Amiko launches wearable device for medicine bottles, asthma inhalers

We’re pretty sick of wearables all doing the same things, like pretending to be watches or turn spectacle wearers into obnoxious, privacy-violating trolls. But a new startup, Amiko, may have just developed the most important wearable we’ve seen thus far.

It’s a unique wearable activity tracker that “wraps around medicine packaging” — essentially a personal medication assistant. While other wearables monitor patient’s health, Amiko aims to inform, alert and remind the patient to take the right dosage of medication and alerts the patient should the medication run low.

This all sounds pretty pointless, and frankly, it isn’t exactly a wearable in the truest sense either, but it does address an important issue, especially at a time when the world becomes even more health-conscious in the wake of the Ebola epidemic.

“We learned medication adherence is a huge global problem and thought there had to be a way to use advanced motion and weight change algorithms, dedicated high-tech sensors and Bluetooth to devise a solution,” notes Duillio Macchi, president of Amiko.

“We created a wearable that automatically collects data about usage, helping patients stay on track with their meds, providing instant feedback and eliminating errors due to prescription timing and dosage.”

It is designed to fit on five common medicine packages at the moment, with plans to increase the range to fit blister packs and the like. The first product launched is an inhaler and will be available on Indiegogo for US$50 from today.

Of course, this all sounds extremely peculiar, but considering the number of lives lost in the US alone from those missing their medication, this might be one of the more important pieces of wearable tech developed this year. It will be commercially available Q2 2015.