#CSUN15 Audio: Accessible Prescription Lables from AccessaMed

Chad Hazen, Director of community outreach from AccessaMed, demonstrates the Digital Audio label. The label is attached to a prescription by your pharmacy, requires no additional device, and speaks all information contained on a printed prescription just by touching the button on the label. Learn more about AccessaMed and find out how to approach your pharmacy for participation by visiting AccessaMed.com.

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Transcript

We strive to provide an accurate transcription, though errors may occur.

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Transcribed by Kayde Rieken

Welcome to BlindBargains.com coverage of CSUN 2015 — the biggest names, provocative interviews, and wall-to-wall exhibit hall coverage — brought to you by the American Foundation for the Blind.

For the latest technology news and accessibility information on cell phones, mainstream and access technology, personal medical devices, office equipment, digital audio players, and web-based and app technologies, log on to AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's monthly technology magazine: www.afb.org/AW.

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Now, here's J.J. Meddaugh.

J.J. Meddaugh: We are here with Chad Hazen. He is the Director of Community Outreach for AccessaMed. AccessaMed, as you may know, does some accessible prescription medication labels — audio labels. So Chad, welcome to the podcast.

Chad Hazen: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

JM: So show us — for people who might not be familiar, show us all what you have here.

CH: What I'm showing — and we will demonstrate audibly — is what we call a Digital Audio label. It's a two-inch-tall by one-inch-wide thumb drive-sized device that fits on virtually any prescription packaging, whether it's a round surface of a bottle or a box, bubble packing. It happens to be on a bottle of cough medicine right now. And at the push of a button on the face of the device mid-way down, which I will press, we will hear an announcement. Everything that's on the print label will be on this audio label.

JM: All right.

CH: Here we go.

[The device reads detailed information, including the patient's name, the name of the medicine, the dosage instructions, and the prescription number.]

JM: That's important for the refills.

CH: I will stop the — stop the message by pushing the button again. So we've designed it in such a way that, if you need all the information — the shape, size, color of the medication — if you need to know the RX number, the — any information that you may need is available. But the two most important pieces of information are at the top of the label, with your name — so if there's more than one visually impaired person in the home — to make sure you have the right medication; and then the second piece of information will be the name of the medication itself.

JM: And then — and down to the prescription number. So for refills, that's really important —

CH: Absolutely.

JM: — as well.

CH: The doctor's name, the pharmacist's name, the address of the pharmacy —

JM: Does it get into the directions and dosage, too, or —

CH: It does. Absolutely. Whatever — again, whatever's on a print label — so if the dosing, warnings, whatever's on a print label will be an exact replicate of the audio label.

JM: So it being — it's a single button; correct?

CH: Yes.

JM: So there's no — you — you can start and stop, but you can't jump —

CH: You cannot fast-forward or rewind, no.

JM: Okay. So this — obviously, this differentiates from other solutions where you have to have an actual device —

CH: Correct.

JM: — as a scanner. This would just be each one of these on each piece of medicine. So obviously, you feel that's an advantage, going this route?

CH: We think so. This came out of my own personal need and — where we wanted to have a solution that did not include the launching of an app and having to navigate an app. We wanted something that did not require a separate piece of accessible equipment just to access the medication information. We wanted something that was completely self-contained. I travel a lot; so in the event — in the other solution, if I forgot my device, I wouldn't have access to my medication information. With this solution, it's permanently attached to the bottle or box, whatever the prescription packaging is. Push of a button, you have all the information; and throw it in your purse, your backpack, or wherever — put it in your pocket — and you have it with you at all times.

JM: How does that break down from a — a pharmacy perspective? So — I mean, it seems to me that the other solution — it's just a label. So the labels might be cheaper, but of course, you've got to pay for the devices. But here, you just have these little things.

CH: Yes. The pharmacy is our customer, and we have priced this in such a price point that seems to be favorable with pharmacies. We are in the middle of negotiating with a national chain. Can't make that announcement at this time, but the idea was to make it very simple — push a button, hear the information. And because of its simplicity, the cost, therefore, is going to be less than maybe having to buy a — a device or a piece of machinery or an application or whatever. And they're intended to be disposed of because pharmacies don't want to take back prescription containers back over the counter. They are recyclable but not reusable, in the sense that we intend them not to come off the bottle to transfer to another bottle; but for every refill, every new prescription, a new Digital Audio label will go not that refill or that new prescription.

