George Brown College works with MEMOTEXT for developing new patient adherence program

George Brown College students work with MEMOTEXT Patient Adherence Solutions on the research and development of a new patient adherence program.

George Brown College is collaborating with MEMOTEXT, a patient adherence and medication compliance company, to develop an inference-based telephone/short message service (SMS) based communications program for an overseas health stakeholder-based research project.

As part of a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grant, with support from George Brown College's Office of Applied Research and Innovation, this collaboration allows MEMOTEXT to work hands on with multiple George Brown students in their respective fields. The program focuses on identifying patients' psychological, historical and literacy levels as barriers to following a Type 2 Diabetes treatment regimen. MEMOTEXT is working with students from the Information Systems Business Analyst, and Health Information Management programs; each bringing their own unique level of expertise to the project.

"We are very excited to have been awarded with this incredible opportunity," says Amos Adler, President of MEMOTEXT Corporation. "We are thrilled to work with faculty, administration and the students to develop their practical experience and meet the challenges and expectations we have for this project."

Students will develop and assist in the creation and development of the documentation and ongoing statistical analysis for the program. The project will employ the use of the MEMOTEXT methodology and communications platform.  Communications will be short, personalized questionnaires, and subsequent educational, reminder, and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) related messages. The questionnaires are intended to identify customer attitudes towards health and potential barriers to following their medicines regime fully. Specific customer responses will then be used to adapt message flows to individuals. The objective is to maximize relevance, enhance beliefs and ultimately improve the medicine taking behaviours of patients.

"This partnership shows the value of giving our students the opportunity to apply their learning to industry problems," says Dr. Robert Luke, Assistant Vice President, George Brown College's Office of Applied Research and Innovation. "Linking education to applied research helps our industry partners address R&D challenges while providing students with advanced training on innovation."

Designed to help maintain a healthy treatment regimen, this new adherence program provides patients reminders using telephone interactive voice recordings and SMS text messaging. George Brown College students are helping automate the inference based algorithms used to segment and deploy message interventions. Aside from reminders, the program offers educational tips, recipes, and motivational quotes. By providing real-time reminders, patients are receiving individualized alerts, which integrate seamlessly into their regular routine.

"MEMOTEXT has presented our students with an unbelievable opportunity to work and learn within their field of interest. Gaining this kind of hands on experience is more than invaluable to their respective futures." says Tyler Krimmel, Project Coordinator and Instructor from George Brown College.