The internet of things
GlowCap© – pill bottles that know when you're supposed to take your medication – are on sale in the US. Fail to take a pill and they'll glow, then beep, ...
Now, Even Granny's Fuzzy Slippers Are Texting You
"Already on the market: A $10 pill bottle that glows, beeps, phones and texts if you are in danger of missing a dose. The so-called GlowCap©, from Vitality Inc., a start-up based in Cambridge, Mass., can also tattle, keeping records that can be sent to doctors or family members."
Experts seek to change confusing medication labels
"Even the unlikeliest people need an assist now and then. Kvedar uses a GlowCap© to remind him to take his cholesterol lowering drug every night."
Vitality Acquired By Healthcare Investor Soon-Shiong, Looks to Expand Wireless Products for Improving Healthy Behaviors
"The acquisition enables Vitality to use this component to connect with other devices focused on encouraging healthy behaviors, in areas from sleep to diet and exercise."
Electronics can help seniors be safer and healthier
"Thanks to new technology, older people can protect themselves without curtailing autonomy or privacy."
Group tries to simplify drug labels to help people get the proper doses
"With medication adherence, what we've found is that the power of simple reminders is enormous."
GlowCap© maker Vitality bought by Soon-Shiong
"The company's acquisition will help it expand to other health-promoting wireless products."
Part Two: Best of Boston Startups
"Let's not change the packaging or the work flow for the pharmacy. Let’s just embed the technology."
LA's richest man buys Cambridge start-up that sells intelligent pill packaging
"Our roadmap is to create more things that help people make better decisions every day."
Intelligent Devices That Care
"Talk about devotion in a bottle cap."
Intelligent Devices That Care
"Our country needs a health care system designed to keep people healthy rather than waiting for them to get sick."
Mobile health IPOs, acquisitions, and investments
"Thanks to a consumer focus (no FDA clearance required), a grade A efficacy report from Partners (98 percent adherence!), and the backing of one of the largest telecom companies around (AT&T), Vitality’s GlowCap© is likely to drive it to early acquisition."
Internet-Connected Pill Cap Makers Bought by Pharma Billionaire
"When patients take their medication regularly, related health care costs are reduced."
A Pharma Billionaire Buys Into Patient Adherence
"Tests show its product boosted adherence rates by 27 percent, which helps explain Soon-Shiong’s interest."
Wireless pill cap makers Vitality bought by pharma billionaire
"The company’s plans for the future involve building relationships with healthcare insurance providers as well as pharmaceutical companies, both of whom could be interested in providing the product free to patients."
Soon-Shiong Acquires Wireless Health Firm
"Many people do not take their medications as prescribed which leads to unnecessary sickness and costly hospitalizations. GlowCap© addresses this problem brilliantly by making the medication packaging smart."
Use tech to monitor aging parents
"Your elderly parents value their independence, but you worry about their health and safety...thanks to new technology, you can have peace of mind."
AT&T Added Nearly 2 Million Non-Phone Wireless Device Connections In Q4 2010
"Business users and consumers can use AT&T wireless connection plans for more than 940 specialty devices including Vitality’s GlowCap©."
AT&T adds 2M connected devices to network in Q4
"Vitality is selling the pill caps directly to consumers over Amazon, but it’s end goal is to distribute them through pharmacies and drug companies, who would subsidize the cost of the product."
Inspectress Gadget: Valley of the Dolls- AT&T and Vitality Launch Intelligent Pill Caps
"Vitality, Inc. and AT&T have an awesome solution for the millions who fail to regularly take their meds, a bad habit that can lead to ineffective medications, jeopardized health and increased costs."
Vitality GlowCap© review
"During the time we used it, there was not a single day when we were able to forget about the existence of pills that we were obligated to take, and we haven't been able to say the same since."
Vitality GlowCap© smart pill bottle toppers now available on Amazon
"As soon as you open the bottle, adherence data is then sent via AT&T to Vitality, who then passes that data on to you, your doctor, and any other approved party."
CES: AT&T offers Internet connection for your pill bottle
"The technology, dubbed Vitality GlowCap©, makes everyday pill bottles 'smart'."
AT&T's prescription for pill takers
"These are instructive findings for pharmaceutical manufacturers and payers who have a vested interest in improving patient outcomes with their products and services."
AT&T Service for Your Pill Bottle
"They can call the user’s phone as a reminder and automatically order refills from the pharmacy."
AT&T, Vitality Offer Wireless Pill Caps On Amazon
"We look forward to delivering to consumers a reliable means to establish and maintain a prescription routine."
AT&T-enabled smart pill bottles now available
"A reliable means to establish and maintain a prescription routine. This solution is simple, easy to use, and long overdue."
Vitality and AT&T make smart Rx caps available on Amazon
"These are instructive findings for pharmaceutical manufacturers and payers who have a vested interest in improving patient outcomes with their products and services."
