Interact Health Smart Pillbox

⬅ Return to Research

Problem space

To best manage their disease, people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) need to take their medication on a very regular schedule. However, for most people, life gets in the way, making it hard to stick to that schedule. Our team came together to work on a smart technological solution to help people remember their meds and track their usage over time.

Design Process + Solution

With a team including nurses, computer science engineers, electrical engineers, human factors engineers, and medical doctors, we undertook an iterative participatory design process to develop a smart connected pillbox and accompanying app. We worked with a co-design team of CKD patient who informed the design of both the box and app.

▲ Images (Top) App screens that are used to track data from the smart pillbox. (Bottom Left) Participtory Deign session where CKD patients guide the co-design proecss. (Bottom Right) The InterACT™ Health research team with a prototype of our pillbox system. From left to right: Dr. James Hill, Aaron Ganci, Dr. Rebecca Bartlett Ellis, Omar Nezamuddin (PhD student), Dr. Euzeli Dos Santos Jr.

Publications

Ganci, Aaron (2025). “Designing for Health and Wellbeing.” University of Arkansas Master of Design Program. Online. 1 April 2025.
Bartlett Ellis, Rebecca, Hill, James, Kerley, K., Sinha, Arjun, Ganci, Aaron & Russell, Cynthia. (2019). “The Feasibility of a Using a Smart Button Mobile Health System to Self-Track Medication Adherence and Deliver Tailored Short Message Service Text Message Feedback.” Journal of Medical Internet Research. Form Res. 2019 Jun 25;3(2):e13558. https://doi.org/10.2196/13558. PMID: 31237568; PMCID: PMC6614996.
Ellis, R. J. B., Ganci, A., Hill, J., dos Santos, E., & Kerley, K. D. (2018, April). “Co-Designing Mobile Health Technology For Medication Management: Involving Target Users In The Design Process.” In Annals of Behavioral Medicine (Vol. 52, pp. S390-S390). Oxford Univ Press Inc. https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kay013
Bartlett Ellis RJ, A Ganci, KJ Head, and S Ofner. (2018). “Characteristics of Adults Managing Vitamins/Supplements and Prescribed Medications-Who Is Using, Not Using, and Abandoning Use of Pillboxes?: A Descriptive Study”. Clinical Nurse Specialist CNS. 32 (5): 231-239. https://doi.org/10.1097/nur.0000000000000395
Ganci, Aaron. (2017). “Collaborations between InterACT Health and Think It Make It Lab.” Indiana State Congressional Budget Committee Luncheon. Indianapolis, IN. 13 June 2017.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse