Development of a Robot Intervention Program in Medication Instruction at a Pharmacy

Abstract

In recent years in Japan, longer medication periods and greater numbers of types of prescribed medicines tend to lead to more failures in taking medication. An educational method must be considered that enables patients to understand and take medication correctly to improve medication adherence, to reduce medical costs, and to alleviate symptoms effectively because increased medical expenses by residual medications or overlapping medication and negative effects on human health by side effects and interactive effects exist. Therefore, in this study we developed a patient teaching program to improve medication adherence effectively that uses communication robots at one pharmacy. Particularly, we aimed at more effective instruction and improved robot behavior to raise patients' learning motivation by create effective communication with patients. We report the concept and overview of this teaching robot system.