ArticlesThe latest on the Saviance Front
A Step Forward to Medication Adherence
Taking medication is routine for most Americans. In order to reduce effects of chronic diseases and cure illnesses, it boils down to the patient adhering to take their medicine prescribed by the clinician. As shown in a recent report, only half of Americans with chronic diseases remember to take their medications as instructed. Some forget to take the medication, while others mix their prescriptions and take it at incorrect times, resulting in lethal side effects. Non-adherence is the leading cause of decreased quality of life, poorly managed symptoms, constant revists to the hospital, and even death.
Non-adherence to medications goes far beyond the patient. Failing to comply with medication prescriptions has costed the American healthcare system over $300 billion a year.
There is no one universal reason why non-adherence happens to often. Factors could range anywhere from socioeconomic factors (i.e. language barriers, limited health education, poor health insurance), to health system issues (i.e. patient-provider relationship and long wait times), to a patient’s personal attitude on taking medication.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for medication-adherence but combining different solutions could help break the barriers of non-adherence and improve overall healthcare.
-
How Pharmaceuticals Can Lead The Change in Medication Adherence
The impact of non-adherence is not as simple as cost versus outcome. These effects trickle down to other stakeholders, including pharmaceuticals. While solving this problem would benefit all stakeholders of healthcare, pharmaceuticals can start leading change today through the following tactics:
- Re-focus Consumer Marketing: Traditional direct consumer marketing only focuses on getting the initial prescription and does not go further to emphasize the importance of continued prescription. Shifting advertising focus from only initial prescription pickup to the importance of sticking through with treatment and taking the medication as prescribed opens unforeseen opportunity for change in patient behavior to adhere to their medication.
- Financial Rewards for Adherence: Offering financial incentives to enforce certain behavior is a proven successful model reflected by a variety of business industries. Offering rebates, discounts, cash back, etc. for mediation maintenance (i.e.re- filling prescriptions regularly as instructed instead of abandoning the prescription after one fill) can drastically improve the relationship between patients and medication adherence.
- Continued Patient Education: Patient education should not stop after a clinic visit since the complete patient care cycle doesn’t truly end until the treatment is received from pharmas. There remains a gap between patient education and pharmas. New and rising healthcare technology opens doors to ongoing patient care that goes beyond pharmacies and into patients’ daily lives. This kind of patient education technology is not only low effort for pharmas, but also offers high impact in sustaining medication adherence long term.
Introducing iAdhere
iAdhere is a HIPPA approved cloud-based medication adherence application designed to improve patient well-being, and ultimately reduce preventable healthcare costs. iAdhere sets up daily reminders for prescription refills, insurance, and lab testing. It also allows users to optionally subscribe for weekly health tips and life advice via text only. iAdhere sends daily medication reminders, preventing the patient from taking inappropriate or delayed doses. The solution also aims to constantly educate the patient on health literacy by sending prescription refill reminders and explaining the importance of long-terms medication use. iAdhere was designed keeping both the clinician and patient in mind-you’ll be able to navigate through the interface to get what you need within seconds.
With technology playing an increasingly large role in patients’ daily lives, leveraging applications like iAdhere to solve problems and make improvements will lead to faster change. Both the patients and healthcare stakeholders will be able to see healthcare as a problem-solver rather than a problem.