National non-profit offers two new smartphone apps to help consumers save money and stay healthy

Two new smartphone apps are now available to help consumers save money on the cost of prescription drugs and to offer a daily reminder to stay current on their medications.

Consumers can now save up to 80% on prescription drug costs with their smartphone. The free NeedyMeds Drug Discount Card App is all that’s needed to save on prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines and medical supplies and pet prescription drugs you purchase at a pharmacy. >>> Read more . . .

OAKLAND, Calif. – February, 28, 2013 – The Center for Technology and Aging (CTA)

announced today the availability of new tools to help health care organizations design and

implement technology-enabled health care programs for care transitions and medication

optimization. The online tools are part of the recently launched ADOPT (Accelerate the

Diffusion of Proven Technologies) Toolkit© website: http://toolkit.techandaging.org/. >>> Read more . . .

New designs for drug packages and plans for labels that are easier to understand.

Reuse, recycle – finding a new purpose?  Ah, the cacophony of self-quantification. As we rage against our inactivity and sloth, fitness gadgets have become the rage. One could have a Body Media arm band (“know your body, change your life”), a Fitbit on a waistband, a NikeFuel (“the ultimate measure of your athletic life”) or a Jawbone UP (“know yourself, live better!”) on a wrist, or a Pebble on a shoe from a corporate wellness program. To date, none of these offerings are applied (by the companies) to the world of seniors for passive activity encouragement or tracking.  Soon all of these, like Fitbit, will have APIs for writing new apps – soon someone will see and seize the opportunity to connect a simple and wearable device to senior market, and perhaps more in the senior market will connect caregiving apps like Philips CarePartners Mobile to information from their in-market devices like Lifeline with AutoAlert. >>> Read more . . .

Robert Bosch Healthcare is pleased to introduce powerful tools for enhancing medication adherence.

The MedMinder Maya pillbox and monitoring service is now available for use as a complement to Robert Bosch Healthcare’s health management programs, which provide education on medication adherence. >>> Read more . . .

MedMinder Systems Inc. in Needham, maker of a smart pillbox that reminds its user when to take medication, has gotten the first tranche of a new $1 million round of financing to fund the launch of two new products in coming months. >>> Read more . . .

Apparently the pharmacist wants to talk to you -- no offer of a reminder device.

The elderly are at risk of unmanaged overmedication.

The more tech is commercialized, the more researchers ignore it. It’s so interesting and fun to read about research that is going to help seniors, don’t you think? Reporters love to write it, readers love to read it.  Someday, they say and readers agree, there will be tech that will finally help us age in our own homes. A recent AARP Bulletin offered up an article about living laboratory research into ‘possibilities’ for improving our capabilities for independent living/aka aging in place. We can feel good that work goes on at Orcatech, at Mayo Clinic, and MIT's Age Lab.  And many others have researched the same exact categories previously, as noted in 2008 in one of the very first blogs on this site. As always, the researchers interviewed offered no observations about whether there were commercial versions that were viable for consumers, and really, no acknowledgement of commercial vendors at all. Guess that’s not the point of research. >>> Read more . . .

>>> Read more . . .