Smart prescription bottle technology offers parents and caregivers enhanced oversight, ensuring child safety and medication adherence at home.
EDMOND, OKLAHOMA / ACCESS Newswire / May 7, 2025 / Medication misuse is killing children: One in five high school students has taken prescription medicine that was not prescribed for them; nearly 14,000 children died from opioid poisoning in a decade; and teenagers' drug overdose deaths more than doubled from 2019 to 2021 - with 22 teenagers dying each week. PillSafe®, the high-tech smart prescription bottle with a WiFi system, provides a way to protect children and adolescents from prescription misuse, diversion, accidental overdoses, and medication-related errors.
Medication misuse and diversion is a significant and growing threat to youth safety. According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, teenagers abuse prescription medications more than cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine combined.
Additionally, prescription drug use rose dramatically between 1997 and 2007, becoming America's fastest-growing drug problem, as reported by the Executive Office of the President in its comprehensive study, "Epidemic: Responding to America's Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis."
Even prescriptions for safe, common medications can be problematic. A 2022 study found that in more than one-third of cases, parents failed to ensure that their children took antibiotics at the proper intervals, which severely undercuts their effectiveness in treating illness.
These studies and statistics underscore the critical gap in prescription medication oversight within American households. PillSafe® bridges this gap by providing an extra layer of protection to help caregivers prevent misuse, abuse, and potentially fatal overdoses.
"Caregivers are stretched thin and cannot supervise every moment of a child's day. Even the most vigilant parents can miss signs of medication misuse or accidental ingestion," said Jim Patton, co-founder of PillSafe®. "Our technology provides a vital safety net, empowering families to protect their children and giving them confidence that medication remains secure at all times."
PillSafe's proprietary smart pill bottle with WiFi uses advanced technology designed specifically to combat medication errors and misuse in the home. Each PillSafe® bottle features a serialized dispenser requiring patient-specific access codes, an electronic pill counter, and a time-release system that ensures medication is only dispensed according to prescribed schedules. Moreover, the PillSafe® system immediately detects and alerts caregivers and medical providers if tampering occurs.
"Every year, numerous tragedies involving children occur because of unintentional medication overdoses or unauthorized access to prescription drugs intended for adults," said John Barr, MD, co-founder and inventor of PillSafe. "These tragic outcomes are preventable. PillSafe technology offers a practical, robust solution that dramatically improves caregiver oversight, ensuring medications remain accessible only to the intended patient at the proper time."
By integrating direct WiFi notifications, PillSafe's smart technology ensures caregivers receive immediate updates regarding prescription compliance and any potential issues, significantly reducing risks associated with unsupervised access to medications. In addition, PillSafe helps prevent accidental overdoses by strictly controlling medication dispensing, providing timely alerts, and establishing accountability between caregivers, patients, pharmacists, and medical professionals.
Medication safety and adherence remain significant public health concerns. PillSafe's technology addresses these issues by empowering families to better protect their youngest and most vulnerable members. With thousands of children and teens impacted annually by prescription misuse and medication-related accidents, PillSafe is committed to delivering innovative tools that enhance household safety and improve health outcomes.
"Medication misuse among youth is a problem that we cannot ignore," Patton added. "PillSafe provides peace of mind by enabling caregivers to maintain control over medication access. We believe our technology can save lives and prevent the devastating consequences of accidental overdoses and misuse."
To learn more about PillSafe and its role in protecting families and their youngest members from medication errors and misuse, visit www.pillsafeprotection.com.
About PillSafe®
PillSafe is a pioneering "smart" technology that shifts the standard of care in the pharmaceutical industry with home delivery and patient compliance in response to the opioid epidemic and the challenges of patient compliance and adherence. The company creates prescription compliance by restricting access to medication to only the patient and caregiver, keeping medication safe from divergence and abuse. PillSafe's "intelligent" design includes several innovative features that benefit the delivery network from the clinician to manufacturer to the pharmacy to the patient. The patented technology includes an electronic label that can increase adherence messaging, two-step verification, or activate messaging from the manufacturer to the pharmacy to the patient.
While PillSafe is in development of expanding its patented feature set and has not yet been FDA reviewed, it is not currently available for commercial sale.
Contact Information
Jessica Lombao
Media Advantage Account Manager
jessica.lombao@issuerdirect.com
SOURCE: PillSafe
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/healthcare-and-pharmaceutical/new-pillsafer-technology-innovations-protects-children-from-prescript-1021895
