EXCLUSIVE: Are spoken medication reminders that mimic human interactions the key to reducing missed doses?

Phillip Marshman, Founder and CEO of Sentai, discusses how combining human insight with advanced technologies and AI can ensure missed medication doses are significantly reduced and routines are consistent.

In a world transformed by nifty gadgets, widgets, and notifications for just about everything, technology has paved the way for an array of tools to streamline and simplify the day. When it comes to technology for healthcare, the opportunities are now endless. With AI in particular now playing a firm role in the healthcare ecosystem, as highlighted in a recent PwC publication, the possibilities are even more sophisticated, efficient, and lower cost.

The importance of tech medication reminders

For an able-bodied, fit, and healthy person, using medication reminders on a phone can be a quick fix for getting in daily medicines or vitamins. The ping-in-the-pocket approach of these standard reminders can work well for people who don’t struggle with cognitive processing or dexterity issues.

For the less able-bodied elderly person, this task isn’t as straightforward. Medication reminders are crucial to the health of the elderly and sometimes even a lifeline. Suddenly stopping or missing certain medicines can have poor side effects or worsen health conditions, as demonstrated by a 2022 report from the UK Quality Care Commission.

Through their smartphones, people now have access to thousands of health-related applications. This current standard approach for medication reminders that we see from the likes of Apple and Android relies heavily on a ‘one size fits all’ approach by providing simple, timer-based reminders. While these work for some, the consequences of this approach not working for a large proportion of users, such as the elderly or less able-bodied, are far too severe to not take into consideration.

There is a need to understand the difference in how the young and elderly react to technology. Whilst younger generations are used to differentiating between the flurry of notifications pinging in their pocket, this can be overwhelming to an elderly person who hasn’t embraced such technology in later life. The one-size-fits-all approach needs to be re-evaluated, with the new emerging technology and AI features we have at our fingertips taking the front seat.

AI can support habitual routines and familiarity

There are many studies which address the power of routine and conversation, including advice from charities such as UK Dementia, which particularly takes note of how talking can enhance memory. With an ageing population, workforce shortages, and cost-of-living crisis, there is a greater shift to care being provided at home, thus leaving lots of families to juggle these responsibilities.

For the UK’s five million informal carers, AI can efficiently assist and take off some of the burden by mimicking human interactions linked to familiar triggers. This gives peace of mind to informal carers and loved ones with family members who aren’t able to take full care of themselves with ease.

One example of this is a smart in-home care companion for older people which works with voice flows using Amazon Alexa to remind an older person to take their medication. These in-home care companions harness AI and use familiar, human-mimicking voice activations, which also prompt a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer from the older person. While the reminder itself is hugely important to avoid a missed dose, the digital companion will simultaneously track the answer from the older person and send this to the carer or loved one through an app, creating a report showing that the correct medication has been taken at the right time. There is a challenge of getting an older person to connect and interact with technology in a way that is familiar and comfortable. The reality is the way we adapt our technology to better suit this demographic can fix more than just missed doses.

How in-home care companions are pioneering solutions to this challenge

For Sentai, an in-home care companion, medication reminders are one of the better known features, but it is only one part of the ‘reminders’ function. Through the customised reminders, there are lots of activities that the family member or carer can add. This goes for GP appointments, favourite TV programmes, and phone a friend or family member.

This technology can also be linked with a sensor. For example, if the sensor is in the kitchen, devices like Sentai can remind the older person to have a glass of water, or if it’s in the bedroom, it can remind them to make sure the door is locked, and the lights have been switched off. The list of possibilities for reminders is endless when it comes to AI and smart technology.

A user of Sentai explains the drawbacks of older technology: “I’ve used mobile phone apps before mainly for food and medication reminders. They were very hit and miss and weren’t reliable. Beeps, pings, alerts – it’s all noise from my phone, and it just felt there was always so much going on.”

While the medication reminders are a huge benefit in this person’s life, they also reported seeing a huge change in their eating habits and daily routine, as Sentai will remind them to eat, drink and even give them recommendations from the list of things their loved one has listed they enjoy.

Elderly people are more responsive to tech that talks. It creates an environment which stimulates the brain instead of solely pinging meaninglessly in the pocket. With the advancements of AI, the voices used to prompt the older person can also be personalised, with in-home care companions offering multiple different voices to suit different people. Thanks to the most innovative technologies, the care experience can only ever become more familiar, instinctive, and personal. Human insight combines with technologies such as AI, Amazon Alexa, machine learning, and motion sensors to ensure missed medication doses are significantly reduced and routines are consistent.

By taking advantage of the routine nature of many medication and healthcare regimens and by incorporating AI voice-led suggestions in addition to smart timer-based spoken reminders, technology can be more effective in supporting the user, their loved ones and reducing unintentional medication non-adherence.