Press Release from America’s Health Rankings: 2008

Despite record spending for prescription drugs and healthcare, America’s overall health has not improved for four consecutive years. These findings were in a report, released Dec. 3rd, 2008, entitled “America’s Health Rankings“, developed by a partnership between the United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association, and Partnership for Prevention.

U.S. Lags Behind Other Nations on Health Outcomes

The United States currently falls behind 27 other countries in terms of a healthy life expectancy with an average of 69 years, while Japan leads all countries with an average of 75 years. Some of these differences can be attributed to the inability of the United States to effectively treat disease. The United States has the worst mortality rate from treatable conditions when compared to 18 other industrialized countries. The U.S. has fallen four spots in the last five years.

Results from a UNICEF study found the United States is second to last among 21 developed nations for child well-being as the result of high infant mortality rates, a high percentage of low-birth-weight infants, and an average rate of immunizations. In addition, the United States is last in health care system performance when compared to Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Despite spending twice as much as these countries on a per-capita basis, the U.S. is last on dimensions of access, patient safety, efficiency, and equity.

“These statistics indicate that what we are doing as a nation is not working”, said Georges C. Benjamin, M.D., executive director of American Public Health Association. “We know improvement is possible because other nations have achieved far better health outcomes at less cost, indicating that we, too, can do the same. The solution is to build a foundation for health by creating a culture of wellness and prevention. It is no longer acceptable to simply focus on treatment and cures”.

Three Most Critical Challenges

According to the report, the three most critical challenges facing America are smoking, obesity, and being uninsured. Significant reductions in the prevalence of smoking have not occurred since the early 1990s and have virtually stalled in the last four years. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the adverse health effects from smoking account for an estimated one out of every five deaths each year in the United States.

The prevalence of obesity has more than doubled in the last 19 years. An alarming one in four Americans is currently considered obese putting them at increased risk for health issues such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer (endometrial, breast, colon, and gallbladder).

Nearly 46 million Americans are currently uninsured, leaving them without adequate medical care for chronic conditions or preventive treatment that would help reduce future illnesses.

Read the full report at America’s Health Rankings: 2008

CORINTH, TX – Each year Americans fill over 3.6 billion prescriptions. When you break that down, that’s an average of one prescription per month for every man, woman and child living in this country. Yet, there are still 50 million people who have no health care benefits of any kind.

“The health care crisis is a real tragedy, especially when it comes to medications.” said Dr. Devin Holland, co-founder of the NuLegacy Rx Card. “Americans are spending more than ever on prescriptions; a whopping $709 per person in 2003 – up over 1600% from 1970 when that same average was just $43.”

“Our NuLegacy program offers everyone the opportunity to save up to 75% on prescriptions at over 56,000 pharmacies across the country. The best part of all is that we give away this program absolutely free; no one ever pays a dime to access these savings.” Dr. Holland went on to say. The free Rx card is a prescription discount card.

Jayne Carnall, of Flower Mound, Texas said she can’t believe it’s free to everyone. “What an incredible program. I just printed my card off the website and took it to the pharmacy. I saved $45.25 on one prescription.” Most NuLegacy cardholders experience an average savings of 20% – 50% depending on the type of drug. Generic drugs typically have larger savings than brand.

With U.S. prescription drug spending projected to increase from $200.7 billion in 2005 to $497.5 billion by 2016 – an increase of 148% in just 11 short years – it appears that things are only going to get worse for consumers. The NuLegacy drug discount card also offers significant savings on lab and imaging tests as well as diabetic testing supplies.

To learn more about the NuLegacy Rx Card program you can visit the website for NuLegacy Rx Card for more details.