title: Robotic Assistance in Medication Management: Development and Evaluation of a Prototype.
abstract: An increasing number of elderly people and the prevalence of multimorbid conditions often lead to age-related problems for patients in handling their common polypharmaceutical, domestic everyday medication. Ambient Assisted Living therefore provides means to support an elderly's everyday life. In the present paper we investigated the viability of using a commercial mass-produced humanoid robot system to support the domestic medication of an elderly person. A prototypical software application based on the NAO-robot platform was implemented to remind the patient for drug intakes, check for drug-drug-interactions, document the compliance and assist through the complete process of individual medication. A technical and functional evaluation of the system in a laboratory setting revealed versatile and viable results, though further investigations are needed to examine the practical use in an applied field.
authors.affiliation: eHealth Research and Innovation Unit, UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall in Tyrol, Austria.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schweitzer
authors.affiliation: eHealth Research and Innovation Unit, UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall in Tyrol, Austria.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoerbst
mesh_terms: D004360:Drug Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D055118:Medication Adherence; D008509:Medication Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017010:Reminder Systems / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D012648:Self Care; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods