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Texting Is the Best Way to Remind Folks to Take Medicine, Study Finds

by Caleb Johnson on June 8, 2009 at 07:58 AM

Getting a child or teenager to take their medicine is usually an uphill battle. Too many distractions -- TV, videogames, cell phones -- and sometimes, it just flat-out tastes bad. However, it's important, particularly when dealing with an organ transplant patient. This medication can determine whether or not a patient's body accepts the new organ. EMaxHealth recently reported a study, which looked at using text messages to remind patients to take their medications.

In the study, researchers looked at 41 liver transplant patients. First, they determined what time of day the patient preferred to receive a reminder. When the time came, researchers sent the patient a text message which reminded them to take their medication. If the patient did not respond via text within 15 minutes, another message was sent to their parents.

Researchers told EMaxHealth that the year before the study, 12 out of 41 transplant patients' bodies rejected the organ because of improper medication dosage. After one year of the study, only two patients' bodies rejected the transplanted organ. We think the results of this study speak volumes. These researchers have found a way to use our ever-expanding wireless world to save lives, and that is something we can get behind. [From EMaxHealth, via Textually.org]



Tags: cell phone, CellPhone, health, liver, medicine, organ transplant, OrganTransplant, text message, TextMessage, top

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