During clinical trials of new drugs pharmaceutical companies must be able to depend on strict adherence to therapy regimens. However, up to 50 percent of patients involved in clinical trials do not adhere to the prescribed dosage regimen, resulting in distorted outcomes such as insufficient drug efficacy or underestimated frequency of side effects and delayed time to market. To enhance therapy adherence in clinical trials, Schreiner MediPharm (Oberschleißheim, Germany) and AARDEX Group (Seraing, Belgium) offer an electronic solution for medication adherence monitoring enabling pharmaceutical companies to digitally monitor and manage medication intake of their trial participants.
InnovationLab (Heidelberg, Germany), the expert in printed electronics “from lab to fab,” recently demonstrated a smart mattress cover that may reduce by up to 88% the risk of developing decubitus ulcers, the potentially life-threatening pressure ulcers that affect up to 2.5M hospital patients in the US annually. Combining InnovationLab’s flexible printed sensors with Bitquadrat’s specialised health-monitoring software, the new cost-effective platform conducts personalised, real-time risk-assessment of pressure ulcers—providing the most efficient way to inform nurses and other caregivers when patients require repositioning on their mattress.
Timestrip (Cambridge, UK), developer of smart indicator technology, is launching a completely new range with two electronic temperature indicators. They will be important in monitoring the safe storage and transportation of a wide range of goods including pharmaceuticals, vaccines, healthcare, food produce, adhesives and inks.
