Fellow Presentations: Day 1 (Yann Kwok)

Yann Kwok is looking at the problem of ensuring that patients take their prescribed medications at the appropriate times. He is continuing a project started by Steve Willhelm last year. Yann gave some stats about the costs imposed by non-compliance:

• 125,000 fatalities/year in the U.S.
  
• 10-25% of hospital admissions are a result of non-compliance
  

The project reached proof of concept stage, where Dr. David Green of Cape Town, South Africa, tested an SMS-based messaging system with his tuberculois patients. The 18-month long trial has been a success, with two remaining issues:

1. Cell phone theft
   
2. Not having medications with you when the reminder arrives
   

In order to combat both of these problems, an SMS-enabled pillbox has been constructed. One hundred prototype units (at a cost of $120 each) are expected to be built this month, and will be provided to patients under a "subscription pricing" model.

Yann was also looking at alternative program funders, wondering whether insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies might be willing to buy units given to patients, or if there was enough pricing power in the developed world that profit could be used to underwrite costs in the developing world.