Pill Bottles That Talk

B O S T O N, Oct. 29 -- What if medications not only came with instructions, they also read them aloud?

Enter SCRIPTALK, a new audio device that can do just that. For many elderly people with failing vision and multiple medications to manage, such a device would be more than a luxury. It could mean the difference between life and death.

For the illiterate or those with language barriers, the fine print on the medication vial would now be decoded — all from a talking pill bottle.

With the press of a button and a quick scan under an electron beam, the device will read off any warnings, dosing instructions and refill information, telling the user if the medication is to be taken with food, once a day or without alcohol.

Its makers hope the device can help avert some of the serious consequences of taking a pill at the wrong time, at the wrong dose or under the wrong conditions.

"If you can't read the prescription label, if you read and you don't understand it, you may end up taking the medication incorrectly, which will lead to medication errors and adverse drug events," says Bruce Gaynes, a pharmacist at Rush Presbyterian Medical Center in Chicago participating in the testing of the device.

SCRIPTALK is actually a system in which a small voice synthesizer and an embedded microchip translate the printed label into sound.

The microchip is placed in the label at the pharmacy and the synthesizer is kept at home. The synthesizer costs approximately $250, while each microchip label will come at a cost of about $2. And each drugstore that participates would have to invest in a $1,700 special printer that encodes the microchip to read each label once it's printed.

The Senior Challenge

But SCRIPTALK is not ready for market quite yet.

Though it is being marketed to VA hospitals, its manufacturer, Normal, Ill.-based En-Vision America, says it will not be available to consumers until early to mid-2002. And though an earlier pilot study found the device to be user-friendly, researchers are still hoping to prove that the device is effective in cutting down on medication errors. Researchers from Rush Presbyterian are planning a large-scale study with actual seniors that is expected to last from six to 12 months.