The design and evaluation of a mobile handheld intervention for providing context-sensitive medication reminders

Abstract

This work introduces the design and exploratory evaluation of a home reminder system for medication and healthcare that situates the timing and location of reminders based on contextual information about the user. The system consists of three major components: 1) a handheld computing interface for providing reminders, 2) a sensor subsystem integrated into the home environment, and 3) a central server that manages medical tasks and reasons over sensor data in real time. A volunteer participant adhering to a complex regimen of simulated medical tasks is closely observed in a residential research facility. The participant is presented with both context-sensitive reminders and reminders that are scheduled at fixed times during the day. The degree of adherence to the regimen, and the participant's own assessment of the usefulness of each reminder (while blinded to the reminder strategy being used), are evaluated over the course of a 10-day study. Quantitative and qualitative results are provided, comparing the efficacy of context-sensitive reminders over fixed-time reminders with respect to adherence and perceived value.