AlzCare: An IoT-Based Smart Medication Management System for Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease

Medication non-adherence is a serious problem for people living with Alzheimer's disease, driven by progressive memory loss, confusion, and a reduced ability to manage daily treatment on their own. Missed doses, incorrect intake, and the resulting caregiver burden can all work against good patient outcomes and quality of life. This paper presents AlzCare, a low-cost Internet of Things (IoT)-based medication management system built to support safe medication administration through automated reminders, user authentication, environmental monitoring, and real-time interaction with the patient.
The system pairs an ESP8266 microcontroller with an MFRC522 RFID authentication module, a DHT11 temperature-humidity sensor, an infrared motion sensor, an I2C liquid crystal display (LCD), and an auditory alert system. Functional testing under controlled conditions assessed system reliability, sensor performance, authentication accuracy, and reminder precision.
The results show strong operational performance across every component: 98% accuracy for RFID authentication, 98–100% detection accuracy for the infrared motion sensor, stable DHT11 environmental readings within acceptable tolerance, and reminder timing accuracy of up to 98%. Overall system reliability exceeded 97% across repeated trials, demonstrating that an integrated, IoT-based platform is a feasible approach to medication management in Alzheimer's care. Future work should pursue clinical validation with patients and caregivers to assess long-term effects on adherence, safety, and caregiver workload.