JM: Okay. So you're not actually going to take — they're not going to take the same device and reload it with —

CH: No. No.

JM: — with new —

CH: And that's because medication information changes from month to month. The manufacturer may have a yellow, round pill versus an oblong, purple pill — same milligram strength, maybe, for that particular medication; but manufacturers have all sorts of different shape, size, and colors of medications. And so, in order to ensure safety for the end user, the pharmacist — and they've told us this, and we want this — will put a new label on each prescription, each refill, each new prescription.

JM: You — you mentioned recycling. So how would you dispose of your older electronic —

CH: We do not currently have in place a recycling program of our own; so we are telling people, if you're concerned about recyclability, you would do it in the same manner that you do any electronic device. If you have a CD player that's broken and you have a recycling center or a method to recycle those electronic products, you would do the same with a Digital Audio label — put it in that recycling box or that recycling center. They will then do what they do, which is dismantle it and use the parts and pieces that they can use.


JM: What's the — the battery life on these?

CH: We use a lithium manganese battery, and we say at least 400 pushes of the full 1-minute cycle. The — the chip set in here —

JM: Right.

CH: — is 60 seconds. And so if someone has a 4-day — 4-time-a-day medication times 90 days is 360 — the 400 is sufficient. But if you are only going to listen to the two pieces of information to make sure it's your medication and the medication itself, that — you know, that takes two seconds. So we have had some of these devices on bottles for nine months, and they're still going.

JM: So you say it's a 60-second chip. What if the information is longer than 60 seconds?

CH: We have an algorithm in our software that — and the pharmacist will install our software onto their computer. We don't have any licensing fee for that to the pharmacist. But we have an algorithm that will compress the information. So if the information is 64 seconds, our software will recognize that and compress it in order to make sure that all the information gets on that chip.

JM: Okay. Well, you mentioned a — a possible deal with a national chain, but do you — is this in place in any pharmacies currently, or —

CH: Yes. We are in some regional pharmacies in West Virginia with a pharmacy called Fruth. We are in the state of Washington, in our hometown of Vancouver, Washington; and we are — we are in Canada also now; and we are negotiating with a major chain, as I said, and then some other regionals that we're not at liberty to announce just yet.

JM: Sure. And when it comes to the — the pharmacy itself, how long does it take them to load on the information when — because, obviously, there — when — when you put in for medication, you just wait for them to fill it. It's, you know —

CH: Right.

JM: — 20, 30 minutes. How long does it take to add this label?

CH: To do the accessible label is about two minutes. Our software is installed on their computer, and we have a device called a docking station that's a round, cylindrical —

JM: Yeah.

CH: — device — that the Digital Audio label sits in. It's connected to the pharmacist's computer with a USB cable. When it's connected and he has created a print label, it will say, "You have a Digital Audio label connected. Do you want to create a label?" He will have to type in some — some population fields, hit the Go button — they can actually verify before they send the information using text-to-speech technology, before they send it to the Digital Audio label — they can verify that the label is accurate in terms of the milligram strength and the name of the — all that information can be verified. And then he'll hit Go, and the transfer takes probably 30 to 45 seconds. All in all, it's about a two-minute process.

JM: All right. So if people are interested, what can customers do, or potential users, to try to get their pharmacies on board? Or what's the process to do that?

CH: Excellent. You can reach out to us personally at AccessaMed.com. That's AccessaMed.com. I'm the Director of Community Outreach. You could speak with me directly, if you like. But what we're really encouraging people to do at this show is to go to their local pharmacy; let them know that there's a solution out there called the Digital Audio label by AccessaMed; have them either get in contact with corporate or in contact with us; and we will make arrangements with them to have Digital Audio labels in that particular pharmacy.

JM: All right. Thank you so much, Chad.

CH: Thank you. I appreciate it very much.

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Category: Health/Personal Care
hapholly Wednesday, 11-Mar-2015 11:28 AM ET:

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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.