MedsManager
- United States
- For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
MedsManager contributes meaningfully to better health outcomes for all. It decreases environmental costs and increases efficiencies and resilience of health systems -- reducing consumption of single-use products and medical waste, optimizing transportation of supplies and addressing shipping inefficiencies.
MedsManager offers direct knowledge about a patient's supply of health consumables, free of any dependency on a specific source. MedsManager displays this information in an easy-to-understand bar chart.
Medication Regimen Adherence
About half of everyone who are prescribed medications fail to adhere to their assigned regimen (1). Medication regimen adherence is the likelihood that a patient will comply with healthcare recommendations. Poor adherence is shown to contribute to deteriorating health and increasing costs of care.
Of all medication-related hospital admissions in the United States, 33 to 69 percent are due to poor medication adherence, with an adjusted resultant cost of over $150 billion a year. (2)
Medication Regimen Adherence and Health Literacy are Especially Problematic Among Hispanics with Low English Proficiency
Poor adherence is especially prevalent among the elderly in the United States, with polypharmacy and complicated drug regimens representing formidable barriers to adherence (3); it is also a significant problem among the U.S. Hispanic/Latino population, in part because they are generally underserved and often have lower health literacy -- the ability to understand basic health information and make health decisions -- than non-Hispanic whites. Lower health literacy is more common among minority populations with lower English proficiency. Medical care is often perceived by the Hispanic/Latino population to be of poorer quality and less trusted when healthcare providers neither identify as Hispanic/Latino nor speak Spanish. (4)
Health literacy and adherence increase among Latino populations with low English proficiency when health information is presented in Spanish.
Medication Regimen Adherence Promotes Increased Capacity and Resilience of Health Systems, Supply Chains, and Other Infrastructure
MedsManager promotes better patient outcomes through regimen adherence and helps avoid hospitalization due to adherence failures. Keeping patients on course and out of the hospital promotes capacity and resilience of health systems by keeping hospital beds open and reducing consumption of single-use healthcare products. Efficient and timely orders for medications and other health consumables similarly optimizes supply chain demands.
MedsManager is software for people with chronic medication or supplement regimens by showing them what health consumables they have on-hand, and when it's time for them to be replaced.
The Graph View shows the supply of each item in terms of days' supply; the progress bar offers a stoplight view of each item (green-yellow-red) and numeric values. The Calendar View displays the expected depletion dates for items with 60 days' supply or fewer.
Graph View
Calendar View
MedsManager is designed for consumer Microsoft® Windows® devices, like desktops and laptops. The user installs the software on a compatible device and enters information about their regimen -- prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, supplements, and supplies (like diabetes testing supplies). The Personal Edition (PE) will track a total of 30 consumables for up to three people -- a small family. (Based on the success of PE, a future iteration designed for caregivers is planned).
The solution is also designed to promote health literacy by linking to public health information about especially the prescription medications in their regimens, and the conditions their therapies address.
It also presents AI-based information about contraindicative medications.
MedsManager is also designed to support multiple languages. Nearly half of the population of Texas, for example, is Hispanic/Latino, with widely ranging states of U.S. cultural assimilation. A great many don't speak English, and aren't likely to seek or trust medical advice from a non-Hispanic/Latino health professional. MedsManager is designed to help bridge this gulf by presenting essential information in the native tongue for underserved populations like these.
From a technical perspective, MedsManager is similar to applications one finds on the Microsoft® Windows® software market: Designed for download and install, the primary technology powering the system is Microsoft® .NET code. The user's PHI remains encrypted at rest and is decrypted on demand to allow the user to work with it; it is only accessible on the machine that has the software installed, and only by the account that installed it. At no time does VICTORY Codeworks have any access to regimen data of any kind. MedsManager was designed with security at the forefront of every decision.
Currently in testing is support for three cryptographic programs with companion mobile applications. The user may install and use these programs at their option.
Because of its dependency on the Windows® operating system and certain specialized components thereof, MedsManager may not be installed on computers located in countries under embargo.