The 4 "-e’s" of eHealth: connectivity, conformity, usability, security
"These products are well-designed and consumer-friendly and make
a real impact on medication adherence."
Pill Pusher
"A smart plastic cap helps patients take medication when they are supposed to."
Flashing lights? It's now time to take your pills
"We call it the OnStar for your pill bottles."
Compliance packaging that works in real life
"So after a few weeks can I say Vitality GlowCap© solved our particular compliance problem of over-dosing? Absolutely! While the system may not have been designed to do so, I'm pleased to say with confidence that we no longer worry about the medication mix-up."
Message from a Bottle
"It's like flipping a coin with your health. Despite the fact that their medications could save or extend their lives, the average patient fails to follow their pill prescription half the time."
Study: GlowCaps up adherence to 98 percent
"Vitality’s GlowCap© service raised medication adherence rates 27 percent for a group of hypertensive patients."
Mobile Health 20/20: Verizon, Google, GlowCap©
"On all fronts: Tech, business and efficacy, Vitality has been busy these past 12 months."
Forget to Take Your Pills? Don't Worry, They'll Call You
"The whole system works as simple as plugging in a nightlight and uses AT&T's cellular network to handle all the data—no home internet connection required. Behold the GlowCap©."
Nanatech': Seniors Stay Independent With Tech Gadgets
"GlowCaps are special caps for your pill bottles that remind you to take your medicine on time--first by lighting up or glowing, then by calling your home phone, and if you still don't remember, finally calling a caregiver."
A text message from your pill bottle?
"With today's busy lifestyle, taking prescription medications is one of those things that always aggravates me. Take this one twice daily, take that one three times daily and take the other every other day, or when there's a full moon. Who has time for that? Enter GlowCap©."
The MX Q&A: David Rose, Vitality
"The CEO of Vitality Inc., a five-year-old company based in Cambridge, MA, Rose name-checks Frodo to describe the “magical” capabilities of the firm’s new medical device. Called GlowCap©, the healthcare product is a wireless-enabled cap for standard prescription bottles that glows like Frodo’s sword to remind patients it’s time to take their medication."
Wireless Network Used To Help Patients Take Their Medicine - And More
"A company called Vitality has designed a high-tech "medicine minder" that helps patients remember it's time to take medications. It uses AT&T wireless technology to keep patients on track."
Forget your medicine? Wi-Fi bottle cap that glows won’t let you
"When people fail to take their medicine in a timely fashion, the result is an additional $100 billion in health-care costs each year."
Among Atlanta AT&T gadgets, medical message in a bottle
"Patients are going to head home from the pharmacy with a free, flashing, noisy tattletale of a pill bottle. Insurers, drug makers and pharmacies will pay for the bottle, on the grounds that it will keep people healthier and sell more pills."
Among Atlanta AT&T gadgets, medical message in a bottle
"As health care providers, we must find strategies that help patients become more adherent to their medications and care plans," said Alice Watson, MD, MPH, corporate manager of research and program evaluation at the Center for Connected Health, in a prepared statement. "We are extremely encouraged by these interim results." The center has no financial stake in Vitality."
Among Atlanta AT&T gadgets, medical message in a bottle
"A company that markets a pill cap with a built-in cellular connection puts a social twist on getting patients to take their meds."
Among Atlanta AT&T gadgets, medical message in a bottle
"The fact that a pill bottle cap - the most mundane everyday object imaginable - can transmit data makes you realize how ubiquitous wireless technology will be in our near future."
Among Atlanta AT&T gadgets, medical message in a bottle
"The company claims that it is 86 percent effective at getting people to remember to take their doses, a figure that is "astounding" in the field of persuasive tech, according to Fogg."
It's Your Lipitor on Line 2
"I would think some health agency might want to get involved—sticking to a prescription’s schedule can also drive down health care costs."
Beep! It's Your Medicine Nagging You
"Express Scripts Inc., the big St. Louis pharmacy-benefit manager, is about to test an electronic pill container that issues a series of increasingly insistent reminders, in a national study among patient members."
“A small percentage of people take too many pills. By far the biggest problem is taking too few, or none at all.”
“David Rose's...company, Cambridge-based Vitality Inc., is the maker of GlowCaps, a telemedicine solution that reminds patients to take their pills via a “smart” pill cap and reports back to doctors and loved ones. The value proposition targets both insurance and pharmaceutical companies: For pharmas, better adherence to medication regimes boosts the bottom line.”
Peer Pressure and Other Pitches
"Vitality Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., start-up, wants to apply behavioral economics to prompt people to take prescriptions."
Qualcomm, AT&T Move in on 'M-Health'
"Using AT&T's wireless network, the GlowCap© service can also send a weekly update on the patient's pill-taking practices to a family member or a doctor."
