What is medication adherence? And how can behavioral science help understand it?

Defining adherence from a scientific standpoint.

Led by Dr Kate Wolin, this masterclass serves as an introduction to adherence – defining it from a scientific standpoint. It highlights the scale of non-adherence and the true cost to patients, public health and society as a whole.

Dr. Wolin will present the most common behavioral drivers of non-adherence and how to identify them. It also touches on how patients make decisions when it comes to treatment adherence.

Read more on this topic:

Patient adherence: An opportunity for improving outcomes in vertigo

The impact of non-adherence to therapies for vertigo: Higher costs and poorer outcomes

Patient behavior and the drivers of vertigo treatment adherence 

Two systems of thought: Why “rational” people make “irrational” choices

Heuristics and decision-making: What are the effects on adherence for patients with vertigo?


About Dr. Kate Wolin

Dr. Wolin is trained as a behavioral epidemiologist whose research focuses on the role of lifestyle in reducing the risks associated with chronic diseases, like cancer, and on improving outcomes after a disease diagnosis. Much of her academic research focuses on the role exercise and obesity play in developing cancer and outcomes after a cancer diagnosis. Dr. Wolin obtained her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Tufts University.

She earned her doctorate in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, with minors in biostatistics and health behavior, where she was an NCI pre-doctoral fellow. She completed an NCI post-doctoral fellowship in cancer epidemiology at Northwestern University. Dr. Wolin was a well-funded and frequently published academic scientist before leaving academia in 2014 to launch her first digital health venture.

Additionally, Dr. Wolin has significant experience in applying behavioral science to medical practice. She was CEO and co-founder of a clinically based weight loss program that leverages the science of self-regulation and daily self-weighing, an initiative which is now the basis of the weight management program for one of America’s largest insurance companies. She currently leads a fellowship program at Northwestern University, serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Chicago and advises companies on integrating behavioral approaches into their strategy and solutions.