If medicine is taken irregularly, wrongly or not at all, or if interaction with other drugs is not observed, this can put at risk the therapeutical success and, eventually, also damage a person´s health. The DFKI German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence shows how blister packs with a semantic product memory can help patients in taking their medicine.

On an RFID chip, individually configured blisters contain information on the composition of the drugs and their active pharmaceutical ingredients. In interaction with the external product memories of other drugs or even eatables, doctors, pharmacists and patients get clues on possible side effects and contraindications. In this way, semantic product memories help ameliorate the comunication between patients, doctors and pharmacists as they make medication safer and increase compliance.

Sensitive patient records are protected as access to them requires the new identification card with which patients can clear or read own data. In case of unauthorized reading, access will be denied. The system is based upon an innovative role and authorization concept for different users. A pharmacist e.g. can activate access rights for personnel. Physicians, as another example, can also read expert information that is not visible for lay persons.

Embedded into the Federal Ministry of the Interior´s open testing by users, the solution is currently running on trial mode. However, the DFKI could already demonstrate future ways of use. So, a support device graphically shows size and color of the pills to be taken. Additionally, package inserts can be electronically stored or other data, e.g. information on active pharmaceutical ingredients, be added from the Internet.

The medical blister with product memory is being developed within the SemProM (Semantic Product Memory) project. Jointly sponsored by industry and science, SemProM aims at developing the next generation of moibile, embedded and radio-based elements. In the sense of an "Internet of things", they will be able to collect all inventory and operating data of a product and to exchange them with the environment, users and other products. The project partners assure technological leadership as well as a practice-relevant realization and standardization of results in target sectors such as commerce, logistics, healthcare and the automotive industry.

Contact:
Reinhard Karger
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
Phone:  06 81/3 02-52 53
E-Mail: reinhard.kargerdfki.de
www.dfki.de