ARTICLES

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.…