A Systematic Review on Pill and Medication Dispensers from a Human-Centered Perspective

Abstract

As medication adherence represents a critical challenge in healthcare, pill and medication dispensers have gained increasing attention as potential solutions to promote adherence and improve patient outcomes. Following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodology, we carried out a systematic literature review on papers indexed in Scopus and PubMed, which present solutions for pill or medication dispensers. Given the importance of user acceptance for these solutions, the research questions of the survey are driven by a human-centered perspective. We first provide an overview of the different solutions, classifying them according to their stage of development. We then analyze each solution considering its hardware/software architecture. Finally, we review the characteristics of user interfaces designed for interacting with pill and medication dispensers and analyze the involvement of different types of users in dispenser management. On the basis of this analysis, we draw findings and indications for future research that are aimed to provide insights to healthcare professionals, researchers, and designers who are interested in developing and using pill and medication dispensers.

Keywords: Healthcare technology; Medication dispensers; Patient-centered care; Pill dispensers.

Fig. 1

PRISMA flow diagram

Fig. 2

The number of papers published each year

Fig. 3

Classification of findings along RQ1-RQ4

Fig. 4

Summaries of open issues and challenges