MedsManager is intended to directly and meaningfully improve the lives of people with chronic medication regimens -- which includes about half of the U.S. population over 40 years of age. To be blunt, Americans are lousy at regimen adherence -- that is, taking the medications they're supposed to take at the frequency and quantity stipulated in the regimen.(1)
MedsManager was designed with mature and senior adults in mind -- groups
for whom regimen nonadherence is increasing or significant, to provide real-time projections of health consumables for themselves or the people they support.
MedsManager was built to address three main needs:
- To improve regimen adherence among those assigned chronic medication therapies, creating efficiencies and reducing costs associated with healthcare in the process -- particularly where hospitalization is concerned
- To enrich the users' heath literacy by providing links to public information about their medications, including explanations of the role each plays in their therapies, which should also improve regimen adherence;
- To remove linguistic and cultural barriers to regimen adherence and health literacy by presenting information in the users' native language.
These improvements can have a significant compound effect when considered at scale. MedsManager promotes better patient outcomes through regimen adherence and helps avoid hospitalization due to adherence failures. Keeping patients on course and out of the hospital promotes capacity and resilience of health systems by keeping hospital beds open and reducing consumption of single-use healthcare products. Efficient and timely orders for medications and other health consumables similarly optimizes supply chain demands.
Plato first pointed out that infamous relationship between necessity and invention. Every aspect of MedsManager is a function of a need I perceived as I struggled to “stay on top of” my and my family’s various healthcare consumables.
I am sensitive to the needs of the Hispanic and Latino community here. Most of my daughters’ friends are Latino, from families of varying English proficiency. I lived in the Republic of Panama for a few years; I delight in living where I can speak both languages. Many Hispanics and Latinos shy away from the U.S. healthcare system, particularly if healthcare providers do not identify with Hispanic or Latino cultures. I want to help correct this by offering my software in both English and Spanish.
Health literacy is also a great concern. Personally, I can name my medications, but I can’t tell you which does what. Health literacy is even more important in Hispanic and Latino populations for reasons previously mentioned. This is why I wanted to be certain to connect MedsManager to reliable public and AI-driven information in both English and Spanish.
Americans spent nearly $1400 per person on prescription medication in 2020, making prescription medications worth nearly $350BB of a $539BB industry that year. (1) (2) (3) (4) Currently, nearly half of Americans have taken at least one prescription medicine within the preceding month. (5) I cannot be unique in recognizing the need for a product like this.
So it's a combination of research, consultation, location and situational awareness that drives me to build and promote MedsManager. As a military veteran subjected to toxic exposure, I manage multiple medications for myself; as a parent of a child with special needs, I must also manage myriad medications for my daughter.
But more than anything else, I’m the right person to deliver this solution because I care about it very, very much.
This product is actually about my love for my shipmates; friends far and wide who suffer like I do. I built MedsManager for everyone, but this is, above all, my gift to the people I’ve known over my military career. My deepest and greatest sorrow lies in the notion many of us share the same fate. It's why I traveled to Washington D.C. in January this year to discuss a bill with Congress (visit PanamaVeterans.org). MedsManager is another way I can help the ones most important to me.
Passion, then, best summarizes my response.
- Increase capacity and resilience of health systems, including workforce, supply chains, and other infrastructure.
- 3. Good Health and Well-Being
- 9. Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
- 12. Responsible Consumption and Production
- Prototype
The core software is built; there are a couple of additional features I've not quite settled on. Testing is limited.
Progress has been limited. I took some time off last year to focus on my efforts on behalf of Panama Canal Zone Veterans and the Panama Canal Zone Veterans Act of 2023 (H.R. 2447), and to concentrate on other personal matters.
The 2024 Global Healthcare Challenge can help me overcome several barriers in bringing MedsManager to market:
Financial: Marketing will be a very high (and very expensive) priority in ""priming the pump"" to get sales going (see also: Market barriers). A second priority will be bringing on bilingual contractors in customer service/support roles.
Legal: A portion of the prize will be earmarked for trademark registration and other legal processes to grow and protect the business.
Market barriers: A portion of the prize will be earmarked for marketing to the Hispanic/Latino community -- that means Spanish language advertising in periodicals, on television, et cetera. It's not enough to support Spanish-speaking people if I'm not reaching a Spanish-speaking user base.
- Business Model (e.g. product-market fit, strategy & development)
- Financial (e.g. accounting practices, pitching to investors)
Principal