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Why uBox?
The uBox offers a combination of critical features - locking, multi-pill dosage, interaction tracking - at a price point that is a fraction of current solutions.
Mission
The IIH mission is to gather and process real-time patient and operational data to dramatically improve healthcare delivery and judge its efficacy. Treatment programs for diseases like tuberculosis need to be scaled up significantly in the developing world. Yet, today such programs have very poor knowledge of whether pills and health workers reach patients, if patients comply with regimen, and if the treatment is effective. By reliably and cheaply collecting data, we enable timely and targeted intervention in response to every failed transaction, supervision and reward systems for workers, and systematic means to improve programs.
Solutions
Our initial focus is TB treatment programs in rural communities. We’ve developed a portfolio of devices to track drug adherence, patient and health worker interaction, and patient health.
The uBox is a palm-sized, intelligent pill dispenser, which reminds patients to take their medication, records when a patient has taken a dose, and locks itself to prevent double-dosing. This allows us to reliably track medication.
The uKey is a unique electronic key that identifies the health worker carrying it. The uBox records the time when a uKey is plugged into it, allowing health worker tracking. This is crucial since workers are the lifeblood of rural treatment programs, and regular interaction has been shown to significantly improve treatment outcomes.
The uPhone is a commodity cell phone that allows workers to record symptoms that are diagnostically valuable for TB (night sweats, weight loss, etc.). This information is wirelessly relayed to a central location where the most efficient itinerary to serve patients in need is charted and relayed back to local physicians.
The uSoft is an analysis and visualization tool for data gathered by the devices above. It issues automatic alerts when intervention is required. It can also be used to uncover how performance is correlated with a host of demographic and other variables.
Progress
Beginning in April 2008, we will participate in 6-month long, est. 1600 patient TB treatment program run by our partner, the Prajnopaya Foundation, in Bihar, India. The foundation will use the complete IIH solution to track a cohort of 200 patients to improve adherence, patient care and overall cure rates.