Upstate Outpatient Pharmacy offers 'talking' prescription drug bottles

Host Amber Smith: [00:00:00] Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York invites you to be ""The Informed Patient"" with the podcast that features experts from Central New York's only academic medical center. I'm your host, Amber Smith. The Upstate Outpatient Pharmacy offers talking prescription bottles for non-English speaking patients or patients who are visually impaired. To learn more about this program, I'm talking with Christina Hyde, the associate director of pharmacy utilization and development at Upstate. Welcome back to "The Informed Patient," Dr. Hyde.

Christina Hyde, ND: Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be here.

Host Amber Smith: Before we talk about this new program, let me ask you to explain your credentials. You have the initials ND after your name. What is that?

Christina Hyde, ND: ND stands for Naturopathic Doctor. A naturopathic doctor is a physician that practices integrative primary care. We use a combination of both Western or allopathic medicine and evidence-based complementary and alternative [00:01:00] modalities to diagnose and treat disease.

Host Amber Smith: I see. Alright, so tell us about these talking prescription bottles. What's the name of this program?

Christina Hyde, ND: The name of the program is called ScriptTalk. And we are just so excited to be able to introduce it to the Upstate community and to Syracuse.

Host Amber Smith: So tell us how it works.

Christina Hyde, ND: The program is set up to use an RFID sticker that we print in the pharmacy. Those stickers are applied to the prescription bottle, a bottle of eyedrops, for example. And then that RFID interacts with either a reader or an application on a patient's phone to give them information and directions about the prescription.

Host Amber Smith: So RFID,is it like a scan code or something?

Christina Hyde, ND: Yeah. So an RFID is essentially a [00:02:00] scannable barcode. And it allows the device to interact and capture the information that's been preloaded by the program that we use on our computers.

Host Amber Smith: How many languages is it available in?

Christina Hyde, ND: It's available in 15 languages that can be read by the device and both the iOS and Android platforms. And then there are five additional languages that can be read by one or more of those devices.

Host Amber Smith: Can you share with us what it sounds like?

Christina Hyde, ND: So I'm just going to turn the device on.

ScriptTalk: ScriptTalk Station ready.

Patient: Rose Test - Flower.

Medication: Amlodipine besylate, five milligram tablet.

Instructions: Take one tablet by mouth once a day.

Warning: May cause, dizziness.

Warning: This drug may impair the ability to operate a vehicle, vessel, [00:03:00] for example, boat or machinery. Use care until you become familiar with its effects.

Warning: It's very important that you take or use this exactly as directed. Do not skip doses or discontinue unless directed by your doctor.

Quantity: 30.

Prescription date: January 29, 2025.

Expiration date: January 29, 2026.

Refills remaining: One, refillable until January 29, 2026.

Prescriber: Test, Upstate Outpatient Pharmacy at Nappi.

To reorder this prescription, dial (3 1 5) 4 6 4 - 9 1 9 4.

Prescription number: 3 6 0 6 0 6 9 7.

For more info, dial (3 1 5) 4 6 4 - 4 3 8 0. Enter code 9 0 1 [00:04:00] 0.

Christina Hyde, ND: You can see it's extremely comprehensive. It will read on the device the entire prescription label. So if somebody is interested in all of that information, they can get that with the device. They can also get it off of the apps. One of the benefits of the apps, which are both iOS and Android, are that there's a short feature. So somebody can just place the bottle on and hear what medication it is, essentially, and what dose they're supposed to take. So if it's a regular medication, and they don't need all of that information every single time, they can just place the bottle on their phone when they have the app downloaded, and it will say, "amlodipine, take this much, this many times a day."

Host Amber Smith: So I'm thinking of a medicine cabinet that has a bunch of bottles in it. And if you're visually impaired in some way, it's difficult to tell one bottle from the other. So you would pull them out, and it would be read to you, [00:05:00] so you would take the right thing.

Christina Hyde, ND: We are really hoping. Everything we do is to try to increase patient access, ease of use for medications. And we hope that this really solves a problem for both visually impaired and non-English speaking patients. It is very difficult, and we know from reports that patients who are visually impaired will employ devices like putting their medications in different areas of their homes to try to remember which they should take when. And so this really does answer a need.

We're especially excited to work with the Vision Clinic around things like eye drops, which can be very complicated, where there are several different eye drops, and people take them at different times in the day. So there really is a lot of opportunity here to support patients who are currently struggling.

