May 8 2019
Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. recently announced that they are partnering with Counted, LLC on a new medication management system.
Counted’s Smart Blister Pack incorporating the Flexpoint Bend Sensor® is developed to supervise and track patients’ use of pharmaceuticals, and specifically, opioids, by insurance providers, medical professionals, and authorities in real time.
The Flexpoint Bend Sensor® technology has been incorporated into a Utah-based health tech company’s blister pack system that will track and report data in real time, thereby minimizing the possibilities for prescription fraud, theft, and other misuses as identified in The Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018, approved by the Senate late in 2018.
According to the terms of the five-year agreement between Flexpoint and Utah-based Counted®, Flexpoint will offer the Bend Sensor® which, when integrated with Counted’s Smart Blister Pack, will provide medical providers real-time data and endow them with the insight to better regulate the quantity, length, and dosage of opioid prescriptions and other medications, while minimizing medication errors and the establishment of fake pharmaceuticals.
Counted’s technology, together with the Bend Sensor®, allows a cloud system to gather the time, date, temperature, and location of the use of every single pill while sharing this data at the same time with appropriate health personnel. This system facilitates timely and correct communication between patients and health care providers, assuring that patients in medical need are taking their drugs as per the prescription.
It can also be customized to send notifications ranging from tampering, misuse, reminders, or diversion, thereby making it simpler to supervise the administration of potent drugs as well as emphasizing any patterns of abuse.
The Flexpoint Bend Sensor is a very robust and easy to integrate sensing technology. The Bend Sensor will fit many applications. We are excited that the sensor’s use has helped Counted® realize their vision for this revolutionary life-saving product.
Dave Beck, Director of Engineering, Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc.
We believe sensor production will increase month over month and potentially ramp up to exceed millions of sensors per year.
Clark Mower, CEO, Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc.
In January of 2018, former FDA Commissioner, Dr Scott Gottlieb said, “The issue of opioid misuse and abuse remains one of my highest priorities and we believe it’s going to take carefully sustained and coordinated action by everyone involved to reduce the tide of opioid addiction and death afflicting our communities, while maintaining appropriate prescribing for patients in medical need. We recognize both the urgency and complexity of this crisis and are taking several steps toward these goals.”
The US FDA has declared that one of their important tasks in handling the opioid epidemic is by decreasing new addiction and influence on prescribing medical professionals through Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) authorities.
The financial burden of prescription opioid misuse is 78.5 billion dollars a year in the United States alone, and approximately 21%–29% of patients prescribed with opioids for chronic pain misuse them. Around 8%–10% of users will develop an opioid use disorder. The objective of the Counted® blister pack incorporating Flexpoint Bend Sensor® technology is not only to assist in the justice systems prescription drug monitoring programs but also to counsel, direct, and customize prescription medications for patients in medical need, while aiding to eliminate the deadly epidemic of prescription pain killer abuse and its impacts among the communities in the United States.
Counted’s Smart Blister Pack is intended for any kind of medication delivery or dispensary monitoring and can be applied to any system where seamless security and/or medical adherence and data reporting is vital.