INNOBLOG

Do you forget to take your medications? Dont worry, youre not alone! Many patients forget to take their pills or misread directions. This phenomenon, known as "medication non-compliance, is a major issue driving up healthcare costs; the National Association of Chain Drug Stores says medication non-compliances costs the U.S. healthcare system more than $177 billion every year. Even worse, non-compliance also limits the effectiveness of medical regimens and needlessly exposes patients to increased risk.

What type of solutions exist to help people remember to take their medications? There are inexpensive plastic pill cases with slots to place your pills by day of the week. There are intelligent pill dispensers which use an alarm or voice notification to let you know when it is time to take your medication. There are pill packs with embedded RFID that register the time and date taken per pill and that transfer the results over to doctors. If you are living in assisted living a nurse can administer your medications for about $20 a day.

How can we differentiate between these solutions? And if we were a company seeking breakthrough success in the marketplace which would we support?

The solution that bests addresses a deep problem or job felt by the customer will likely be successful. We recommend that the companies developing these solutions seek to understand who their customers are and their most important and unmet jobs or problems. It might be patient themselves, or the patients wife who gets frustrated having her husband not remember whether or not he took his medication. It might be the physician who cant diagnose the true source of the patients pain without knowing whether or not they are complying with their medication regime. Once a customer with a deep need or important job to be done is identified the next step is to understand how well the solutions address the job.

For example, if the customer is a woman with a heart condition who travels frequently and needs to take 10 pills a day 7 in the morning and 3 at night with the job "ensure I take the right mix of pills at the right time of the day, Paratas myonePAC is a great solution. myonePAC "prepares a persons medications by day and dosing time in a sealed, clear plastic packet that is arthritic-approved for easy opening. Each onePAC dose is custom-printed with the persons name; day and time of dose; medication names, strengths and descriptions; and other details to help them take the right medications at the right time, every time (see image below). Because each pack is printed with the medication names and prescription the customer can travel safely with her medication without bringing 10 individual bottles with her.

To conclude, companies developing these innovative pillbox solution should seek to understand three things, much like Parata did with their portion-pack solution:

1. Who is the customer?
2. What is the customers most important and unmet job to be done?
3. How well does our solution solve this job?