Since my product pitch, my goal with my personal project has shifted somewhat. Through exploring the market and demand for a medicine adherence device, I saw that there were sufficient products available on Amazon through my competitive analysis.
My updated definition statement is the following:
People who take daily medication need a way to manage their dosage timing without double-dosing which could cause harmful or fatal overdoses. Current solutions do not address the problem effectively, because people rely on reminders and user memory.
My new problem that I have decided to tackle is preventing double dosage in medicine. A lot of people forget whether they’ve had their medicine already, and they have already taken. Double dosing can be harmless or life-threatening depending on which medication is used and the condition that is being treated. This affects people over 60, and people with chronic illnesses that require multiple medications.
I have looked online and found that various health providers have stated that double dosage can be very harmful to some people. The effect differs person to person based on the medication they are taking and their health condition. According to Poison Control, (https://www.poison.org/articles/medication-errors-double-dosing), double dosage can be very serious for people that take heart medications, ADHD medications, medications that treat diabetes and psychiatric conditions. From the Mayo Clinic, we can see that in America “nearly 70% of people take at least one prescription medication and more than half take two,”. This shows that the problem exists and although the data set is of America, it would likely scale to other countries as well, making the market and audience very large. This product would help a lot of people.
My solution is to build a dispenser that locks after giving the prescribed amount of medication. They would release at a certain time when they are meant to have it and stay there until they do. Weight sensors would detect and sense when the pills are actually taken out of the dispenser. I will test it by making sure that the medications and the right amounts are dispensed. To make it more realistic, I’ll test it with various medications at different times and see how my product addresses the problem. I’ll also get reviews from other people and ask targeted questions.
So far, I have changed my problem being targeted and adjusted my focus. I combed through Amazon reviews and products through my research and found that the space already had various products, and even if the solutions could be better, there were most definitely companies already working on it and the market is competitive already.
I think that I will face challenges in getting all of the technology to work together and to make sure that only one pill or the required amount is being dispensed. I’ll use a servo to open and close the column that drops the medication quickly, and only let a certain amount through. I will also look into how I can lock the medication flap, and keep the flap open, so they can take the medication.
From now, I plan to create a list of materials or what I need, and look into how I can fabricate the design. I will also get started on the technical aspect of this, such as the coding for the Arduino or other technology I may use. Then I will prototype and build in iterations. With iterations, I’ll use tests to identify gaps in the product functionality and refine the product further.
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