Medication nonadherence occurs when patients don’t take their medications as prescribed, and it’s a big problem. Research shows that patients don’t take their medicines as prescribed about half the time, creating significant consequences for patients with chronic conditions. Typically, patients are noncompliant due to fear, cost, mistrust, or simply having too many to take. But other times, it’s not because of being unwilling; patients may be medically fragile or visibility disabled and unable to stay on track with multiple medications at different times.
However, one Mississippian is working to change that with new technology: Time Touch Take Automated System.
In 2016, Barbara Coatney got a call from her Atlanta nephew requesting to visit the hospital to see his dad, Ronnie. When Coatney arrived and discovered Ronnie was blind and living alone in an apartment nearby, she became his caretaker.
“When the hospital discharged him,” explained Coatney. “I brought him to his apartment, and he had medications all over the place. Pills were on the floor, table, bathroom, etc. I told him, now I know why you are in the hospital. You are not taking your medication!”
After a few weeks, Coatney moved Ronnie to an apartment near her house and realized the same problems with mismanaging his medications persisted. Ronnie shared with her that the pills drop between his fingers and the small containers that come from pharmacies make it challenging to hang on to and often fall to the floor and spill out.
Coatney, whose master’s and Ph.D. degrees are in special education and education administration, said, “We special education teachers try to work things out.” That’s when she came up with the idea for Ronnie to take his medication through the sense of touch and hearing.
Coatney started working on a pill organizer for the sight-impaired. It would allow a caregiver to load the device once weekly, use a timer, and raise dots to help the patient self-administer appropriate dosages at the ideal time.
“I started writing up my notes and looking at Ronnie’s progress over time,” Coatney said. “And that was the key—blind people must be able to take medicine and be self-sufficient.”
Coatney drafted a 12-page report and sent it to the Mississippi Polymer Institute at the University of Southern Mississippi, which connected her with an engineer. Ultimately, Coatney was connected with Innovate Mississippi, and these really started developing.
Innovate Mississippi helped Coatney scope her prototype, pull together a presentation, and prepare a pitch for the Mississippi Seed Fund, which provides early-stage funding for high-tech and high-growth firms in Mississippi. Coatney participated in the 2021 Women and Minority Entrepreneurial Development Program, a virtual accelerator to get products and services to market from women and minority-owned startups.
Coatney received a $10,000 proof-of-concept award from the Mississippi Seed Fund, which was used to get her prototype in shape for real-world beta testing and evaluation. In 2022, she received the Give Award, the Governor’s Initiative for Volunteer Excellence, because of her desire to make the lives of people with disabilities better by inventing the Time-Touch-Take Medication System for the blind and elderly.
In 2023, Coatney successfully acquired funding and hired an app developer, firmware engineer, electrical engineer, and manufacturer. Finally, in 2024, the app and medication system will be completed and set for launch in November. Coatney is still working to obtain medicare approval and registered with the Veterans Administration for billing.
It has been a long road for Coatney as an entrepreneur, but she recalled what kept her pushing forward in her innovation.
“I took Ronnie to his cardiologist, who asked Ronnie, “What have you been doing? I have not seen you in the hospital?” He said, “My sister-in-law makes me take my medication.” The doctor and I just smiled.”
You can visit TimeTouchTake.com to learn more about the product and its official launch in November 2024.
