MedMinify: An Advice-giving System for Simplifying the Schedules of Daily Home Medication Regimens Used to Treat Chronic Conditions

AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2014 Nov 14:2014:1728-37. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

For those with high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol, adherence to a home medication regimen is important for health. Reductions in the number of daily medication-taking events or daily pill burden improve adherence. A novel advice-giving computer application was developed using the SMART platform to generate advice on how to potentially simplify home medication regimens. MedMinify generated advice for 41.3% of 1,500 home medication regimens for adults age 60 years and older with chronic medical conditions. If the advice given by MedMinify were implemented, 320 regimen changes would have reduced daily medication-taking events while an additional 295 changes would have decreased the daily pill burden. The application identified four serious drug-drug interactions and so advised against taking two pairs of medications simultaneously. MedMinify can give advice to change home medication regimens that could result in simpler home medication-taking schedules.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Chronic Disease / drug therapy*
  • Home Nursing
  • Humans
  • Medication Adherence*
  • Middle Aged
  • Reminder Systems*
  • Self Administration
  • Software*