U-Med : A Mobile Application and a Reverse Vending Machine for Individuals to Reduce Unused Medication Waste

Sammanfattning: Medication waste, both packaging and actual drug waste, has been having a tremendous impact on the environment and healthcare budget. However, this is even more concerning after Covid-19 affects the drug purchasing behaviours and causes potentially more unused medications while many people are not able to access healthcare. Some of the main challenges of lack of contribution to the life after the purchase of unused medicine are the patient’s lack of knowledge of how to dispose of them, the medication distribution, the legislation and not having an encouraging sustainable system to reduce medication waste on a bigger scale. This project focused on understanding medicine usage behaviours in Turkish society and developing a circular model called U-Med (Unused Medications). The model has a mobile application and reverse vending machines which are linked with e-Nabız (e-Heartbeat, an application that Turkish citizens and health professionals access to health data collected from health institutions) to reduce medication waste by providing individuals to dispose of or share their unused medicines with the healthcare system or the other industries that can reuse. The concept also aims to show a sustainable approach which can influence decision-making in legislation on medication distribution. This project includes face-to-face, semi-structured interviews in a neighbourhood in Sarıyer, Istanbul Turkey with 5 patients, 3 doctors, 3 nurses and 5 pharmacists along with the health director in the municipality of Sarıyer. Additionally, remote interviews were organised with a non-profit organisation in Greece called GIVMED which has similar concerns. Apart from these, a Turkish survey among 88 Turkish citizens about medication usage behaviour was conducted.