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The role of AI in personalized health coaching for adherence

Medication adherence: the elephant in the room. Medication adherence is a widespread challenge, affecting about half of all patients who find it difficult to take their medication as directed. While missing doses may seem trivial, it can have a significant impact on health, potentially leading to severe consequences, including life-threatening situations. A systematic review assessing…

A:CARE HEOR study: improving medication adherence leads to better patient prognosis and significant cost saving in Thailand and Mexico

The initial findings from the a:care Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) study were recently showcased at both the American Heart Association (AHA) Congress and the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Congress. Medication adherence is crucial for predicting cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes in patients requiring secondary prevention. In developing countries, adherence to…

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Overcoming barriers to medication adherence: a comprehensive guide

Medication adherence- a global concern Medication adherence is a critical component of healthcare, particularly when addressing chronic diseases. Nearly 75 percent of American consumers report not always following their prescription medicine as directed. This nonadherence is responsible for significant worsening of diseases, increased mortality, and a surge in healthcare expenses. A 2003 World Health Organization…

Unravelling the path on how to improve medication adherence

Medication adherence is a multi-faceted concept extending beyond taking prescribed drugs to include numerous health-related behaviors. Recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), this concept encompasses an array of interventions critical for chronic disease management, highlighting the necessity for active patient involvement in treatment processes. Behaviors like seeking medical attention, prescription filling, lifestyle changes, and…

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Strategies to develop a therapeutic alliance for medication adherence

How to establish therapeutic alliance? The concept of therapeutic alliance can be understood through three main components: goals, bond, and tasks1: Therapeutic alliance consists of three important elements: agreement of the goals of the treatment, agreement on the tasks, and the personal bond development between patient and therapist. When patient and therapist share beliefs to…

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Nudge healthcare: case studies driving improved patient outcomes

An individual’s behavior can negatively impact the health outcomes. Adherence to therapies is a major factor that negatively impacts disease outcomes. In addition individual choices like unhealthy diet, smoking as well as limited physical activity also contribute to poor health outcomes leading to significant disease and economic burden for the patients as well as the…

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Enhancing medication adherence with patient engagement software

Patient engagement entails empowering patients and enabling their active participation in healthcare decision-making.4 Engaged patients show better treatment adherence, improved patient outcomes, and reduced healthcare costs.2 To learn more about patient engagement, please read – Enhancing patient engagement in healthcare – a paradigm shift for improved outcomes.  Although patient engagement is the need of the…

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Digital therapeutics: revolutionizing healthcare

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…

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Suspecting non-adherent behavior doesn’t hurt, overestimating it does!

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…

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Enhancing patient engagement in healthcare – a paradigm shift for improved outcomes

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…

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What is medication compliance?

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…

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Medication adherence in adolescents – challenges and interventions

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…

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Physician counseling a patient

Methods of behavior change in medication non-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…

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Female eating healthy

Mobile apps for enhancing adherence to chronic diseases

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,…

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Pharmacogenomics: A personalized response to medication non-adherence

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…

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Physician counseling a patient

Interventions to tackle medication non-adherence

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,…

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Healthcare practitioners in conversation with a patient.

Power of algorithm: Identifying high-risk non-adherent patient groups

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…

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HCPs in deep discussion while pointing to an iPad

Looking into the Crystal-ball: Advances in technology for improving adherence

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…

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Measuring adherence – an “Achilles heel” in medication adherence

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…

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