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The first ever programmable computer device that allows professional caregivers to monitor how frequent a patient takes their medication was approved Thursday by the FDA.

EMMA, the Electronic Medication Management Assistant was created in order to reduce the number of drug dosing and identification errors. It will prove very useful to those who suffer from memory loss due to old age or disease, those with HIV, and others who have very complicated and rigid medication regiments.

In 2006 a study from the Institute of Medicine cited by the FDA stated that medication errors harm some 1.5 million people each year in the United States.

Daniel Schultz, M.D., director of FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health said, 'FDA's clearance of the INRange remote medication management system puts an important safety tool directly in the hands of patients and their health care providers. It will help take away some of the confusion patients can experience when taking prescription medications, and allow care providers to more closely monitor their patients' medications between office visits.'

According to the FDA,

EMMA consists of a medication delivery unit and two-way communication software that allows a health care professional to remotely manage prescriptions stored and released by the patient-operated delivery unit. The delivery unit is about the size of a bread box and plugs into a standard power outlet.

EMMA stores prescription medications, emits an audible alert to the patient when the prescribed medications are scheduled to be taken, and releases them onto a delivery tray when activated by the patient at the appropriate time. It uses a Web-based application for a health care professional, such as a doctor or pharmacist, to remotely schedule or adjust a patient's prescribed medications, and provides the health care professional with a history of each time patients access their medications.

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