Leap of Faith Technologies, which offers a smartphone- and tablet-based mobile medication management system, has received a federal grant of more than $1 million to accelerate the commercialization of its technology.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant, recently awarded the Crystal Lake, Illinois-based company a $1,021,296 grant for its eMedonline platform, in hopes of keeping more cancer patients on their meds and out of the hospital. An unspecified "industry partner" will match the grant, according to the company, in order to integrate the medication adherence technology into an electronic health record.

Leap of Faith offers apps for Android and Apple iOS mobile devices for healthcare providers to communicate with patients in real time about their medications and, with the help of RFID tags or bar codes on drug packaging, verify that patients have taken their meds as prescribed. In a half-dozen reported clinical trials, eMedonline has shown adherence of about 98 percent among patients with cancer, hypertension, congestive heart failure and pneumonia using the system, significantly higher than those in control groups.

The platform also collects and aggregates data for monitoring outcomes and for drug surveillance and research, according to the company.

"eMedonline represents the convergence of mobile technology, clinical and behavioral science, and validated clinical outcomes in a mHealth platform that facilitates coordinated care and also supports 'meaningful use' [of electronic health records]," Leap of Faith founder and Chief Science Officer Barbara Rapchak says in a company statement.

Recently finalized standards for Stage 2 of the federal meaningful use EHR incentive program, starting in 2014, call on hospitals and physicians to perform medication reconciliation on at least 50 percent of their patients transitioning from another care setting. This measure is one of a menu providers can choose from in the current Stage 1.

This is not the first time the National Cancer Institute has supported eMedonline. Leap of Faith also won an $883,593 contract from NCI in 2008 to advance development and has had results of its clinical trials published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Others that have support eMedonline development and testing include pharmaceutical company Novartis, NIH's National Institute on Aging and New York-Presbyterian Health System.