Abstract

Remembering to take medicine on time is a common challenge encountered by many individuals. In today's fast-paced lifestyle, compounded by the effects of stress, short-term memory loss is becoming more prevalent even among younger demographics. As a result, individuals often find themselves struggling to recall and adhere to their prescribed oral medication schedules, leading to doubts and concerns about their timely intake. The implication of this problem extends beyond the surface as inconsistent medication perpetuates the status quo of the patient’s illness or can worsen the health condition. This often results in increased consultations and additional prescriptions. Additionally, the insurance companies also incur increased expenses per patient. To address wastage of the various resources and treatment costs, lean manufacturing coupled with machine learning and improved design can be useful in lowering manufacturing and research costs along with downstream process expenses. From a product design perspective, there is a need to address the design of the medicine containers to provide a user-friendly experience of oral medicine administration. The paper explores the role of machine learning in reducing the time in the research process. It is followed by possible options for suitable medicine containers for oral medication involving a set of ideations. To conclude, considering the different storage needs of different medicines, a more collaborative approach is recommended, involving doctors, industrial designers and upstream executives in the design of improved medicine administration. This collaborative effort will be potentially fruitful in ensuring patients’ adherence to their medication schedules.

Keywords

Biodegradable, Causal loop, Medication, Product Design, Sustainable.