Biosensor and Eyedrop Bottle Technologies for Glaucoma Adherence Monitoring

Project SummaryNon adherence with prescribed systemic drugs leads to poor outcomes and increases the cost of healthcareGlaucomathe leading cause of irreversible blindnessaffects more thanmillion people worldwideLowering intraocular pressurethe only proven method of delaying both the development and progression of glaucomais typically done with topical administration of eye dropswhich has notoriously low non adherence ratesranging fromtoThe associated cost to the healthcare systemand its impact on patientsquality of life are significantclinic visit costs more than double as the disease progressesThe advent of smart phone enabled technologies creates promise for improving eyedrop adherenceHoweverprevious eyedrop electronic monitoring solutions had awkward medication bottle adjuncts and crude software for monitoring the administration of a drop which adversely affected their ability to foster significantsustainable improvements in adherenceThere is still an unmet need for wireless technology that integrates with an eyedrop bottle to sense drop administrationdoes not alter the shape or size of the eyedrop bottleand can detect successful drop entry into the eyeIn this projectwe aim to develop a system that detects every time a drop is administered and whether the drop successfully entered the eyeThissmart droptechnology uses newly invented flexible electronics integrated inside the label of an eyedrop bottle and a punctal plug inspired biosensorWe propose to integrate the two so that label embedded electronics detect force and tilt informationIf these patterns are indicative of an attempted drop deliverythe bottle inductively powers and probes the punctal biosensor to detect a temperature change associated with a successful drop deliveryA signal encoding the date and time will be sent from the bottle to a smartphone via Bluetoothwhere it is archived or can be sent to the cloudThis enables the capability to provide reminders to the patientprovide useful information to a physicianor even a recommendation to pharmacy so that a new bottle can be made availableAn easy to useunobtrusivewireless electronic eyedrop monitoring solution would be of significant benefit to the patientsprovidersand payers associated with glaucoma Project NarrativeNon adherence with prescribed systemic drugs leads to poor outcomes and increases the cost of healthcareintraocular pressure lowering eyedropsthe only proven method of delaying the development and progression of glaucomaserve as a notorious exampleOur goal is to develop an adherence monitoring systemconsisting of flexible electronics affixed behind any eyedrop bottle label which inductively power and communicate with a punctum biosensor capable of detecting successful drop administration into the eyeTogetherthe proposedsmart eyedroptechnology can signal adherence information to a mobile phone tablet to enable reminders and communication with care providers in a safeaccurateand easy to use manner for benefitting the patientsprovidersand payers associated with glaucoma