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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
EMMA the Magic Medicine Cabinet Approved by FDA to
Deliver Medicine with Pharmacy Web Commands
EMMA should reduce medication errors that kill many
senior citizens
 June 21, 2007 – A computerized online medication
dispensing box named EMMA, which “may be especially useful for aging
patients,” was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration today. It is
placed in the home but managed by pharmacy commands to delivery meds and
alert that it is time to take them. A major benefit is expected to be in preventing medication errors, which
were estimated to have harmed at least 1.5 million people, primarily
senior citizens, annually in the U.S., according to a 2006 Institute of
Medicine report.
The INRange Systems' Electronic Medication
Management Assistant (EMMA) is a programmable device that stores and
dispenses prescription medication for patients' use in the home.
EMMA is wirelessly linked to software that allows a
pharmacist to remotely schedule, monitor compliance, and make real-time
adjustments in the dose, or the timing of medications from their office.
EMMA can reduce drug identification and dosing
errors, the FDA says, and allow health care professionals to monitor
patient adherence to medication regimens in an outpatient setting. It
may be especially useful for those with complex medication regimens such
as patients with HIV.
It is designed to be used under the supervision of
a licensed health care provider.
"FDA's clearance of the INRange remote medication
management system puts an important safety tool directly in the hands of
patients and their health care providers," said Daniel Schultz, M.D.,
director of FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
"It will help take away some of the confusion
patients can experience when taking prescription medications, and allow
care providers to more closely monitor their patients' medications
between office visits."
The company says “EMMA is the first and only
medical device commercially available for in-home medication management
that can select, and deliver individual doses of medicine much like an
ATM selects and delivers dollar bills. Unlike automated pill boxes,
reminder systems, and other similar devices, EMMA is a web-enabled
pharmacy, giving pharmacists, nurses, doctors, or other licensed
practitioners the ability to schedule medications and alter individual
doses with the click of a mouse.”
“Chronic disease management often means medication
management, and proper medication management is an enormous problem
facing the healthcare industry. With an impending shortage of both
pharmacists and nurses, a product such as INRange’s is essential to
reduce the cost of healthcare treatment and may be the only solution to
serving an aging population,” says Thomas Thielke, MS, FASHP, R.Ph., a
Pharmacist and Vice President, Professional and Support Services at the
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.
EMMA consists of a medication delivery unit and
two-way communication software that allows a health care professional to
remotely manage prescriptions stored and released by the
patient-operated delivery unit. The delivery unit is about the size of a
bread box and plugs into a standard power outlet.
EMMA stores prescription medications, emits an
audible alert to the patient when the prescribed medications are
scheduled to be taken, and releases them onto a delivery tray when
activated by the patient at the appropriate time.
It holds a month’s supply of up to ten
prescriptions per EMMA unit. Multiple EMMA units may be connected
together to increase the number of managed prescriptions.
EMMA is expected to reduce the cost of in-home
medication management and the number of preventable injuries caused each
year by medication errors and patient non-compliance.
Furthermore, EMMA eliminates the labor intensive
and inherently inaccurate practice of manually filling and reorganizing
pill boxes.
It uses a Web-based application for a health care
professional, such as a doctor or pharmacist, to remotely schedule or
adjust a patient's prescribed medications, and provides the health care
professional with a history of each time patients access their
medications.
“My goal was to create an electronic nurse who
would sort the patient’s medications, reorganize them when they change,
and deliver them to the patient,” says Dr. Mary Anne Papp, a
cardiologist, cofounder and inventor of INRange’s innovative new system.
“EMMA is that electronic nurse. She is stationed in
the home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. She works nights, weekends,
holidays and takes no vacations. Now home nurses can concentrate on what
they do best; caring for the patients, while EMMA manages the
medications.” Dr. Papp is currently Director of the Heart Failure Clinic
at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and an Associate Professor
of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
FDA reviewed safety and effectiveness information
for EMMA under the "de novo" classification process. The ability to
petition for "de novo" initial classification was added under the Food
and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997 to establish an
additional way for novel, but less risky, devices to get to market.
The EMMA system is manufactured by INRange Systems
based in Altoona, Pa.
More About the Senior Friendly EMMA Delivery Unit
The Electronic Medication Management Assistant
(EMMA™) is a tool for enhancing the practice of Evidence Based Medicine
in a home setting.
 The EMMA delivery unit is placed in the patient's
home, and it communicates wirelessly to the patient's electronic
Medication Administration Record (eMAR™) to get the latest dosing
schedule for the patient.
The EMMA delivery unit manages everything for the
patient from there. This unique medical device holds up to 10
prescriptions, totaling 300 individual doses of medication. If a patient
requires more than 10 prescriptions, auxiliary units may be daisy
chained together to form a single unit.
The EMMA delivery unit consists of four key
components:
Easy loading. The EMMA delivery unit accepts a 6
x 9 Blister Card much like a CD is inserted into a Multi-CD Disk Player.
Simply touch the load button on the touch screen monitor and the EMMA
delivery unit opens its door. Then slip the Blister Card into the
opening and the EMMA delivery unit grabs it, reads the bar code, counts
the doses in the card, and verifies that it is the correct prescription
for the patient.
● Complete Medication Management. The EMMA
delivery unit manages all of the patients medications, including:
> Standard Prescriptions
> PRN's
> Titration of Medications
> Custom Dosing Algorithms (such as with
Warfarin therapy)
> Reminders for OTC Medications (such as low
dose aspirin)
> Information Messages (such as the patient
is taking a multiple vitamin).
● Senior Friendly. The EMMA delivery unit is
extremely easy to use. Its wireless communications makes it a
plug-and-play device, requiring only a standard power outlet to operate.
Its large color touch screen makes it very simple for even the
non-computer savvy person. INRange designed the EMMA delivery unit so
that a patient can learn to use it in a matter of minutes. Its intuitive
graphical user interface guides the patient through the process.
● Feature Rich. The EMMA delivery unit is
equipped with many features to enable the patient to live a more active
life including the ability to receive a future medication delivery in
case the patient wants to go out for dinner or will not be home for
lunch. The EMMA delivery unit vacation function allows patients to sort
and organize their medications.
More information at
http://www.inrangesystems.com
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