Aging group awards first IT grants to support medication adherence

The Center for Technology and Aging, an Oakland, Calif., organization dedicated to helping improve the quality of home- and community-based care for seniors, has, for the first time, awarded grants to support technology dissemination. In this case, five groups will receive a total of $477,000 to help boost medication adherence among older patients with chronic conditions via technology and better care coordination. The grants will be supported by $520,000 in matching funds from the recipients.

Caring Choices, a volunteer organization in Northern California, will bring the Philips Medication Dispensing Service to four home-health and senior-housing agencies with its grant. The VA's Central California Health Care System will deploy the Bosch Health Buddy monitoring system and related "smart" monitors and scales to five medically underserved counties. The Visiting Nurse Service of New York will use its grant to expand EMR, counseling support and medication algorithm technology at the point of care. Another grantee, the Connecticut Pharmacists Foundation, will tie together pharmacists in three states to provide remote, culturally relevant medication management services to Cambodian-American communities. And the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Foundation will acquire a web-based medication assessment system called Monitor-Rx for a site in Irvine, Calif.

For more about these grants:
- take a look at this Center for Technology and Aging press release (.pdf)