Compliance-prompting packaging is gaining momentum as an alternative to traditional vials or bottles in an effort to improve patient adherence and persistence with medication regimens. Members of the healthcare packaging community offered perspectives on the future of such compliance-prompting packaging, and they see the future headed in regards to smart packages that provide interface with medical providers or caregivers.
Ben Miyares, president of the Packaging Management Institute, Inc., says, “The recent development of electronic interactive labels holds intriguing promise for drug compliance. Debuting as a marketing gimmick for drink bottles [blinking lights printed on labels that light up when gripped], consider how an electronically printed label could improve compliance by weighing vial contents and audibly and/or visually signaling that not only has the vial been opened, but only a correct dose has been removed within the appropriate time interval.”
Technology’s role in patient compliance was also mentioned by Richard Adams, head of Pack Graphic Design at GlaxoSmithKline in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Saying he is encouraged by the company’s increasing interest in compliance/adherence packaging, Adams notes, “We recognize what a tremendous opportunity exists in designing packaging materials to help our patients take and use their medication in the most efficacious manner possible. It is a ‘no brainer’ that has gone without proper attention for too long. I think reminder packaging, mobile technology integration [QR codes, augmented reality applications], social networking avenues, less complex wording, focus on voice of the customer initiatives…are all surfacing as viable solutions, or at least aids to meeting compliance packaging goals.”
