The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a computerized medication box system. The programmable device will allow professional caregivers the ability to monitor a patient's medications.

This device has a delivery and storage unit and software that can allow healthcare workers to provide dispensing information of medication through two-way communication from a remote monitor.

This type of system can be especially important for elderly patients who may have memory problems and those people who have complicated medication schedules, particularly HIV patients.

The EMMA system has a sounding alert for times to take medication, which is dispensed onto a delivery tray when activated.

The Institute of Medicine estimates that approximately 1.5 million people in the U.S. have harmed themselves due to medication errors in year 2006. This handy system may help eliminate many of those errors.

The Electronic Medication Management Assistant (EMMA) system is manufactured by INRange Systems (Altoona, PA).