Host Amber Smith: [00:06:00] This is Upstate's "The Informed Patient" podcast. I'm your host, Amber Smith. I'm talking with Christina Hyde, the associate director of Pharmacy Utilization and development at Upstate.

So who is eligible for ScriptTalk?

Christina Hyde, ND: Anybody whose provider feels like they would benefit from the program is eligible.

Host Amber Smith: What does it cost?

Christina Hyde, ND: It's free to the patient. All that would need to happen is that the provider send to our pharmacy the prescription with a note, "ScriptTalk," and we would fill in vials that have the RFID check on them. And then within 24 to 48 hours, the company actually outreaches the patient and teaches them how to use the technology.

So not only do they have interaction with our pharmacy and an introduction to what they're getting and what that's going to look like, but the company outreaches them and goes through a full [00:07:00] onboarding.

Host Amber Smith: If they are not going to use the app on their phone, how do they get that device, and how big is it? How much space does it take up?

Christina Hyde, ND: The device is about the size, it's smaller than a fire detector is how I describe it. It's quite reasonably sized. It does not, I'm holding it up, which doesn't help anybody who's listening, but it's essentially the size of a small fire detector.

Host Amber Smith: I'd like to ask you about another feature that's available for prescriptions at the Upstate Outpatient Pharmacy. How do the locking bottles for narcotics work? I've heard about those, but how do they work?

Christina Hyde, ND: Our Save RX vials. Oh, we're extremely proud of this program. So the locking prescription vials are exactly what the name implies. They are vials that have a combination set on them, and the goal of that, and the reason we use them, is we dispense narcotic [00:08:00] medication in them.

We know from data and investigation that the real entry point for abuse of substances such as opioids is pilfering, so people taking medications that are in the home, or patients sharing, not really thinking, probably no ill intent, but a family member pulls their back and they say, "oh, I have this medication."

So the locking prescription vials really serve two purposes. They secure the medication so that the patient is the only one that has access. We set a code. We teach the patient how to use it. We have a pretty extensive teach that we do with the patient on the importance of safe medication storage. And then we talk to them about the locking mechanism and the fact that they have to go through this process serving as a reminder that this is a very serious thing. This is a [00:09:00] controlled substance. This is not something to be sharing with people to whom it was not prescribed.

So we have had that in place for a couple of years now. We are actually conducting a survey with patients to whom we dispense medications in these vials to gauge their feedback on how useful it is, how engaged it has them in understanding the dangers of sharing opioids, the importance of safe medication storage, and to really just see how that experience is for them.

Now, will those locking bottles work with the ScriptTalk program?

Currently it's not applicable. The locking prescription vials are used for discharge narcotic medications. So when a patient is discharged from the hospital, they are provided the medications in the safe RX locking prescription vials.

Christina Hyde, ND: [00:10:00] The ScriptTalk bottles are prescriptions that a patient will be taking regularly, and they'll be refilled, so they're a little apple to oranges.

Host Amber Smith: Gotcha. Well, as we wrap up, let's give listeners a phone number or a website for more information about the ScriptTalk, if they're interested in that.

Christina Hyde, ND: So ScriptTalk is currently dispensed out of our Nappi (Wellness Institute) pharmacy. Where the prescriptions are filled, where we have the computer and the sticker printer is at Nappi. We can obviously courier and ship anywhere. So to reach the Nappi pharmacy directly, patients would call (3 1 5) 4 6 4 - 4 3 8 0, or they can visit us at upstate.edu/outpatientpharmacy. Or simply search "Upstate Outpatient Pharmacy services" [00:11:00] to be taken directly to our website.

Host Amber Smith: Well, I appreciate you making time for this interview, Dr. Hyde.

Christina Hyde, ND: Thank you so much. It's been wonderful to speak with you.

Host Amber Smith: My guest has been Upstate's associate director of pharmacy utilization and development, Christina Hyde. "The Informed Patient" is a podcast covering health, science and medicine, brought to you by Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, and produced by Jim Howe with sound engineering by Bill Broeckel and graphic design by Dan Cameron. Find our archive of previous episodes at upstate.edu/informed. If you enjoyed this episode, please invite a friend to listen. You can also rate and review "The Informed Patient" podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you tune in. This is your host, Amber Smith, thanking you for listening.