One Packet Manages Multiple Medications Per Dose

Graphic adapted from myonePAC web site

In a press release issued yesterday, Pharmacists Customize Prescriptions By Patient, Day and Dose with onePAC(TM) Packaging, Parata, which offers automated pharmacy services, announced the availability of onePac, a system allowing local pharmacies to provide all of a specific patient’s oral and topical medications packaged by dose.

According to the release,

One of the potential benefits of the pharmacy generated single dose packs is the elimination of many of the errors some patients make in distributing their medications in simple SMTWTFS pillboxes, reducing unintentional noncompliance.

Similar systems have been in place for some time at inpatient facilities and have been offered by some pharmacies to some patients. To my knowledge, this is the first widely available packaging system of this sort.

Unknown Issues Re onePAC

Because my information at this time is limited to a press release and whatever I could glean online, several important questions are unanswered.

What, for example, is the incremental cost and is it anticipated that the local pharmacy will absorb it or will it be passed along to consumers? Will third party payers cover this benefit?

On the technical side, can the onePAC system handle prescriptions calling for non-daily dosing, such as risedronate (Actonel) which is taken once a week?

If all of a patient’s prescriptions are processed and sold in 30-90 day bundles, how are changes in that patient’s medication regimen handled, both logistically and financially?

Is there research demonstrating that this type of packaging increases compliance?

I have emailed Parata with these questions and will share their responses here.

Update: Two of these questions are answer at Answers To Questions About onePAC. The remaining questions should have responses, I’m told, in the new day or two.

The Potential Utility of Individualized Dose Packets

If the system is practical (e.g., affordable, simple to use), this would be a potentially signficant compliance enhancement for anyone taking more than a single medication daily. Of course, my evaluation may be skewed by the fact that I have previously recommended such a program.

There is a significant gulf between good ideas and research-proven methodologies. And, as software manufacturers have repeatedly discovered, some flaws in any system are not apparent until that system is subjected to widespread implementation by actual end-users.

Nonetheless, onePAK does strike as a dandy idea and one that could benefit folks like my mother - and me.

• Answers To Questions About onePAC
• Does Mistrust Of A Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Cause Patient Noncompliance?
• Evidence Linking Medication Combinations & Adherence
• Fixed-Dose Combinations Improve Medication Compliance: A Meta-Analysis
• A Pragmatic Consideration Of Noncompliance In Patients With (Or Without) ADHD