With This Sort Of Innovation We Will See Major Change In Medication Management I Suspect.

This appeared a few days ago.

MedAdvisor is Josh Swinnerton’s mother of all medication advisers

• The Australian
• September 16, 2015 12:00AM

Sarah-Jane Tasker

A strong desire to help his mum manage her supply of medications drove software engineer Josh Swinnerton to develop ­MedAdvisor — a platform he hopes to expand offshore through a backdoor listing on the Australian market.

The company has kicked off a roadshow to drum up investor support to raise about $5 million through a backdoor listing via mining shell Exalt Resources.

Chief executive Robert Read, who was recently appointed to oversee the listing, said the Med­Advisor software, which helps people manage their medication, was driving adherence by up to 20 per cent.

“From a big macro picture, adherence is probably the biggest, preventable health cost,” he said.

“There was a study done that showed there was half a trillion dollars of preventable health care costs attributed to medication mismanagement. That is a problem that needs fixing to save lives and MedAdvisor goes someway to addressing that.”

The drive for the app came from Mr Swinnerton’s mother who has multiple illnesses, including Parkinson’s and rheumatoid arthritis, for which she takes up to 11 long-term prescriptions.

“For Parkinson’s some of the common medication you have to take four hourly, 24 hours a day and if you forget, your symptoms in an hour or two get more severe.

“With my awareness of her issues, it had always struck me as an obvious opportunity that a smartphone has to be a great place to put a tool to help people manage all aspects of their medication.”

Mr Swinnerton, who has a background in IT and software engineering, said the market listing may appear to be early in the life of the 3½-year-old company but it had already engaged with close to one quarter of Australian pharmacies.

Lots more here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/medadvisor-is-josh-swinnertons-mother-of-all-medication-advisers/story-fn91v9q3-1227529183133

I have to say there are a large number of people on complex medication regimes for whom this app would seem to be very useful. The issue will be to get the necessary technology into the hands of those who need it and to then train and educate them to use it effectively.

Clearly the most obvious path to market and adoption is via pharmacists - while it is also that the GP also regularly reviews the total medication picture. It is those who need this app most who are those who may be at risk of polypharmacy and will be in need of regular review.

I look forward to understanding just what the business model for the application is and how it can be maintained into the future while providing some sort of return to the shareholders. One might even wonder that if the app is shown to be effective and safe that the ACeH might take over its care and maintenance into the future.

It really is interesting just how mobile and personal technology are increasingly causing change in all professions.

David.