Assistant Professor Olufunmilola K. Odukoya, BPharm, PhD is a winning team member in the inaugural Pitt Innovation Challenge (PInCh)  sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Clinical Translational Science Institute, Office of the Porovost, and Innovation Institute. Odukoya’s other team members are James Kaus (4th year Pitt medical student), Jim Kaus, and urs Muller. The purpose of PInCh is to bring together the expertise of faculty and members of the community to develop health care innovations that help solve health-related problems through patient engagement. PInCh’s inaugural question was: How do we empower individuals to take control of their own health outcomes? The team was awarded one of the three $25, 000 awards on May 19, 2014 to pilot test a technology innovation called MedGuardian. MedGuardian is a user-friendly prescription notification system that  enables patients and their caregivers more accurate tracking of medication compliance and adherence to medication regimen. Approximately 30-50% of US adults are not adherent to chronic medications and this has been associated with an estimated $100 billion in preventable costs annually including: increased risk of hospitalization, readmissions, decreased health-related quality of life, and increased risk of death. MedGuardian is an automated prescription notification system has been designed to improve patient adherence to medication regimens and will potentially allow individuals in the community and their healthcare providers to better monitor medication compliance in real-time. Funds received from the PInCh program will be used to: 1) build a working prototype of the MedGuardian device, and 2) conduct preliminary research to evaluate the usability and usefulness of the MedGuardian device for older adult patients with chronic illnesses and their family caregivers.

Odukoya is a PittPharmacy faculty member in the pharmacy and therapeutics department.

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