James Gerrans, Nilanjan Dey, R. Simon Sherratt
Abstract The main barriers preventing medicine reuse are concerns of costs and safety risks. To address this, we demonstrate a proof-of-concept Smart Packaging and Returns Assessment System (SPaRAS): A customisable smart sensor that validates the storage conditions of medicines while in patient care and streamlines the examination of returned medicines using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. Here we evaluated the lifespan of the system over various sample rates; calculating the power consumption, memory usage, and the time taken to download data on return. When running at the same sample-rate to sensors already used in the UK National Health Service (NHS), SPaRAS can collect data for 17 days. This is long enough to be used within a larger trial for prescription medicine reuse. If a custom circuit board was designed to reduce power consumption, the device could run for 337 days with its current memory capacity. With further in-situ testing, this would be able to verify the conditions of most medicines.