What is digital therapeutic? Digital therapeutics is a subset of digital health, defined as therapeutic intervention delivered directly to the patient by a high-quality software program to prevent, monitor, treat, and manage any medical disease or disorder. This evidence-based intervention by DTx can increase healthcare accessibility and effectiveness 3. DTx and software as a medical…

A profoundly impactful statement by WHO captures the importance of medication non-adherence succinctly – “Increasing the effectiveness of adherence interventions may have a far greater impact on the health of the population than any improvement in specific medical treatments”2. This effective intervention for improving patient health does not depend on any costly cutting-edge technology but…

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare scenario, patient engagement is critical. Active patient engagement improves treatment quality, especially in case of chronic diseases. Recognising the impact, it has on health behaviours and outcomes, healthcare fraternity is looking for newer ways to engage patients.1   What is patient engagement? Patient engagement refers to the active participation and…

Heuristics are commonly known as “mental shortcuts” or “rules of thumb” that simplify our decision-making process. First formulated in the 1970s by Tversky & Kahneman1, it helps us to make choices in unfamiliar and ambiguous circumstances within a short time with minimal cognitive involvement. It is a way of predicting the plausibility of an event…

It has become even more crucial to focus on the underlying causes of illnesses as well as medication compliance to reduce the overall global illness burden. Medication compliance vs. adherence1-3 The terms compliance and adherence are often used interchangeably, however, there is only a very thin line between adherence and compliance. Compliance can be defined…

Adherence to treatment in adolescents is a major challenge for doctors and healthcare professionals. Adherence rates in the adolescent population vary widely from 10% to 89% for chronic diseases2. There are many repercussions of low adherence in teens, with obvious consequences for themselves, their families, and the health care system. For chronic conditions, low adherence…

Behavior is defined as the action or set of activities in response to an internal or external stimulus2. Behavior is a key risk factor for individual and public health in multiple ways. It impacts disease prevention, seeking medical attention, adhering to the prescribed treatment, and also delivery of healthcare for several diseases and also for…

Chronic diseases can last for decades and require a disciplined approach to medication administration plus a lifestyle change. Among the most common chronic ailments are cardiovascular disease, diabetes type 2, respiratory diseases (asthma), and cancer3. Globally, one-third of adults suffer from one or multiple chronic conditions. Three in five global deaths are due to diabetes,…

Pharmacogenetics or the genetic variations in the human population giving rise to a variable drug response is well-known in clinical research1. The quest for personalized medicine based on pharmacogenomics using an individual’s genetic content has gained traction since the completion of the first draft of the human genome project2,3. Pharmacogenomics-based personalized prescriptions can help in…

Medication adherence, or the extent to which patients take medications as prescribed, is remarkably low and it has been reported that typically, patients adhere to about 50% of prescribed medications1. Factors causing medication non-adherence are varied and can be grouped into patient-related, therapy-related, and healthcare system-related1. Some of the common reasons are forgetfulness, adverse effects,…

Non-adherence to medication is a major challenge to treatment success and a significant burden on the healthcare system1-3. The existing interventions are based on retrospective measurements of non-adherence in patients already undergoing treatment and are therefore limited in improving future medication adherence4. Predictive analytics can help in identifying potentially high-risk non-adherent patient groups at the…

Current technological interventions focus either on reminding the patient or on tracking the pill removal from the packaging. However, they do not address the actual act of taking the medicine1. The ingestible sensors or trackable pills have marked a technological revolution in the area of medication adherence. In addition, motion-sensor-based wearables are likely will mark…

Adherence measurement is a complex task, which can be performed through various direct and indirect methods Each method has its advantages and limitations with no universal consensus on a gold standard technique The use of combinatorial methods might offer the best solution. Further, there is a need to optimize techniques for different populations as well…

Medication non-adherence is an important challenge that leads to suboptimal treatment outcomes1. Using innovative technologies in interventions can help in combating this issue. Smart interventions specifically concerning packaging, monitoring, record keeping, and reminding medication are now available and can significantly improve patients’ medication adherence2. Medication adherence defined as the extent to which a patient’s behavior…

Healthcare practitioners (HCPs) are uniquely positioned to deliver medication adherence interventions1. Communication between HCPs and patient is inadequate2. Enabling HCPs with the required skill-set is pivotal1. Improving adherence to medications requires a collaborative team effort from health care professionals3,4. Optimum disease management requires taking medication in the required dosage at the right time as advised…

Prescription costs are a potent driver for non-adherence to medication1-3. Generic substitution of prescriptions is key to lowering the out-of-pocket costs of medications4-6. Distrust in generic medications needs to be addressed to encourage their usage and reduce cost-related non-adherence7.   Cost-related non-adherence (CRNA): Cost of medicines is an overriding issue for adherence to the treatment…

Non-adherence to medication remains a barrier to long-term graft survival in the life of solid organ transplant patients1,2. The major risk factors for non-adherence include income, complex regimen, employment status, minority race, illness perception, and mental health2,3.  Multicomponent interventions tailored to the need of patients appear to be most effective in lowering non-adherence to immunosuppressants4.…

Asthma is characterized by its episodic and unpredictable nature1. Inhalation therapy – the standard treatment of care – is not optimally adhered to by patients. The key barriers are unawareness, misconceptions, unaffordability, inaccessibility, and associated stigma1,2. Tracking adherence in asthma is also a considerable challenge. However, the upcoming smart technologies like the use of Smart-inhalers…

Oral therapies have revolutionized cancer treatment with their ease of administration. However, they are prone to non-adherence as drugs are administered by patients away from health care settings1. Cancer therapies are now akin to treatments for chronic ailments, lasting for several years. Therefore, the medication adherence barriers that pertain to chronic disease have become significant…

“You can look for external sources of motivation and that can catalyze a change, but it won’t sustain one. It has to be from internal desire.” – Jillian Michaels Medication adherence is defined by the World Health Organization as “the degree to which the person’s behavior corresponds with the agreed recommendations from a health care…