Reinventing the Pill Bottle to Improve Medication Adherence
A problem
hiding in plain sight
Half of all patients don’t take the more than 80% of prescribed doses required to achieve the full therapeutic benefit of most medications.
The consequences of this “non-adherence” are staggering:
50% of treatment failures
25% of hospitalization
125,000 preventable deaths annually
$300 billion in preventable medical costs each year
Yet 5.6 billion of the 7 billion prescriptions filled each year still come in the same plastic bottle design introduced in the 1970s — packaging that unintentionally sets patients up for failure.
The RedCap
solution
RedCap reimagines the standard pill bottle as a built-in reminder tool — simple, mechanical, and universally scalable.
Its patented rotating window automatically advances to the next scheduled dose each time the patient takes their medication.
No electronics, no batteries, no connectivity — just smart, human-centered design.
Key advantages:
Automatic reminder mechanism
Seamless integration – compatible with existing pharmacy fill lines
Auditory feedback – subtle click with each advancement
Behavioral reinforcement – turns adherence into a daily habit
Affordable - costs pennies, not dollars — scalable for every prescription
RedCap’s genius is that it does not add friction – it builds adherence into an action patients already perform.
Transforming pill bottles into reminder packaging represents one of the few adherence interventions that is simultaneously low-cost, behavioral, and systemically scalable.
Empower your patients to stay on track
(turn up the volume to hear the click)
Child-resistant 1/day screw cap
Child-resistant 2/day twist-and-turn cap
A small innovation with
a national dividend
Medication non-adherence drains more money from U.S. healthcare than heart disease or cancer.
If RedCap raises adherence by ten percent, it could save more than thirty billion dollars annually.
For policymakers, this represents a double-impact opportunity:
1. Improves public-health outcomes
2. Reduces healthcare spending
The best solution is often the simplest one.
Why patients love RedCap
Familiar and flexible
Patients prefer bottles. RedCap keeps that form but adds a built-in reminder. Don’t want the feature? Just use it like a normal cap—no downside, no detractors turning into high Net Promoter Score.
Simple by design
A visual cue and satisfying “click” nudge daily habits—no apps, logins, or batteries required.
Plays well with others
Works on its own or as a confirmation layer alongside phone reminders/apps. For many patients, that simple extra nudge is all it takes.
Studies snapshot: reminder packaging lifts adherence
“A study of 22,858 patients concluded packaging interventions improved adherence 12% - from 63% to 71%.”
Packaging interventions to increase medication adherence: systematic review and meta-analysis (source)
“Packaging is an underused tool to improve adherence by increasing awareness and routine.”
Current Situation of Medication Adherence in Hypertension (source)
“Reminder packaging is a proven, cost-effective way to reduce unintentional non-adherence.”
CDC Grand Rounds: Improving Medication Adherence for Chronic Disease Management — Innovations and Opportunities (source)
“Early adherence support from the first fill drives better long-term adherence.”
Disparities in Initial Oral Antidiabetic Medication Adherence Among Veterans with Incident Diabetes (source)