A new device called the GlowCap is a Wi-Fi pill bottle cap that glows and pulses when it's time to take medication. It also signals when a dosage is missed.

Just what the doctor ordered: Annoying little gizmos that help remind you when you fail to take your medicines.

The stuff of science fiction? Maybe not.

Here's a Wi-Fi pill bottle cap that glows and pulses with an amber light when it's time to open your pill vial, plays an insistent ringtone melody when you miss the appointed hour, and triggers an automated reminder by phone call or text message if you're two hours late.

GlowCaps, which are linked to the Internet, can also send weekly e-mails to remote caregivers, provide data to doctors' offices and advise when prescriptions should be refilled.

Express Scripts, the St. Louis pharmaceutical manager, is partnering with Vitality, a Boston-based developer and supplier of these devices. Next month, the two firms will begin a new phase of product development to assess the commercial applications of this technology.

Express Scripts, which pioneered home delivery for prescription medicines, is the first large pharmaceutical benefits manager to experiment with GlowCaps.

If successful, GlowCaps could help contain medical costs by addressing a fundamental point in medicine delivery — making sure the patient actually follows a doctor's prescription, which would produce healthier outcomes.

"Therapy adherence is a really tough problem," said Bob Nease, chief scientist at Express Scripts, which has pioneered home delivery for prescription medicines. "There are all types of reasons why people don't take their medication."

Why so much fuss?

When people fail to take their medicine in a timely fashion, the result is an additional $100 billion in health-care costs each year, according to studies.

Researchers say some people decline to take medicine for cost reasons, or they have doubts about the drugs' side effects or question whether the pills will actually work.

Others have difficulty finding the time to refill their prescriptions. And there are those patients who simply get caught up in the here and now and forget to dip into their pill vials — a potentially dangerous habit for millions of people with chronic illnesses or conditions.

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GlowCaps, which are linked to the Internet, can also send weekly e-mails to remote caregivers, provide data to doctorsí offices and advise when prescriptions should be refilled. The cap works in tandem with a night light (with a built-in wireless radio receiver and transmitter) thatís plugged into a nearby wall socket. (Courtesy Vitality Inc./MCT)