Business & Tech

Macomb Woman Invents 'Pill Pouch' as Visual Aid to Manage Medications

Macomb Township resident Kathi Sitek created the first Pill Pouch to help her mother manage her multiple medications but has since transformed the idea into a family business.

Pick a pill, any pill.

With eight medications to choose from, taking the right pill at the right time was often a game of chance for 86-year-old Stella Mazur. For her daughter and primary caregiver, Kathi Sitek, it was a problem in desperate need of a solution.

Setting out to create a visual aid that would identify the many medications, Sitek taped and labeled samples of her mother’s pills to a flattened Kleenex box and inadvertently created the medication management system her family now markets as the Pill Pouch.

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“I was taking care of my mother and she had developed so many different conditions that she was on eight different medications,” Sitek, 59, said. “When we went to the doctor, we would have to take her pills in bags and the hospital would always say, ‘We don’t want all those pills here,’ yet they want to know what she’s taking. I just decided I was going to figure it all out on my own.”

Using a bit of cardboard for backing, Sitek created a visual chart to keep track of Mazur's many medications, their uses and required dosage.

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“My mother would use it to set her pills up, and she would take it to her doctors, who really liked it,” Sitek said. “My mother always got the biggest kick out of it and would say, ‘You have to patent it.’ She was pretty sharp.”

But it wasn’t until a year after her mother’s death that Sitek took this advice to heart. Encouraged by her family, she used a portion of her inheritance to secure a provisional patent for her invention and begin manufacturing the now plastic and vinyl version of her product.

Using a Madison Heights printer and Troy manufacturer, the Pill Pouch is a 100 percent Made in Michigan product, a fact Sitek would not have any other way. 

"I just think that’s what should be done," she said. "To me, if I want to increase my business, I want to be able to hire people here that can do this work and give back to the community in that way."

Sitek's son Matthew and daughter Jessica are the business' first employees.

“I see a value in it,” Matthew Sitek said of his mother’s invention. “We’re solving a real problem and helping a real need. It reduces confusion for a senior living alone and reduces stress for the caregiver by helping with organization. Those two things encouraged me to leave the company I worked for on the East Coast and come back to Michigan.”

While assembly and packaging is still done from the Sitek basement, demand for the Pill Pouch is growing and by fall, the Siteks hope to not only see their product on the shelves of major chain stores such as Meijer but also make it digitally available through a mobile app.

“It’s a digitized version of the Pill Pouch for the tech savvy user or caregiver,” Matthew Sitek said. “It will allow you to set an alert for critical medications, add photos of the pills, and record names, dosage and usage information. We don’t want to just sell a product, but provide resources for people to help with medication management.”

Kathi Sitek is also looking to partner with a local charity to which the company can donate a percentage of sales.

“We’re still looking for what is a good fit,” she said. “I’m all about giving back and charitable giving is No. 1.”

So what does the future hold for the Pill Pouch and its philanthropic inventor?

"We're talking about making a wallet size version, adding more stylish prints and adding a Pet Pouch to the line," Kathi Sitek said. "But I think I really want to help other people, especially women who have ideas. A lot of what I got out of it, I did it on my own, and now I want to try to help others who have ideas, encourage them and help them go the right path."

The Pill Pouch is currently sold for $9.99 online and in select independent pharmacies in Michigan and surrounding states.

For more information on the Pill Pouch, or to watch Granny "eliminate pill confusion" in the latest promotional video, visit the product website.


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