PillDrill blends habit and tech for 21st century medicating
We are a nation of pill takers.
Roughly half of all Americans have taken at least one prescription drug in the last 30 days (21.8% have taken three or more), and almost three-quarters of all doctor visits result in a prescription, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Managing those pills takes work and, increasingly, technology.
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PillDrill is, potentially, the kind of medication management you’re looking for. The blue and white, $199 product comes with a roll-sized hub that features a largish, monochrome screen and a few buttons, a Mood Cube, two pill strips and a dozen NFC tags (and a free app). All of this combines for what PillDrill CEO Peter Havas calls a medicine management system that “does not require you to change habits.”
The system is pretty simple to use. The NFC tags, labeled A-through-N, get attached to the bases of your medicine bottles. You can also put your prescriptions in the pill holders sitting in the strips. The strips are useful for those who have daily doses of multiple pills. If you have to take two doses a day, you can use both strips. Each container in the strip has an embedded tag.
In the app, you connect each tag and container to your medicines and dosages.
The hub is there to remind you to take your meds. It’s connected to the app via home Wi-Fi, so it knows which letters are attached to which medicine bottles and containers. When you take your medicine you wave the bottle or container over the little NFC reader symbol on the hub and it notes that you’ve taken the pills. The hub can also notify family members anywhere in the world, via text, that you’ve taken your pills. If you’re traveling and leave the hub behind, you can manage your pill intake with the app, which will remind you just like the hub does.
The mood cube is an interesting, additional concept. It works the same way as the tags, but the different sides have different moods: awful, bad, good, great. You choose the side and wave it over the reader. It's then registered and, if you choose, transmitted to concerned family members.
Havas told me that all this communication via text helps avoid uncomfortable conversations with family members. You don’t have to nag them about taking their meds, because you know they have, and you don’t have to worry if they’re feeling unwell or depressed, because they’ve told you—through the system—that they’re good. Obviously, family members can lie and wave the pill cases and mood cube over the hub without feeling good or taking their pills, but that’s why you also pick up the phone.
You can, Havas told me, buy more tags, if you need them, and order more strips. Each one has seven containers (for seven days of the week). Havas knows there’s growing competition out there. He’s aware, for instance, of the Hero pill dispensing robot, which he thought was impressive, but limited. It can only handle pills and can’t, for instance, dispense insulin. PillDrill’s tags can go on any medication.
The system ships in May, but you can pre-order now.
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Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