"Some people feel guilty when evading their doctor’s recommendations; others need a logical reason to follow an instruction. Cambridge, MA-based Vitality tries to factor in these differences in motivations and psychological makeup to spur patients toward a common goal: to make sure they take their medications as prescribed."
AT&T to provide wireless service for Vitality GlowCap©
"AT&T ...has just now announced that it will also be providing service to two other fairly unique products. One of those is Vitality's GlowCaps pill bottle caps, which are able to call or text you if you forgot to take your pills, and keep track of each time the bottle is opened and ensure that prescriptions are refilled before the bottle's empty."
“By one estimate, the US economy loses $100 billion annually because of patients who don't take prescribed drugs.”
Useful and Unique Medical Gadgets
Watch Greg Harper, president of HarperVision, present Vitality GlowCap© on ABC News.
Medicine Bottles Get Net Connection
"An Internet-connected pill bottle cap sounds a bit over the top, but its creator says the device can generate real health improvements, cost savings, and even revenue for insurance and pharmaceutical companies."
“There is a new product called GlowCap©, which tackles the problem of aging relatives who occasionally forget to take their medications.”
“The bottle will glow and ring aloud when it’s time to take a pill. And it will report slackers: A pill-skipper can expect at least one robotic telephone call per missed dose.
Insurers, drug makers and pharmacies will pay for the bottle, on the grounds that it will keep people healthier and sell more pills.
And benefiting quietly in the background will be Atlanta-based AT&T Mobility, whose wireless system supports the bottle's smarts.”
"A Cambridge, Mass.-based startup called Vitality Inc. was set to announce the pill-bottle system Thursday, saying it helps solve one of the biggest problems in medicine: that people don't consistently take the drugs they're prescribed."
Electronic Medicine Reminder
"Vitality GlowCap© use technology to not only remind patients that it's time to take their meds, but also inform family members, caregivers, doctors and pharmacists that a prescription regimen is being followed and even when it's time for a refill."
“Vitality, his new venture, aims to bring that design philosophy to the world of healthcare.”
"GlowCap©, a new Internet-connected pill cap from startup Vitality, will help you remember when to take your medicine."
Vitality GlowCap© hands-on at CTIA
"We just got a quick look at one of those Vitality GlowCap© bottles. It's about as dead simple as it looks: the LED at the top of the cap glows... and with the right amount of adult supervision you can push down and twist off the cap."
Go with the Glow
"It sounds simple enough. Your doctor gives you a prescription to take one pill a day. But by day four, you realize you've forgotten one of those daily doses. So do you take two pills? Call the doctor? Wish you’d used the Vitality GlowCap© system?"
Vitality, Connecting Pill Bottles to the Internet, Nudges People to Remember Their Meds
"If you’re the kind of person who needs a little help remembering to take your prescription meds, Cambridge, MA-based Vitality might have just the technology you need."
Smart packaging can improve habits and transform healthcare
"Successful programs for smoking cessation, exercise, and dieting teach us that social feedback loops are key to effective behavioral change. The best programs combine social dynamics with immediate personalized feedback. They educate, they nurture and they admonish. They coach. We can channel these lessons of behavioral change to improve medication adherence. Smart medication packaging can be the catalyst."
"How light, sound, and an Internet-connected pill-bottle cap reminds patients to take their prescriptions and alerts caregivers when they forget. "
“Anybody who has an older parent, relative or loved one will consider this new product a breakthrough.”
Cambridge company makes a "smart" bottle cap
WBZ New England Business Editor Anthony Silva talks with David Rose, founder and CEO of Vitality, Inc.
Vitality GlowCaps - Prescription Adherence Device
"It’s estimated that half a million people take at least one pill a day, and adherence is a common issue. Busy parents, business travelers, seniors living alone, and kids — we all forget at some time or another. GlowCaps can help you remember."
"This is a need to have product for anybody challenged to take a daily medication, vitamin, or pill"
David Rose speaks at the Lift conference on what persistent human needs can teach us about what to invent and become inspiration for what to invent.
“Finally there's a pill cap that illuminates and plays music, reminding patients to take their medication.”
“However, they haven’t made a miracle memory drug just yet, so that’s where GlowCap© comes in.”
“Vitality is looking to give those one-off prescriptions a bit of added intelligence to make sure they get taken on time.”
David Rose talks about GlowCap© at CTIA Wireless 2009
"Vitality, Inc. provides retail pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and health system administrators with a new approach to improving medication adherence."
GlowCap© on Good Morning America
Vitality GlowCap© Adherence Study 30% Finds Increase in Adherence:
Vitality GlowCap© Adherence Report:
Click to watch Vitality on digits:
Click to watch Vitality GlowCap© on the Colbert Report:
Click to watch Vitality GlowCap© on the Today Show:
Watch Vitality President Josh Wachman present at Ignite Boston 6
GlowCap© featured on the Daily Grommet
GlowCap© at CeBIT
