Tissue Box Innovation Recognized In The Ocean of Healthcare

Pill Pouch is plankton in the sea of healthcare but this family-owned Detroit, Michigan-based and made business, was nominated as one of five finalists at this year’s 2015 Eye For Pharma "Most Valuable Patient Initiative" in Philadelphia, PA on April 8, 2015. The other finalists (“the Whales”) were mega pharmaceuticals Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis and UCB. Although the Pill Pouch family didn’t win, their story and the Pill Pouch were an audience favorite. The winner was Novartis for their Helio App, “a lifestyle and disease management app.”

In 2008, Kathi Sitek and her 90 year old mother Stella came up with a daily companion, formed out of a tissue box, to help Stella gain confidence in her medication and assist her when taking them daily. Stella’s confidence grew, she stayed healthy and out of the emergency room.

In fighting chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, pharmaceuticals are one important part of maintaining health and quality of life. And for the medications to be effective, taking them as prescribed is a significant part of the battle (adherence). Individuals can forget or misunderstand; they can become overwhelmed, intimidated, or disorganized. Because of these challenges, it is important to meet the individual where he or she is with the information that is relevant in a usable way.

Patient centricity was the talk of this year’s conference and the Pill Pouch’s special recognition was due to its focus on patient adherence to their medication that grew out of Kathi and Stella’s story. Together they were able to change Stella’s relationship to and confidence in her medication, thus improving her adherence and keeping her out of the ER.

The Pill Pouch is such a companion. It is an accessible tool that facilitates conversation with medical professionals, coordinates care with family, friends and medical community, and strengthens an individual’s understanding of and confidence in taking his or her medication as prescribed. This Pill Pouch is low cost, simple and a durable update to the original tissue box version. This simplicity, with a pocket for each sample of medication (visual) and the information about each medication, serves as an accessible daily guide to fight chronic conditions, stay healthy and maintain control over one’s health.

Although the Pill Pouch did not win, the recognition among such whales of competition is an affirmation that even their story, a seeming drop in the ocean, can have a meaningful impact in healthcare.

Eye For Pharma http://www.eyeforpharma.com/philadelphia/awards-finalists.php

Growing A New Companion For Healthy Daily Living - Strengths

The Pill Pouch grew out of our story, the story of our matriarch Stella Mazur. Together Stella and her daughter Kathi, looked to their own gifts, ingenuity and creativity to strengthen their relationship to each other, their medical community and to Stella’s medication.

Their simple, visual way helped Stella change her relationships to the ambiguous pills in her pill box. With the change in relationship came a growth in confidence, communication and her health.

Now that the Pill Pouch has been used by a lot of people that share a  similar story to Kathi and Stella including nurses, doctors and pharmacists, Pill Pouch is beginning our next phase of growth. We started by convening a community of daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, caregivers, nurses, pharmacists and students.

We focused on the strengths of the Pill Pouch and the opportunities the Pill Pouch has to help even more people that share the story of Stella and Kathi.

The strengths that were listed by the community are:

• Simple
• Unassuming
• Familiar
• Visual
• Organized
• Personalizable 
• Accessible
• Made In The USA
• Facilitates Communication
• Coordinates Care
• Our Story - the story of Kathi and Stella

We want to take the gardening approach that is rooted in the strengths that already exist and now grow to meet the identified opportunities.  Next post will focus on the opportunities that the next adaptation of the Pill Pouch could grow to meet.   Please share your comments and experiences.

Stella's Source - Passing on Tradition

Kathi Sitek (co-inventor of the Pill Pouch) has taken up a new hobby—Polish dancing!

Kathi’s mother Stella came to the US from Poland when she was achild. Stella kept her heritage alive by passing on many Polish traditions to her daughters, one of which was a love for dancing the Polka (a traditional Polish two-step).

Kathi is now continuing the tradition by dancing with a Polish dance group, the Zamek (“castle”)Dancers. The Zameks perform at various cultural events around the metro Detroit area. Kathi and her fellow dancers are helping to keep Polish-American culture alive for generations to come!

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What family traditions have you passed on?

tell us at info@pillpouch.net

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TRADITIONS

The family tradition of eating together is on the comeback!

  

75% 

eat together on average of four 

or more nights of the week*

  

*2012 Welch’s Kitchen Table Report

  

Our Story: From Love of a Mother and Daughter

When the relationship between Kathi and her mother Stella was beginning to erode because of stress, they knew they needed to do something. The stress arose when Stella’s medications mounted to 8 pills per day.

Stella's health and confidence were declining. Confusion and frustration were growing.

Kathi's love for her mother and deepest desire to maintain a loving relationship with Stella inspired resourcefulness and creativity.

Kathi’s solution began with a reused piece of cardboard. Kathi taped a sample of each pill to one side—organizing the pills in the order in which they should be taken throughout the day. Next to each pill, Kathi recorded name, dosage, usage and special instructions. Kathi even drew small icons to depict what each pill was used for.

This visual pill list helped Stella become more familiar with each pill. Using the visual list, Stella could identify each pill separately, match it to its corresponding dosage instructions, and take each pill as prescribed. Thereby following her daily pill schedule, and doing so confidently.

This visual pill list was even taken along to routine doctor visits, the pharmacy and in case of an emergency. When medical professionals would ask which pills Stella was taking, the visual list was presented.

Referring to this list, together medical professionals, Kathi and Stella would discuss the list and further familiarize themselves with each pill—the what, when, why and how. In this way, the list served as a communication tool to exchange information between the medical professionals, Kathi and Stella. This dialogue and the information it provided further reinforced Stella’s ability to take her pills at home with confidence.

Once the stress and confusion was eliminated in Stella’s life, Kathi too was stress free. The focus was off the pills and back on their relationship. Stella was healthy and so was their relationship.

We want you to share in this story. Help yourself or your loved one:

• Know and become familiar with pills
• Strengthen relationships with loved ones, friends and network of care
• Improve communication and dialogue with medical professionals
• Build confidence in knowing each pill--the when, why, and how
• Nurture a happier and healthier you! 

Stella and Kathi's relationship lives on in the Pill Pouch.

The Original Pill Pouch