The Sainte-Catherine Cancer Institute in Avignon will experiment with a connected drug dispenser “Which modernizes and secures the packaging of medicines, which ensures in real time the correct dispensing of the prescribed dose of medicine and which connects the patient 24/7 with the health professionals who ensure his monitoring and security”, specifies a press release dated August 31.
This integrated solution (Thess) is the result of five years of research by the teams of La Valériane and SGH-Healthcaring (French leaders in pharmaceutical plastics), in close collaboration with the clinical pharmacy and care teams of the Paoli Institute. -Calmettes and the Sainte-Catherine Institute. The latter will therefore be the first two French oncology establishments to be able to offer Thess to their patients.
The project responds to the following issues. First, the dispensing of drugs in boxes, blisters or pillboxes “Directly or indirectly kill hundreds of thousands of people every year” because these are “Sources of dispensing errors in 57% of cases”, specifies the Institut du Cancer Sainte-Catherine. And to add that 10% of the serious complications they generate lead to death, or 10,000 deaths / year for France.
Fight against waste
It was also a question of combating waste. Indeed, according to the International Institute for Anti-Counterfeiting Medicines Research (IRACM), one in two medicines is not used. This represents several hundreds of billions of dollars in a world market of 1400 billion dollars per year. Not to mention counterfeit medicines which, without secure packaging, now represent 200 billion dollars. “A more lucrative market than that of drugs”, says the statement.
Concretely, “We will be able to offer patients in home treatment capsules securing the packaging of drugs from an electronic management and a connected, intelligent, discreet and mobile drug dispenser”, enthuses Roland Sicard, president of the Sainte-Catherine Cancer Institute in Avignon.
This unit communicates in real time and exchanges with telemedicine and telesurveillance software to secure the patient 24/7 and adjust the prescribed doses or combinations of drugs to be taken according to the patient’s condition during his treatment.
In the United States and recently at the Institut Gustave Roussy, the clinical studies carried out on this type of organization of care and securing treatment at home “Have demonstrated their positive impacts on the effectiveness of the treatment, on the reduction of hospitalizations for complications and on the patient’s quality of life”, concludes the press release.
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