Wisepill Technologies was founded in 2007 to tackle the challenging problem of Medication Adherence. Solutions were developed in the context of communicable disease management in the public health sector as well as the management of chronic conditions in public and private health. Wisepill Technologies makes use of mobile phone and Internet technologies to provide real-time medication management. The Wisepill portable medication dispenser has a GSM communication chip at its heart. The dispenser provides an electronic heart-beat to a central management system (Wisepill Web Server) whenever medication is taken. Reminders can be sent via text messages to the patient’s mobile phone. The system is 100% wireless. For the patient, Wisepill improves adherence both in the short and long term. The Wisepill system acts like a tutor, reminding the patient ONLY when they forget to take their medication. The Wisepill system has also been used by a number of research organisations and universities to simply monitor in real time, adherence to antiretroviral drug regimens. The system has also been used in oral pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP studies, which is an experimental HIV prevention approach that typically involves the daily use of ARVs by people who are HIV negative.
