Over the past ten years, the use of oxycodone (an opioid) in the Netherlands has almost quadrupled. It is very worrying that 10% of patients are at risk of addiction. Oxycodone is frequently prescribed in the home situation, mainly postoperatively and for chronic complaints of the musculoskeletal system.
Currently, there is limited control over the exact dose and correct use of pain medication, which increases the risk of addiction. To optimize the use of pain medication, this project aims to develop an ”intelligent” medication dispenser. Using an algorithm based on the existing pain protocol and the patient's pain score, the dispenser will provide the correct pain medication.
The existing medication dispensers only administer medication at programmed time points. Using the “intelligent” medication dispenser, we aim to make a step from only delivering medication to also adjusting the dose of medication, including an autonomous robotic application in future.
