Improving medication adherence with tech innovation

School of Pharmacy project pairs medication taking with new technologies to empower older adults to age in place. By Milana Madzarac School of Pharmacy - Medication non-adherence is a concern globally, and often occurs unknowingly or by mistake. Dr. Tejal Patel, clinical associate professor at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy, is trying to improve medication management and assist older adults when taking their medication at home by correctly matching them with new innovative technologies. Dr. Patel has received funding for her project from the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Canadian Institute for Health Research-Institute of Aging (CIHR-IA) totaling more than half a million dollars. Dr. Patel's project is entitled Match making: Empowering older adults to age in place through matching automated medication adherence technology to ability. It focuses on how the cognitive, visual, auditory, physical, motivational and environmental barriers that older adults face impacts the use of medication adherence technology to assist with medicine taking. Her study also aims to enable health-care professionals to recommend the correct products for each patient and for clinicians to monitor medication taking at home.  "My goal is to improve medication taking capabilities for patients at home by matching their abilities to appropriate medication technologies," Dr. Patel says.