Many medications lose efficacy if stored outside their optimal temperature range, but in rural settings it can be difficult to maintain a steady cooling level. A new solar-powered refrigeration device called CoolComply is working to solve this problem by creating a more stable means of home medication storage, and improving patient adherence along the way.
Developed in partnership by the Massachusetts General Hospital, Innovations in International Health at MIT, and the Global Health Committee, CoolComply uses wireless technology to relay readings to local healthcare workers so they can remotely monitor patients being treated for Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
MobileActive.org spoke with Stephan Boyer (a student of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT), Anna Young (the R&D Officer for International Laboratories of Innovations in International Health at MIT), and Aya Caldwell (Program Manager at CIMIT’s Global Health Initiative) about their work developing CoolComply.
Caldwell explains how MIT partnered with Global Health Committee (GHC) after the GHC approached the group in the fall of 2009. GHC wanted to ensure that MDR-TB medication was kept cool and improve patient adherence. The GHC is a non-profit organization that started in Cambodia to work with TB and AIDS patients. The organization recently rolled out a new program in Ethiopia for which it approached MIT.
Young says, “With CoolComply, the goal is 'How do you monitor adherence?' One way to do that is to turn the device into a phone and allow it to transmit the data passively every time the patients are activating and opening it.”
The first pilot of the CoolComply device will launch in Ethiopia this August, with a three month deployment. Three randomly selected patients undergoing treatment for Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis will rec
eive a CoolComply device. MDR treatment requires medication to be kept cool, and is an 18 to 24 month treatment process.
The device will send SMS alerts to health care workers with information about whether the device hasn’t been opened recently (implying patients are not adhering to drug schedules) or if the temperature of the cooling canisters changes. Delivering effective health care in developing countries is challenging. There are not enough health care providers and the few are underpaid, if paid at all, and over-worked. Boyer, Caldwell and Young say CoolComply can help manage work flow of those health care providers by showing which patients are adhering to medications and which need more attention.
The group focused on building a device that is powered by solar energy so that CoolComply can function off the grid; Boyer says that one of the biggest challenges the group faced was making the device work within a limited energy budget. The solar panel the group tested puts out ten Watts of power, so the group worked to develop batteries that could store and transmit data with limited power. Boyer explains that the current prototype (which is still under development) uses, “a micro-controller board and a cell phone module on top of it. The data will be going to a central server where the health care workers can view statistics about all the information coming in from all the devices. [...] At the end of the day the doctors will get a summary method that details all the events and the temperature of the device during the day.”
Young says that the group is very excited for the project to deploy this summer as it will give them a chance to adapt the device based on the feedback of the patients and health care workers. Caldwell adds that local support and interest is critical to the project saying, “Part of our approach is making sure that we don't just build the device at MIT and drop it down, we're very much into the notion of doing an iterative process with the end users and providers in mind.” The group hopes that when the second pilot launches, there will be greater ownership among the community thanks to input and feedback from users during the first deployment.
Although the current project is focused on MDR-TB treatment, Caldwell pointed out that the device is applicable to many types of medications that have strict adherence regimens or temperature requirements. The project recently won $100,000 in grant money from the Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project in order to further develop and deploy the project.
CoolComply: Using Wireless Tech to Monitor Medication Storage and Adherence Locations
Many medications lose efficacy if stored outside their optimal temperature range, but in rural settings it can be difficult to maintain a steady cooling level. A new solar-powered refrigeration device called CoolComply is working to solve this problem by creating a more stable means of home medication storage, and improving patient adherence along the way.
Developed in partnership by the Massachusetts General Hospital, Innovations in International Health at MIT, and the Global Health Committee, CoolComply uses wireless technology to relay readings to local healthcare workers so they can remotely monitor patients being treated for Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
MobileActive.org spoke with Stephan Boyer (a student of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT), Anna Young (the R&D Officer for International Laboratories of Innovations in International Health at MIT), and Aya Caldwell (Program Manager at CIMIT’s Global Health Initiative) about their work developing CoolComply.
Caldwell explains how MIT partnered with Global Health Committee (GHC) after the GHC approached the group in the fall of 2009. GHC wanted to ensure that MDR-TB medication was kept cool and improve patient adherence. The GHC is a non-profit organization that started in Cambodia to work with TB and AIDS patients. The organization recently rolled out a new program in Ethiopia for which it approached MIT.
Young says, “With CoolComply, the goal is 'How do you monitor adherence?' One way to do that is to turn the device into a phone and allow it to transmit the data passively every time the patients are activating and opening it.”
The first pilot of the CoolComply device will launch in Ethiopia this August, with a three month deployment. Three randomly selected patients undergoing treatment for Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis will receive a CoolComply device. MDR treatment requires medication to be kept cool, and is an 18 to 24 month treatment process.
The device will send SMS alerts to health care workers with information about whether the device hasn’t been opened recently (implying patients are not adhering to drug schedules) or if the temperature of the cooling canisters changes. Delivering effective health care in developing countries is challenging. There are not enough health care providers and the few are underpaid, if paid at all, and over-worked. Boyer, Caldwell and Young say CoolComply can help manage work flow of those health care providers by showing which patients are adhering to medications and which need more attention.
The group focused on building a device that is powered by solar energy so that CoolComply can function off the grid; Boyer says that one of the biggest challenges the group faced was making the device work within a limited energy budget. The solar panel the group tested puts out ten Watts of power, so the group worked to develop batteries that could store and transmit data with limited power. Boyer explains that the current prototype (which is still under development) uses, “a micro-controller board and a cell phone module on top of it. The data will be going to a central server where the health care workers can view statistics about all the information coming in from all the devices. [...] At the end of the day the doctors will get a summary method that details all the events and the temperature of the device during the day.”
Young says that the group is very excited for the project to deploy this summer as it will give them a chance to adapt the device based on the feedback of the patients and health care workers. Caldwell adds that local support and interest is critical to the project saying, “Part of our approach is making sure that we don't just build the device at MIT and drop it down, we're very much into the notion of doing an iterative process with the end users and providers in mind.” The group hopes that when the second pilot launches, there will be greater ownership among the community thanks to input and feedback from users during the first deployment.
Although the current project is focused on MDR-TB treatment, Caldwell pointed out that the device is applicable to many types of medications that have strict adherence regimens or temperature requirements. The project recently won $100,000 in grant money from the Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project in order to further develop and deploy the project.
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